Teaching your baby to be a rockstar sleeper is life-changing. Everyone in the family gets the sleep they need, your baby is growing and thriving and you get ‘Met Time”. If you can get a few amazing baby products to make learning independent sleep easier and to keep it intact, I say it’s worth it.
Here are a few of my favorite baby sleep products.
What You Need To Create The Best Environment
When you teach your baby great sleep skills, it’s imperative that you have an ideal sleep environment. That means it’s dark and quiet.
Sound Machine
A sound machine helps prevent noise from pulling your baby out of a sleep cycle prematurely. It ensures that the dog barking or a truck driving by is not the reason your baby wakes. Keep it 4-6 feet away from the baby’s head and use the lowest setting that does the trick. Make sure to use plain white, brown, or pink noise. No ocean waves or falling rain.
My absolute favorite is the Marpac Dohm. It’s simple and basic with two noise levels. I also really like that it produces white noise from a fan.
The Hatch is another good option as it serves as a nightlight as well.
Blackout Blinds
Dark it best! Darkness helps our bodies produce melatonin, the hormone that helps us get to sleep. The ideal level of darkness is so dark you can hardly see your hand if you hold it up in front of your face. So if you’ve got blackout curtains, it’s not dark enough because there is most definitely light peeking in at the top or sides of the curtain.
For a custom fit solution, try BlackoutEZ. You’ll get every inch of the window covered with the snug velcro system.
Sleepout is another great solution you can use at home or when you travel. It’s easy to remove and reinstall and comes in a handy little carrying bag.
Sleep Sacks
A sleep sack is an absolute must and here are the reasons why.
It’s a wearable blanket and will keep baby warm
It’s a cue to baby that it’s time to sleep
It can prevent crib jumping as most toddlers can’t get their leg over the rails if they are wearing a sleep sack
There are so many great sleep sacks on the market. Once a baby is out of a swaddle or transitional swaddle, I recommend a regular sleep sack. No bells or whistles like weighted chest or wings. Here are 2 of my favorites.
Kyte Baby is a super soft basic sleep sack that comes in beautiful colors.
Woolino is fabulous if you’ve got a drafty nursery as it’s made from Merino wool and helps regulate body temperature. For a discount, use code ANDIMETZLER10.
Swaddles
The AAP Safe Sleep Guidlines recommend a baby be swaddled until 8 weeks old. It’s important to transition out of a swaddle and into a regular sleep sack before a baby can unintentionally roll.
With my own kids, I used the Miracle Blanket as it was the ONLY swaddle my son stayed swaddled in all night long. I also recommend the Ollie World.
Slumberpod Is A Must
This just might be my absolute favorite baby product. Creating an ideal sleep environment is Great Sleep 101. The room must be dark. If you have a baby that’s old enough to know you are in the same room, a visual barrier can be hugely beneficial. The Slumberpod does both of those things and is easy to travel with. Not only is it great for Pack N Plays and toddler cots, but they now have their Homebase that fits on almost all full-sized cribs. It’s a great option for babies that are 4 months of age and older. For a discount, use code ANDIMETZLERSLEEP.
If you’ve set up the perfect sleep environment for your baby and sleep is still a mess, set up a call with me and we’ll talk solutions.