The Haunted Baby Monitor

It's the witching hour, 3am, and a male voice that wasn't my husband's woke me up. This had been going on for a while, and just when I was awake enough to investigate, the voice would fade away into nothing. Talk about living in your own personal horror movie.

It took me a while, but one night, I managed to stay up and wait for the voice. The clock struck 3:00am and bam!! Like magic, the voice came through the baby monitor. Did I panic? Nope. Mainly, because I could see the girls' room from my room and I knew no one was in there. I quieted my breathing and I solved the mystery. My baby monitor was picking up radio waves and the voice I was hearing was a DJ from Tennessee!!! Unbelievable, right? After the initial shock wore off, it was actually a lot of fun listening to the show as I drifted off to sleep.

Next night,as a storm raged outside, I heard something else coming over the baby monitor. It was a radio station from Cuba. That night was beyond wonderful. I listened to music that reminded me of being back home in Puerto Rico, and the soothing tones of people speaking Spanish from the Caribbean. It is completely different in its tones, rhythm, and meaning. I fell asleep listening to old school boleros and I had the sweetest dreams ever. This was awesome, I was hooked! I needed to wake up every night and listen to whatever was streaming through my monitor.

Since it was raining, I figured that the next night, I would pick up the Cuban station again. I was disappointed because I got a station from Kentucky. It was mostly a talk show, but I did listen for a bit. It quickly turned into a habit, this nightly surprise over the monitor. I really did look forward to waking up at 3am and listen to whatever was streaming live. It was fun!

Of course, every once in a while, I would cringe because I would read articles on how baby monitors would pick up random phone conversations, or in the case of the video monitors, someone else could peek in on your baby. If I was hearing radio stations over my monitor, were other people hearing things over theirs?

Truth is, I didn't worry about it too much. I talked to a friend of mine who likes to use old radios to listen to radio shows from all over the place. He said that at one time, he would drive to a special spot up on a hill just so he could catch a different station from his car. Talk about a fun night!!

Am I gonna go out and get a radio? Not yet. I think I will use my monitor as my tool for now. It has many uses: listening in on the girls to make sure they're ok is a huge one. Maybe eventually, I might turn this into a real hobby. For now, I will just wake up at 3am and listen in on whatever station my monitor happens to catch. I'm crossing my fingers that tonight is the night that I catch that one station that's strong enough to be "caught" by the monitor every night. I love listening to the radio...even if it is an unconventional one.

Do you have a nighttime routine or something that helps you sleep? What is it?