Nevermind the lullabies, here’s the WHITE NOISE!
The baby can’t sleep! Quick, blast him with some white noise, confuse that baby brain, it’s like giving horses ketamine!
Babysoothe has ten high quality seamless sound samples that loop, allowing you to layer up the white noise and what’s more it’s portable so the iPhone can go in the cot (or be carried around with the baby draped over a shoulder), and has a timed auto-off feature as well.
Plus points: cheaper than a bar of chocolate, has put Kit to sleep more times than I can remember.
Minus points: the phone is in the cot, the baby has gone to sleep, all is tranquil…then DONG!! you’ve got a text message!! DAMMIT!
Overall: best 59p I’ve ever spent, so good we bought two copies (one for each of our phones)
How far have you had to go to get baby to sleep?
Love your ‘minus points’, Blimpy. (And the rest of it too!)
It’s half time in the football – and my Ms. asks (I say asks – demands is more like it) does white noise help to get a baby out NOW.
can’t wait for an answer she says I had better leave the room THIS MINUTE –
We had a white noise cone sound and light (pretty trippy patterns – that could be turned down or off) for Z -boy when he was little – so much fun he would wake up to listen and watch every ten minutes… and the water effects made us wanna go to the bathroom all the time, so we had to move out of the bedroom in our flat and sleep in the lounge.
out of here… my life’s in danger.
…does white noise help to get a baby out NOW.
can’t wait for an answer she says I had better leave the room THIS MINUTE
out of here… my life’s in danger.
HANG ON A MINUTE! DOES THAT MEAN Mrs.SHANE HAS STARTED??????
WE NEED TOWELS!
WE NEED WATER!
WE NEED A MIDWIFE!
WE NEED A TAXI!
WE NEED TO LIE DOWN!
Crikey!!!!
no – not yet … just needing to get bump out – NOW.
Ah. Sorry, Shane (& Ru). As you were, then.
We had white noise on cassette for non-sleeping second child. It didn’t work. Nothing did, except for getting older (she’s four now, and much better at sleeping, but it did seem as if she didn’t sleep for longer than 20 minutes at a time for seventeen months).
17 months!!!! Yikes!!!!
It was exhausting. I hearly lost my no claims bonus on my car insurance.
Yikes!!!!
Funny you should say that, Zalamanda, I actually DID have a sleep-deprived minor car crash when DsSis was a baby. Failed to notice at a busy, notorious, rush-hour-crazed, double-mini-roundabout the illegal U-turn the car two-in-front was doing and when I did, and swerved to avoid him swiping me, I turned my wing into the poor sod innocently turning right across me.
Crumbs!!!
We used the vacuum cleaner as a white-noise maker for our first-born; it worked once when we were actually vacuuming, and continued to work for 3 months. However, Benjamin was then scared of hoovers, hairdryers, etc for a couple of years. Probably not connected…
I bet that one patch of carpet was spotless!
A long, long time ago, before apps and mobile phones and sound generators, my baby was a little sh*t about sleeping. I literally drove miles with him in the car, as one of the few things that did the trick (getting him back out of the car was, of course, a delicate process). As he became mobile, he often insisted on getting into bed with us, hauling the (cylinder) vacuum cleaner or a stage plugboard with him. Happy daze.
I would tell you all of my sleep deprivation stories but I’m too tired.
I never heard that theory about white noise, I have to say it sounds absolutely bizarre… doesn’t it drive you crazy? (The only use for white noise I’m aware of is for drowning out motorway noise next to public parks, but it’s better achieved by falling water than by electronics).
Though on reflection, I guess we did use a kind of white noise to get Mara to sleep… (I used to sing to her…)
for son number one, only Daddy carrying him around for hours worked for actual sleep, but to stop him crying we had a plastic rain maker toy that made a swishy noise and we discovered that Bing Crosby calmed him down enough to contemplate sleep. Second son slept wonderfully, I can’t tell you the relief that caused.
Brodie slept through the night from 5 weeks via the currently frowned upon method of tummy sleeping. Kit (nearly 3 months) seems to be having one night on, one off this week – where he’ll either sleep through or get up at 3 for a wee swalley.
One of my neighbours spent years driving around at night for one of theirs, and another of my neighbours only had one child due to the fact that he didn’t sleep for SEVEN YEARS!
TheBoyWonder was brilliant (and still likes his sleep now – rarely surfaces before lunchtime if it’s not a schoolday), but, boy, am I paying the price with his Little Sis – and she’ll be 13 just after Christmas!
Music. Played at a decent volume. Don’t creep around the house, if they’re used to silence a dropped pin will wake them. Whatever you do, do it at normal volume. If they do waken they’ll hear that mum and dad are still there, otherwise the quietude could worry them into crying out for you. If you’re noisy and they awake despite being used to volume, then they probably genuinely need you and can be given some love and reassurance, even allowed to sit with you until they drop off again.
I advised the above to my children, whose offspring, like mine, would sleep through an earthquake.
In the early 80s my mate invited me to his house to watch one of Liverpool’s European Cup Finals. I knocked on his door which he answered with his finger over his pursed lips. “The kids are in bed,” he whispered.
I thought, “It’s the European Cup Final! What’ll I do when we score?”
I smiled weakly and entered the darkened living-room, trying not to make a noise as I removed a dozen beers from my bag.
Love that story!
Didn’t have any traumatic getting baby to sleep issues. Remember quite a lot of lactose intollerance related puking – a little tricky when there aren’t too many options on the menu. Also recall that the psychic, almost Esp like, bond between Mother & newborn babe is really amazing & slightly scarey.
Walking up and down the front room with a pram in the middle of the night. Sleeping on the settee for months. Balancing baby in between my shins in bed. You name it, I tried it … it took about 5 years to get to a stage where he slept through the night. Now I just can’t get him to bed, so I read him stories, fall asleep in the middle because I bore myself stupid and then he wakes me up. Mum! You’re snoring again!