Next Step Baby Monitor Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: Other than the mentioned products, which I received directly from this sponsor for review purposes, I was not compensated for facilitating this review. All opinions expressed are my own. Your experience may differ. Mommy's Block Party and its team members are not responsible for prize fulfillment or shipment- this is the understood responsibility of the giveaway sponsor.

Part of the MBP Pregnancy & Newborn Reviews
**Since we at MBP like to bring an assortment of things to our readers, it makes sense that we offer a range of pregnancy items right now. We searched around for some of the best maternity companies we could find and we have been blessed with some amazing products.**

One item that is probably found on every baby registry is a Baby Monitor. Baby monitors offer a way to listen or look in on your baby without disrupting their sleep, and we all know not to wake a sleeping baby. There are many different kinds of monitors available in today's market, you can go to any baby store and find an assortment of audio and video choices.

When we had our first baby, video monitors were available, but expensive, and I knew that I would be compulsively watching our baby every minute-because you are sort of crazy with your first. We went with a nicer audio monitor and it worked well for our small ranch home. With our second baby, I was tempted to again look at video monitors but could not justify spending the money on one and we again used our audio monitor. When S was an infant, we moved from our ranch into a large ranch with a basement. We spent a lot of time dragging the second part of the monitor downstairs with us or to different parts of the house, it got old quickly and we stopped using the monitor fairly early on. This go-round, I really was interested in video monitors but again couldn't justify paying, even though I knew the audio monitor was going to be a pain. My best friend purchased one for her third and my jealousy started to set in a bit. I could not have been more thrilled and excited when I was contacted by a company who wanted to share their product with the MBP family. This product--you guessed it--baby monitors! Video Baby Monitors!!

Founded in 2004, NextStep Baby Monitors is a family owned and operated Southern California business. NextStep prides themselves on only offering customers the latest technology in products that they know and use for their own children, and providing a wealth of knowledge and assistance with their products.

"We realize our customers have many shopping options including big box stores and online discounters, but what happens when you have a question or need extra help? NextStep is here for our customers with helpful assistance and a wealth of specialized knowledge. When it comes to your children don't compromise. We treat everyone who visits our site and buys our products with the highest degree of respect. All information submitted, including all personal and credit card information, is kept strictly confidential. We never give out any of our customer's information to third parties."

I was in contact with Alex, a Marketing Coordinator for NextStep, he was amazingly friendly and was offering us so much, you would think it was almost too good to be true, but it wasn't. Alex would be sending us the NextStep IP Pro Monitor and after checking it out, I was ever impressed.

The NextStepIP Pro features:

Pan/Tilt Capability

Secure Direct Connect

Upgraded Audio-Improved audio quality and clarity when listening with iPhones, iPads and Androids.

Wireless N-Connect to your Wi-Fi network using Wireless-N in addition to the older standard Wireless-B/G. Wireless-N provides an even faster connection between your camera and router for improved performance. (N supported on 2.4 GHz not 5.2 GHz).

Talk Back Capability

Motion/Audio Alert-Can send you an email alert with snapshots of the video attached when it detects a certain level of sound or motion.

Night Vision

IR Cut-This new lens feature makes sure colors during daytime viewing are true. Cameras without IR cut can sometimes have washed out or slightly "off" colors. IR Cut fixes this issue by filtering out the IR light which can distort colors.

Deluxe Wall Mount

Support for setup of Apps & Router

Premium Lifetime Support-NextStepBabyMonitors supports our NextStepIP Pro customers for life.

No Additional Fees

Two Year Warranty

After communicating for a few days, our package arrived.

It was packed securely in a well fitting box and surrounded by foam peanuts. I knew the product would be safe after seeing this. I contacted Alex and let him know that the package had arrived. Much to my surprise he offered us a free phone appointment to set up the entire thing which I gladly accepted, a thorough and fairly easy to understand manual is also included in the box, but a live person helping seemed like a much easier and nicer experience.

We set up a time to have a phone conference, I was sure to include my husband because I am fairly clueless about hooking up things to our Wi-Fi and most of that general technology. NextStep offers lifetime support to its IP Pro customers-LIFETIME! This will be super handy if we ever need anything, especially when you don't have to read a manual or memorize every little piece of information to make something work correctly.

Before our phone conference, we took the camera out of the box so we knew what we would be working with. This monitor literally looks like a robotic eye when set up. The NextStep IP Pro comes in both black and white, we have the white version and retails for around $150.

The night of our phone conference I totally spaced it, but after leaving me a voicemail we got back in touch within minutes and were on our way to setting up our NextStep IP Pro. We spoke with Adam, who was very patient and walked us through step by step to get our monitor all set up. We had a little glitch with our network/password, but he even helped us get that figured out. We downloaded the appropriate app to each of our phones to complete the full set up. This app was around $3, but with our Apple giftcards, we didn't have to pay a thing.

We currently have the monitor set up in our sitting room for practicing with it. We have had lots of fun playing with it and showing it off to our friends and family. You can monitor the camera from your desktop computer or your phone. It zooms, changes directions, can be talked through and into, records video or photos, this thing literally does it all.

Here are some images I captured of the kids playing, they didn't even know I was watching them. The picture quality is really clear and it is in real time, for the most part no time delay (which I did notice when I am not connected to our Wi-Fi did make for a few second delay, but not huge). The audio is clear and you can easily adjust the volume to what you need. My husband has even admitted to using it while he was at work to just "peek in" on what we were doing at home without interrupting us.

The NextStep IP Pro offers amazing piece of mind that you can check in on your child at anytime from your desktop computer or just by opening an app on your phone. The customer service they provide is over the top excellent and helpful, they don't make you feel like an idiot (even when I clearly am sometimes) and walk you through every step of the way. I highly recommend checking out the NextStep IP Pro, you can not go wrong!

Want It? Buy It!

Ready to order your own NextStep Baby Monitor or want to learn a bit more? First visit here and sign up for the newsletter, you might even get a coupon or two. Go here to read more, then go here to order or add to a baby registry here, decide on your shipping information, and track your order. Check out the amazing return policy, 100% Satisfaction guaranteed! If you have questions, please contact NextStep here. You can join in for any and all of NextStep's social media outlets, "Like" NextStep Baby Monitors on Facebook, Follow NextStep Baby Monitors on Twitter, Re-Pin NextStep Baby Monitors on Pinterest, or read along on the NextStep Baby Monitors Blog for all kinds of information, photos, and more.

Want It? Win It!

One MBP reader will win a NextStep IP Pro for their own nursery. Just use the Rafflecopter entry form below to enter to win. Remember- if the entry field appears in BOLD, it's mandatory.

Thank you to Alex and NextStep Baby Monitors for providing us with the comfort of being able to not only hear our baby, but see our baby too!