Dad's Eye View

Looking back over the past nine months, I have to say one of the best decisions we’ve made as parents was to invest in a quality white noise machine. We don’t go anywhere without it!

When we first got back from the hospital after delivery our little girl stayed in a pack-n-play bassinet next to our bed. That’s when we plugged in the white noise. Everybody slept better as a result. Maybe it’s because we live in a large city (albeit in the suburbs), but our neighborhood can be quite loud at times. We’ve got things like fire trucks and other sirens, garbage trucks, the many buses that come through our neighborhood, and the jerk who picks somebody up two doors down at 7:30 every morning by honking his horn. The white noise keeps everything nice and level. It definitely takes the edge off sounds the would otherwise most certainly wake her.

We were actually sad when we finally moved her down the hall into her own room. And not just because she was leaving our room. We could hear EVERYTHING outside. But not all is lost, as we we can turn the monitor up and it gives us a little white noise.

We don’t tip-toe around and try to be quiet. We’ve had lots of dinner parties and such while she’s blissfully slept upstairs. We’ve even played Rock Band downstairs while she’s slept!

We’ve been over at friend’s places who have babies and don’t use white noise and they keep waking up to unexpected things like clings of plates on a granite counter or the like. Seems like a lot of unnecessary effort to me. I’m just saying .

The long terms effects remain to be seen. I was thinking it should be easy enough to ween off the noise at some point over time by very slowly lowering the volume over weeks or months. At least, it sounds good in theory. But frankly, the white noise is such a blessing that that time may be a very long ways off.

The machine we use has a bunch of different noises to choose from. We’ve tried a number of them but always come back to the basic white noise setting. It works the best for us, but like everything, you’re mileage will vary.

Tips

• Rock the white noise! Don’t be afraid to turn it up. The womb was a loud place for them and it’s sort of appreciated.
• Some machines automatically turn off after some set time. Get one that turns off when you turn it off.
• Put it on the far side of the room, away from the baby monitor which is placed next to the crib. This way you can still hear the baby over the white noise. You get used to the hum coming from the monitor.
• Take it with you anywhere you travel! Family and hotels are loud. And it adds a little bit of familiarity to an unfamiliar place.