There is a price to be paid however, which is our reliance on these technologies. Many parents have become dependant on their cool gadgets and that can spell trouble, particularly when it gets in the way of living life.

They’re Everywhere, They’re Everywhere You can find a million products to help keep an eye on your baby in their crib, it feeds our parental need to know what our baby is up to every second.

New parents are the most succeptible and often receive these as gifts early in their baby's life. The assumption being that they will need to monitor every movement.  While we have them on camera all day taking pictures and video of their latest tricks, we seem to want to extend that obsession to night time.

A Watched Pot Never Boils

I won’t argue that they are certainly very helpful to keep an eye on your baby’s sleep habits without disturbing them, especially if you are transitioning them to their own room for the first time.

But at the same time, there is also a downside to these constant surveillance techniques.  It can keep us from allowing them work things out on their own. Hearing every grunt or movement can also be a hindrance to parents trying to learn how to get their baby to sleep.

Alternative And Freedom

I’m not saying that you should close the door and ignore your baby, but at times it might be a good idea to turn off the monitor and just let your baby relax on their own.  (Also, new parents need to relearn how to relax.)

There comes a point where all this staring into the baby monitor is more stressful and sleep-preventing than helpful for your baby. The baby will do what they are doing and you hearing every sound they make at night can keep you wide awake with the anticipation of more cries or demands from the crib.  I know I slept better when I didn’t hear every sleep disturbance amplified through the static of our monitor receiver!

If you find yourself hovering over your baby monitor, breathlessly waiting for the next squeak or squawk signaling wake-up, just turn it off (or at least turn down the volume) and try to read, talk to your spouse or just get some sleep.

We just moved to a new house and my office was situated right across from our daughter Ella’s room. It is convenient if she needs anything, but also the noise computers can generate can be a problem.

Especially the keyboard.

Ella can’t stand the sound of typing on a keyboard and I can’t blame her. The sounds of computer typing like there are two caffeinated mice running around in a cage. Unfortunately, since I write a lot, that’s pretty much all I do on my computer. Additionally, I also owned the cheapest old PC keyboard in history and setting it on a wooden desk just made it sound even more like there were squirrels trapped in the walls. So I needed a solution fast.

After a few fruitless searches (why does Best Buy keep so few keyboards on their shelves anyway?) I found the perfect winner.

The Logitech K300 which I termed the “ninja stealth” keyboard.

It satisfied all my demands:

1. It was relatively cheap.
2. It didn’t need to be wireless.
3. Had to have normal, full-sized keys.
4. The keys are quiet!

In fact, this thing is nearly silent. I was impressed.

It also had the additional benefits of:

1. Being low profile which I find easier to type on.
2. Backlit button bar on the top which just looks kind of cool.

So if you’re in the market for a quieter keyboard, I’d consider this one. It’s priced at about $30.00. Anything cheaper seemed to be the old noisy kind, and there are a lot of more expensive models for gamers and ergo-fetishists.  I chose the middle-way.

The price sure is right and now I can type and Ella can get her snoozes without interruption.