One piece of advice I have heard my mother tell every new mom she meets is to make sure to put your baby down to sleep with noise in the house — run the vacuum, watch TV — just keep some noise in the house so the baby gets used to falling asleep to anything. It always seemed like sound advice (pun intended), and I took it to heart.
When K was born, I always made noise (not hard to do, silence is much harder) and somewhere along the line we purchased a sound machine for K. I really don’t remember the exact motivation for the purchase, but we chose the SoundSpa® Lullaby by HoMedics because it offered several (six) different sounds and acted as a soothing nightlight too. It turned out to be one of the most valuable purchases we made for our daughter.
K was already a good sleeper, but the sound machine helped her fall asleep on her own quickly and quietly. She would lay there transfixed by the lights, a revolving picture projection with three interchangeable scenes, and soon she was fast asleep. It worked, and we were hooked. I also love that it has a self timer that you can set for 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes.
Fast-forward to today, and she still loves her “sounds.” God forbid my husband or I should forget to turn on her machine, my little creature of habit is quick to remind “Sounds!”
Because her “sounds” have become such a part of her sleep routine (we even travel with her machine), some times I wonder if I have created a problem for her becoming accustom to her sounds, but it really helps her sleep so how can I fault it. Much like “Pink Bear” (her beloved stuffed animal), I don’t think the sounds will last forever, but for now they are WONDERFUL!
The SoundSpa® Lullaby offers six soothing sounds — Heartbeat, Ocean, Rain, Cradle, Rock-a-bye and Twinkle. (K listens to Rainforest only – I was never into the heartbeat sound and I think the songs sound a little “tinny” — we did Ocean for a while, but she prefers the Rain.) The projection scene options are — cows jumping over the moon, little birds and ocean animals. (Nowadays K prefers the “lights” to be off… see we are already out growing part of the machine.)
With three plus years of use, I recommend this to all new moms. Try it, see it it works for you. I already have the new one set up in the nursery ready for baby #2.
The SoundSpa® Lullaby by HoMedics is available on Amazon for $22.99. (If you want to include it on your registry, it is also sold at Target.)
I am so excited that HoMedics is participating in The Suburban Mom’s Virtual Baby Shower. In addition to all of the other fabulous prizes, the winner will receive a SoundSpa® Lullaby machine.
Enter to win The Suburban Mom’s Virtual Baby Shower Giveaway valued at more than $550 here!!!
Disclosure – I received a SoundSpa Lullaby to facilitate this review and one is being provided for the winner, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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Jen W says
August 2, 2011 at 2:53 pmSound machines are a lifesaver! I have one in each of my children’s rooms, and just ordered another one for my room, since Baby #3 will be camping out close to mommy and nursing round the clock for a while 🙂
Rachael says
August 2, 2011 at 4:16 pmI never had a sound machine with my first and it will definitely be a purchase I made when I have another one.
Andy says
August 2, 2011 at 8:40 pmThis would be a great way to help baby get used to sounds while sleeping.
Stacy says
August 2, 2011 at 8:40 pmI need this for my two year old. She can’t sleep with out sound.
April says
August 3, 2011 at 7:27 amI totally agree! We could not live without this. My husband and I grew so accustomed to hearing ocean sounds through the baby monitor, that we missed the soothing sounds when my son spent the weekend at Grandma’s! To our dismay, he now enjoys falling asleep to Twinkle Twinkle (which, as you mentioned, does sound a little tinny), but we just switch it to ocean after he’s asleep. I never use the timer; it just runs all night. The sound does a great job of blocking out other noises around the house. I used to pack the sound machine for trips, but I recently found a sound app for my phone, called Relax Melodies, that is super convenient for on-the-go.
My only complaint about the SoundSpa is that the projector stopped spinning after about a year. The same thing happened to my SIL’s machine. Mine actually started working again one day after my son was playing with it, but a few months later it stopped again. The light still projects, but the image doesn’t spin.
I definitely recommend this product to all my mommy-to-be friends!
Marcia says
August 3, 2011 at 1:32 pmWe always have to turn on the fan for the baby to sleep so this would be awesome!
Lisa says
August 4, 2011 at 9:57 amThis seems like a good, inexpensive purchase…especially if it is going to help baby get to sleep!!
kk says
August 6, 2011 at 8:36 amWhat a clever idea. I’m definitely going to need one of these.
Andrew says
August 6, 2011 at 8:52 amthis would be great to help baby sleep, but still be able to do housework.
Meredith says
August 7, 2011 at 7:00 amWith 2 other children running around the house, I’m looking forward to getting something like this for baby #3!
Tonya Hopkins says
August 7, 2011 at 11:15 pmI have never used a sound machine and I was also told to let baby fall asleep with noise from your normal routine. This is pretty cool
Summer S. says
August 8, 2011 at 9:45 pmThis is so much better than the fan running!
Jessica says
August 9, 2011 at 8:03 amWe have this exact sound machine and we love it! My son knows when he hears Twinkle Twinkle Little Star come on, it is time to lay down and rest. LIFESAVER! The projector is an added bonus.
Laura L. says
August 12, 2011 at 11:06 amThis sounds like a really useful product. It’s definitely going on the baby registry!
Kristen says
August 15, 2011 at 7:34 pmNeed this!!!
Katie Gonzalez says
August 15, 2011 at 9:07 pmNever had anything like this for my son, but seems like it would have been helpful. He’s a great sleeper now, but I think this would have helped him (and us!) get used to falling asleep by himself sooner. Definitely at the top of my list for next time!!