Being a new, first-time parent is strange and wonderful and rewarding. It is also completely, totally terrifying.
My oldest turned 11 earlier this year, but I can still remember with such clarity his first night spent at home in a little blue pack-and-play no more than 5 feet from my own bed. When he was awake, I was awake, and when he was asleep… I was still awake.
Listening to the tiny, rhythmic wheeze of his breathing. Creeping past his sleeping body multiple times just to further reassure myself that all was well.
Later, when we moved him into a proper crib in his very own room, I foolishly assumed that I would again be able to enjoy an easy slumber. No such luck. If anything, it was worse. His bedroom was on the other side of our simple ranch-style starter home, but it may as well have been an ocean away.
All these memories came rushing back as I viewed the Kickstarter pitch video from GeekDad’s newest sponsor, Knit Health. A decade ago, baby monitor solutions were extremely limited. Most consisted of either a low-power audio transmitter and a pair of cheesy plastic monitor speakers–that were, inevitably, operating on the exact same frequency as every other household on the block–or a bulky, overpriced camera with early-generation consumer night vision boasting all the video fidelity of a 1980s gas station security video.
Times were hard, especially for struggling young parents, but times have changed.
Knit’s latest innovation, the Knit Monitor, is a new kind of solution. Think of it as both a security camera for your new bundle of joy and an app-enabled sleep tracker all in one.
Not only does the Knit Monitor provide you with a crystal clear live stream of your sleeping infant, complete with relevant information like room temperature and ambient noise level, it actively tracks your child’s sleep state. Best of all, the Knit Monitor is able to detect even the smallest of movement, including your baby’s breathing. This respiration is represented in-app as an easy-to-see pulsing circular overlay, helping to abate that most nagging of nighttime parental worries.
The Knit Monitor can understand your child’s orientation as she moves throughout the night, when she cries or coughs, whether she is restless or sleeping easy, and all this information, including relevant video clips, are provided to you each morning via the companion app’s daily dashboard.
This means, not only do you know if your child slept through the night, you’re provided with metrics to help you determine how well she slept through the night. And all this data is only available to you; it streams directly from the camera itself to your smart device, without any unscheduled stops on or transitions through “the cloud.”
The Knit Monitor is a new kind of camera that could only exist in today’s more tech-savvy marketplace. It represents a brand of smart technology that leverages your phone and home Wi-Fi network into a total sleep solution–for baby and parent–and Knit Health is using Kickstarter to bring it directly to families just like yours.
Currently, the Knit Monitor is more than half-funded, with well over two weeks left to go. While all the earliest of its early bird support slots have already been filled, you can still pledge at the “Super Early Bird” level and receive the Knit Monitor and one year of the Knit Assist service for a 43% discount off retail–$199.
Check out the Knit Monitor Kickstarter campaign page for more details and a full list of pledge levels.
This is a sponsored blog post for which GeekDad was compensated. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
