The monitor puzzle
Last night (or this morning rather) at 02:30 Marla came back to bed after settling Alicia. I was in the bathroom and heard when Marla turned the receiver of the baby monitor on (we leave it off when someone is actually with Alicia).
As soon as she turned it on I heard it crackle to life and emit the dreaded sound of a babies crying follows quickly but a very frustrated Marla using words that are not quotable here 
. The strange thing was that I heard nothing coming from Alica’s room. Now you have to understand that the bathroom is closer to Alicia’s room that our bedroom. So it was very weird that I could hear Alicia crying via the monitor and not via the bedroom door.
The crying stopped almost immediately. I returned to the bedroom to an upset Marla who was envisaging another hour of burping and settling. I told her not to worry as I had not heard anything after the initial sound. Marla had the baby monitor in her hand as if daring it to make another sound…
Nothing, phew, we could get some sleep.
Put the monitor back onto the charging station and Alicia starts crying. But now I really am thinking ” I can’t hear any sound coming from her room!”
Then the penny drops. Our monitor is picking up some other baby crying. Unless you have been there, you will not believe the relief you feel when you know that you don’t have to stay awake any longer, that you don’t have to go and calm the fussing of a being who’ s only method of communication is wailing.
I initially thought that there must be another transmitter transmitting on the same frequency. That would be a pain cause out system only works on one of the two available frequency settings. But the really strange thing is that our monitor only picked up the other baby when it was in the recharge cradle (the monitor not the baby). As soon as it was taken off and just put on the night stand, the crying stopped.
So now (apart from feeling relief) my mind is captivated by this strange behavior. I always figured that a receiver will receive a signal if the signal is strong enough. So the monitor being on the charging station (and therefore theoretically having more power available) should make no difference. So if that is the case, what could possibly cause the receiver to pick up a signal only when it is docked (note it picked up the signal fine from the room next door while sitting on the night stand later)?
My next theory is that the power lines (or the house wiring, or even the city grid depending on how far you take it) was acting like an antenna. If that is the case then the ‘antenna’ could conceivably stretch quite far and therefore might be picking up a signal from down the road, or in another city.
P.S. One thing I did learn… We keep the transmitter plugged in and turned on most of the time (or we will forget to turn it on when we need it) so we have to be really careful what we say when we are in that room, you never know who might be listening in.
P.P.S Marla just walked in and announced that that ‘other’ baby just woke her up.
My “girl” brain just finishes reading this and wants to shout… WHO CARES??? It wasn’t your baby and you could get some sleep. Quit trying to make things so complicated! But that’s just me talking!
I hear you. But I really am a “need to know” kind of guy.
We had two settings, one would pick up the next door neighbours phone. weird.
I remember those days, we even had a breathing sensor – it went off once or twice because Stephen had moved far enough off it -u should have seen us run.