Regardless if you are a first time mom or have years of experience, the one thing all mom’s lose out on is SLEEP. I remember after having our first child the exhaustion I had. They say “sleep when the baby sleeps”, but that’s hard. You want to get a thousand other things in the house done during that time, take care of your other children, take a shower, have a minute of quiet time while you have a cup of coffee… the list continues. After our first child, I felt like I barely slept that first year. Three kids in, and I feel like I’ve bought every product on the market to aid with sleeping. For overnight sleeping, a good sound machine and a snug swaddle have been key for a good nights rest. During the daytime naps, movement from the swing/Mamaroo has helped before transitioning to a crib nap.
The perfect Sound
White noise is great for babies. I swear by this sound machine. We own three, and love them. There’s a wide variety of sounds and light, but best of all you can control it from an app on your phone. For our toddlers, I especially like setting a schedule on it. We use a red night light over night, and at 7am the light changes to a green (okay to wake) and the sound turns off. You can set multiple time schedules on it, so they turn on and off automatically. Its one less thing to worry about when we leave the kids with a babysitter, and they can keep their normal sleep routine. Hatch even came out with another version for Adults. I personally love sleeping with white noise, so I love that you can utilize both these sound machines on the same app and scheduler.
Cozy & Snug
Swaddling the baby creates such a snug and safe environment for them. With our first son, we barely swaddled him. We attempted to swaddle with traditional swaddle blankets, but it didn’t work for us. Our son always broke out of them and would end up waking being startled. With our second and third child, we’ve realized how much better they sleep when swaddled. That being said, we’ve tried so many of the easy swaddles. The one I’ve found to be both easy to use and the best value for your money is the SwaddleMe. Not only are they fool-proof to easily wrap the baby in, but the velcro makes it difficult for the child to easily break out of it. The price value is great as you are getting a three pack of swaddles for less than $30.
Rock-A-Bye Baby
At night our babies have always slept in our room (either in a crib or bassinet), however naps during those newborn months we use a swing. The swing is great cause we keep it downstairs so we can try to do other things while keeping an eye on baby, and they love the constant movement. Our babies loved movement. We would spend hours holding the babies, walking around, bouncing, dancing, whatever it took to have the baby nap. Enter the swing. We didn’t use the swing much with our first son. I was afraid they were going to get use to being in the swing and not transition well to the crib. With my second son, I realized they loved the movement and it was unrealistic for me to be able to hold the baby nonstop during all naps. We have used both a traditional swing and a Mamaroo.
Swing or Mamaroo?
Fisher-Price Moonlight Meadow Cradle ‘n Swing is a great swing. You can adjust the swing from going side to side or front to back. There’s various speed and sound options. I loved this swing and it is at a great price point for the product. My only downside of this is the size, as you do need space for it. If you are in a tighter space, or just looking for a more sleek design I would steer towards the Mamaroo. The Mamaroo has multiple swing settings, which you could adjust from the base or from a mobile app. I personally don’t use the app as its easy enough to just turn it on and adjust the speeds when you put your baby in it. The Mamaroo is a higher price point, however it gives less of a “baby products everywhere” look in your living space.
I would love to hear your experiences. What helped your baby (and you!!) sleep?
I hope you get a good nights rest!
Xo – Christine
Baby Sleep Essentials
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These are great! We used the white noice machine and it was a family hit! Not only did it work great for our daughter but it worked great for us!