Nanit Is the High-Tech Baby Monitor I Thought I Didn’t Need. I Was Wrong

• Value: 17/20
• Functionality: 20/20
• Ease of Use: 19/20
• Aesthetics: 20/20
• Reliability: 19/20
• TOTAL: 95/100

When I was making my baby registry, I remember breezily saying to my husband, “Oh, let’s not be those parents who have to watch their kid’s every move. Let’s just buy an audio baby monitor. Or maybe we won’t even get one at all.” Thankfully, one of my mom friends talked some sense into me and convinced us to at least buy a basic closed-circuit video monitor. Sure, there were those fancy internet-based ones that you could watch from anywhere, but I didn’t want to be that mom who spied on her babysitter constantly. No, that wasn’t me at all.

Then I had to go back to work and realized I was apprehensive about leaving my baby in the hands of a person I hardly knew. Plus, our basic-model monitor was constantly running out of battery and losing reception. It was fine for our small apartment, but when we visited my parents’ house, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her on a different floor without something more reliable. And that's when the Nanit swooped into my life.

Let’s get this out of the way first: It’s an investment. I’m sure you’re balking at yet another high price tag for a baby item you don’t technically need. But this thing will make your life as a new parent infinitely easer, whether you’re checking the temperature and humidity of the baby’s room at a glance, tracking stats on the Nanit app (“Am I crazy or has Peanut been waking up more at night this week than last week?”), getting remote alerts to see how your baby is napping with her sitter or packing it up in seconds to pop into your suitcase for travel. There’s even a feature that lets you talk to your baby anywhere, so you could technically sing her a lullaby from your desk at work. There’s also an optional breathing band that monitors your baby’s breaths per minute and integrates seamlessly with the app.

And while the app isn’t always perfect, Nanit is focused on making improvements. When I first started using the monitor, I’d sometimes accidentally turn on the nightlight feature (which allows you to switch on the camera’s light with the push of a button in the app) while fumbling with my phone in the dark. A few months later, that feature had been fixed, so it’s now impossible to turn on accidentally, and you can control the brightness of the light, too.

The Nanit is also a breeze to install, with sleek childproof wire coverings I had no idea I’d need until my kid started chewing everything in sight. The Nanit is aesthetically pleasing, reliable and most importantly, intuitive, which is a lifesaver when you’re surviving on three hours of sleep and don’t have time to read an instruction manual.

Do you need the Nanit? No, probably not. Should you put it on your registry? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes—especially since the Pro version is currently on sale for Black Friday.