Newborn Essentials for Sleep (from a tired mom)
Having a newborn is a lot like being thrown into the middle of the ocean on a very little boat. There are moments of calm when the sun is shining and it is smooth sailing. But there are a lot of torrential storms and rocky moments when you aren’t sure if you are going to capsize.
Whatever you can find to make surviving the newborn phase a little easier is extremely important. And if ANYTHING can help your child to sleep better, I am pretty sure it’s worth its weight in gold!
I am now in week 3 of newborn life and can tell you, we’ve had a lot of big storms. But those calms seas do make it all worth it. Here are a few products that have really helped us tackle SLEEP. All of these have improved our baby boy’s sleep dramatically. When he sleeps, we can sleep and everyone is happier!
Wow. This has been a dream come true! We’ve tried a lot of swaddles over the past week and it wasn’t until we tried this weighted swaddle that we had any longer stretches for sleep. The Dreamland swaddle is like a sleep bag with evenly distributed weight on the front. After you put the baby in there, wrap the extra velcro band to keep their arms down and voila, baby should be snug and relaxed. Our Brooks instantly calms with the sleep sack on, even if he fights it going on a bit.
I like how it is separate pieces so I can quickly wash the band if it gets any spit up on it, without having to wash the whole swaddle.It is all washable but the weighted sack takes a bit longer to dry. I truly think this is one the best swaddles out there and it is versatile since you can remove the band and just have a weighted sleep sack for when they are older.
This happy little bear night light has softly lit our nursery even in the darkest of moments. The pink noise is very soothing and less abrasive than a traditional white noise machine.
I love that it has a red light (3 degrees of brightness) which helps little bodies produce more melatonin to help them fall asleep and stay asleep. I have it right on the changing table so those middle of the night diaper changes can be done easily, without having to turn on a bright light.
This 5-1 Baby Dream Machine also has aromatherapy and a humidifier, which we will try when our little boy is a bit bigger. Sounds lovely though!
We needed a bassinet but weren’t interested in going for the Snoo due to price and mixed reviews from friends. We thought the MamaRoo was the perfect mix of movement options and sound, without being overly high tech. It does have an app that pairs to your phone that allows you to change the movement type or adjust the level, but so far we haven’t had much need for that.
There are 5 movements (tree swing, kangaroo, car ride, rock a bye and wave), each with varying degrees of intensity from 1 to 5. We’ve kept it pretty much at 1 which is enough for our little guy. There are mesh sides so we can easily see in and it has an adjustable height. I like the sleek look of it too. We haven’t used the built in noise machine or music, but for the other features, we still think it is a worth it.
The DockaTot was a huge success for our first child–being her go to lounger and napping spot until she grew out of it. We had a feeling our second baby would love it too and he sure does.
I love how lightweight it is so we can easily bring it in the car, to the beach, or move it around the house as needed. We’ve been angling it up a little since our little one has a bit of reflux and that has helped a lot. DockATot has different patterns for their covers, including this the Strawberry Thief print that I LOVE. I definitely suggest buying an extra cover as they often are soiled by spit up and other newborn fluids (lol). The carrying case is another great extra as it makes any sort or car/plane travel easier and also is a nice way to store the Dock in your house when you aren’t using it. If we leave ours out, our cat immediately jumps in it so I’m glad that we have a cover for it.
Strawberry Thief print
What a great new addition to the DockATot accessories! This Cabana kit is a shady canopy with mesh sides and is SPF 50+ making it brilliant for keeping infants in a shady spot when outside. We’ve used this at the pool several times and since we live in Southern California, it’s been really nice so we can be together outside but have our newborn stay protected from the sun.
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