We just have a regular monitor, not a fancy video one (maybe next time) or one that has the two way speaker so you can talk to the baby. Our house is small and even without the monitor we can hear the Durham from his bed to ours at night. But you know that thing that babies do to your brain, like make it crazy and you think you hear the baby screaming and you go check on him and he is sound asleep. I can't tell you how many times a night I think I hear him cry and he never is. So I still keep the monitor on so I can watch for the light to blink.
There are other things you can hear through our monitor...
ours is usually filled with the "sssssshhhhhhh" sound of Durham's sound machine, or the occasional songs from a squeeze of his seahorse. But sometimes I hear some randoms too...
hubs: "you don't need that paci... daddy dosent have a paci"
hubs: "I know buddy, sometimes I wanna cry too"
hubs: "oh gawd, there's poop everywhere"
my mom: "tell me what momma does when I'm not here"
me: :::rocking the baby in his room and hummmming:::
hubs: "are you humming the old rugged cross?"
me: "yeah. I've been humming for an hour, so I'm kinda running out of songs."
hubs: "have you done the wheels on the bus yet? he likes that."