One of the greatest inventions ever would be a noise maker, a sound machine, white noise, whatever you want to call it. When the triplets were about a month old and going through a colicky phase, we were desperate to do anything we could to settle the boys and help them sleep. We watched The Happiest Baby on the Block and learned about "shh-ing", and spoke to other experts explain the benefits of white noise. The noise at this age helps distract them and manages to calm them.
So after much research, we purchase the Marpac Sound Conditioner because it actually creates white noise instead of playing a looping white noise soundtrack. We set it up in a moment filled with 3 screaming babies and it was not loud enough. (We have since learned that you can twist the machine to open the vents to make it louder. So we now keep this noise maker in our room and love it!)
Marpac Sound Conditioner
Since the Marpac model did not seem to work at the time, we purchased the Conair Infant Sound Machine. You may be tempted to use the other sounds like "heartbeat", but from our experience, the white noise was the best for settling screaming babies. We even kept the sound machine in the crib with them when they were tiny and not moving. I remember hearing (I believe on the Happiest Baby DVD) that the inside of the womb was louder than a vacuum cleaner. Or was it a hair dryer? Either way, pretty loud. We found that it helped to turn the sound machine up fairly loud (louder than you're comfortable with at first), and once they settle (or after about 10 minutes or so) turn it down and keep it running all night.
Conair Infant Sound Machine
To this day, we turn the sound machine on for every nap and bedtime. The boys are now trained to know to that it is time to sleep when the sound machine turns on. And amazingly, they wake the moment it is turned off. When we were trying to keep all 3 on the same schedule, if two were awake, we would turn the sound machine off and the 3rd would wake automatically!
3 comments:
Hey Ginger, so we've had discussions with friends on the whole white noise thing and some of them have said that the kids get "hooked" on them and can't sleep without them. The whole idea sounds good to me, but I'm not sure about that. What do you think?
Hi Amy! You're absolutely right about the potential for getting hooked on white noise. Rob still needs to sleep with a fan or white noise machine - a carryover from childhood. For us, the benefits outweighed the potential longterm effects. :)
that's a good thought - the benefits outweigh the longterm effects. Audrey has trouble going to sleep in the late evening, but once she is good and asleep we're all set. I'll just have to talk Troy into it! :)
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