New Baby - Project Suggestions

So I just found out yesterday we’re going to have our second child and I am a bit nervous about it. I’d like to keep my mind focused so my nerves don’t get to me, and figured what better way to do this than to setup a smart baby room. What kind of cool things has the community done that made your lives that much easier?

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Congrats @Keo!

A very simple one is that we have the ceiling fans in my kids room hooked up to a z-wave wall switch, and a SmartSense Multi attached to the window. That way we can automatically start the fan when it gets warm.

A second thing that we have are wireless network cameras in their rooms so we can check in without waking them. I have D-Link cameras, that pre-date but will hopefully become supported with ST, but now you could use Dropcams instead.

Congrats! In the same boat (our first), and I’ve been giving this some thought. Not sure if I’ll implement all of these, but here is what I’ve got planned:

  • Sonos Play1 for whitenoise/heartbeat.
  • SmartSense motion to turn on Hue bulb with red color and 10% intensity at night for checkups, feedings, etc.
  • DropCam as a baby monitor plugged into z-wave outlet so we can turn it off when not in use.
  • Aeon Labs Minimote to control lighting and sonos from the rocking chair.

One thing that we have used a lot since our two year old was born is the Keep Me Cozy II app. Our bedrooms are in the basement (slightly chilly) so we use the app to keep his room a constant 70 degrees. I have an Aeon Labs Multisensor in his room for temperature monitoring and a Honeywell Z-wave thermostat that adjust based on the multisensor’s readings.

Separately from SmartThings, we have used a Foscam 8910 as a video baby monitor to our phones and computers. As @DavidCreed said, it is the best thing to be able to check on him and not risk waking him up.

Congrats on the new life!

I ended up using devices in the following situations:

  • 1 Multi Open/Close (when opened, append a row in excel spreadsheet). We used the open/close state to write to excel to figure out last changing. I placed the multi on my changing table above the draw. This turned out to be super handy for late night changing. We also used the multi to monitor the temperature in the room.

  • 1 Z-wave switch to control the ceiling fan. Also super handy over hot summer nights…

  • 1 EZLink IP Camera (cheap Foscam knock offs). I was able to integrate this device into ST, and use it for quick snapshots of the room. I tend to use the viewing periodically, but super handy when I’m out on the road. We also have a Foscam ‘baby monitor’ as well (not ip based), which we use when guests are over, or a sitter, and more frequently.

  • 1 Multi Sensor (open/close). I placed this one in the crib, and set up alerts to notify me when its detected movement. This works fairly well (75%) with major movements right before the baby wakes up full on.

  • 1 Quirky Spotter (the plan was to use this to notify us on sound
    (since it was at the time the only device to do audio based alerts).
    Meh… I mean, it works, but meh… Every day it alerts me at 10am
    that I have sound (and I’m working from home, it’s silent…)

  • 1 Z-wave outlet (I plan using this with a space heater during the winter to keep the room at a specific temp based on the other sensors in the room). Right now I have an old shool night light plugging in to it.

  • 1 TCP Bulb. This is tied to a motion sensor super close to the doorway for the kids room, and when it comes on during specific time periods, it dims the light to 10%. I also have the status of the open/close on the changing station to the light, so if we do a change, it bumps up the lumens to 80%.

I had plans to use a set of Mimo Onesies (http://mimobaby.com/), but for the cost of it, I was able to buy all these other awesome sensors instead. And now realizing how much I change Onesis throughout the day, I’m glad I took the route I did…

Good luck :smile:

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Not sure if anyone else mentioned this already, but if you want to do the nightlight thing you could put a light on a dimmer and have it slowly fade out.

Also if you like to play music on a radio or something, same goes with that. Set up a timer to shut off the radio at a specific time. In addition, you could also set it up that the radio turns ON if motion/vibration is detected in the room/crib from like 10pm to 7am.

No kidding the smart device in this situation is you whereby you devote all your time to your preggje wife and the coming kid! Your heart is the hub in case… Go for it… Congrats!

So one of the biggest things I really want is a Connected doorbell. This way the doorbell can send me an alert during certain times and do something other than a sound during others. The biggest problem I had with the first child is the dog barking at the doorbell. (Barking dogs and sleeping babies don’t go well together.) I bought an Arduino and a smartThings shield, but I haven’t had time to learn how to program smartThings or Arduino. Has anyone made a connected doorbell yet? Do you have instructions how to get it set up?

I have a motion sensor in his room to automatically turn the lights on and off so that if we enter the room with arms full of baby/laundry/whatever the lights will come on for us and then shut off after we leave. I also used scheduled mode changes to make sure the night never automatically comes on during naptime/bedtime.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to tell if the new born is in the crib or not? What I want to do is if the child is in the crib, then disable the doorbell chime.

@keo your newborn is too smart for ST if he can get in and out of his crib! :slight_smile:

Or a she!

Lol! I want to use it to disable our door chime so the dog doesn’t wake him or her

@keo, check out http://community.smartthings.com/t/diy-pressure-sensor/6208. It might work for you.

I am considering this. However, instead of Sonos, I was thinking of Google Home, and add voice control to the room.

Any reason why you set lights to red?

Best visibility at the lowest light intensity. That’s how submarines do it right ? :slight_smile:

I have a multi sensor on our front and back door and use big talker app with our Echo and an old android phone so it announces when the front or back door is opened, and depending on the mode, a siren will play. That way if the cheeky toddler manages to open a door when he shouldnt, I’d know about it!

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I have a ST plug with a white noise machine, a motion sensor, and Hue lights in baby’s nursery (and Amazon Alexa). I used webCoRE to create the following rules:

  1. Only if the white noise is off (ie: baby is not sleeping- determined via the ST plug), turn on Hue lights based on movement from the motion sensor. I chose to set level at 50%.
  2. If the Hue lights are greater than 15% brightness, the motion sensor will turn off the lights after 3 minutes of inactivity (long enough to do a diaper change, etc).
  3. If the Hue lights are 1-15% brightness, the motion sensor will turn off the lights after 15 minutes of inactivity (used for feeding the baby in the corner of the room where the motion sensor can’t detect movement). Note that I use Alexa to change the lights from 50% down to 10-15% when I’m done changing diaper/pajamas and move on to feeding.

I also enjoy being able to use my phone or Alexa to turn off the white noise and turn on the lights when baby first wakes up. She cries immediately upon waking, but if I turn off “Naptime” (white noise off and turn on dim lights), she’s content to play with her feet for a few minutes while I wake up fully or wrap up what I was working on.