Our Top 10 Picks for Your Baby Registry: Infant Sleep Edition
/We live in a time where we can instantaneously access information. Of course once we access the info we need, we then have to filter through literally hundreds of search results. 8 hours later and we find ourselves crawling out of the Google/Amazon rabbit-hole wondering when we last ate.
Pregnant people are overwhelmed with choices. Which car seat to pick? Which crib? Which pump?
Instead of having to pick from 2-3 choices, you suddenly have to sort through 100 cribs at Buy Buy Baby. Who has that kind of time or mental energy?!
Never fear, Doulas of Raleigh is here! We have taken the liberty to make a short list of registry items that are practical, useful, and well-liked by our clients.
We focus on Infant Sleep in today’s post. We have some great finds for places to have baby sleep as well as tools to help baby get to sleep.
This is one of the best white noise machines we have found. Babies hear a lot of noises in the womb, so it is unsettling for them to be in an environment as newborns where there is silence. White noise will help soothe your baby and help them get into a deep sleep. It can also mask other noises of a busy household so baby isn’t startled awake by the doorbell being rung or someone running the vacuum.
Most babies love the feeling of being swaddled. It helps comfort them, keeps them warm, and decreases the chance of them waking up from the newborn startle reflex. Many parents, however, have a hard time mastering the snug swaddle using a swaddle blanket. Even if you do get a great fit, some parents worry about the blanket coming loose and inadvertently covering the baby’s face. The Love to Dream Swaddle is easy - just put baby in and zip it up. Baby will be snug as a bug and you won’t have to worry about loose blankets.
Current AAP safe sleep guidelines encourage parents to have baby room in for at least the first 6 months of baby’s life. Most new parents don’t have room in their bedrooms for a big crib. The Bassinest is a nice space-saving alternative. It can be placed right beside the parent’s bed for easy access to comfort baby or pick baby up to feed. We also like that the sides are breathable mesh and it is a flat surface - requirements for a sleep space to be designated as safe for infants. The Bassinest can be used up until baby is 20 lbs or is pulling up on his hands and knees.
Trust us when we say you are not going to want to deal with a bunch of snap buttons at 3:00 am. Go ahead and buy the jammies that zip up to make middle-of-the night diaper changes super easy. We recommend getting the sleepers that also have footies included so you don’t have to deal with baby socks. Any brand of sleeper will work, but we like the Burt’s Bees brand since it is originally from right here in NC. Target’s Cloud Island sleepers are also great since they have the zipper located at the bottom of the foot, which makes diaper changes even easier.
If you or your partner has mastered the art of the swaddle, then we would recommend having a pack of swaddling blankets on hand. We find that many new parents also use the blankets to lay baby on for tummy time, to cover a car seat or stroller to protect baby from the elements (just don’t leave the blanket on there), or to use as a cover up for a nursing session if the breastfeeding person feels more comfortable this way while nursing in public. These blankets also act as burp cloths in the event of an epic spit up! The Aden and Anais muslin swaddles are our favorites.
Touch Activated Night Light
There’s going to be lots of middle-of-the-night diaper changes with your little one. In order to keep baby nice and sleepy, you’re not going to want to turn on a light. Instead, make sure you have a nice night light for the nursery. We love the touch activated ones - easy on and easy off. One of our favs is the Vava, which has varying levels of brightness and is operated with just a touch of your finger.
Monitor
Once you do decide to move baby to the nursery and out of your room, you’re going to want to keep an eye on them. There are lots of monitor options, but we recommend getting one that allows you to hear and see the baby. The Infant Optics monitor has decent resolution, allows you to adjust the camera from the monitor, and offers other features such as room temperature.
If you’ve read Happiest Baby on the Block , you know all about the 5 Ss of soothing a new baby. What if we told you there is a safe sleep space that provides many of those 5 things?! The Snoo provides rhyhmic motion, white noise, and vibrtation to help new babies sleep soundly. If the price tag is a little more than you’d like to spend you can consider renting the Snoo instead.
Cool Mist Humidifier
Sometimes new babies can be congested. This causes them not to sleep as well as they could. We find that running a cool mist humidifier, such as this Crane cute owl , helps alleviate some of the congestion and help baby sleep more soundly.
Postpartum Doula
Sometimes babies love to have all night parties. Consider putting overnight postpartum doula hours on your registry so family and friends can contribute to helping you get a full night (or multiple nights) of solid sleep. More sleep for you means a better parent for your baby.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep”. We hope some of these registry items help you create a safe and lovely sleep space for your newborn.