Sunday, September 11, 2011

Baby Sleep Secrets...Don't We All Wish We Had Some?

If you've ever thought, "I wish I could just upload my baby's sleep habits and get more tips on WHAT TO DO!" -- you're not alone (okay - at least you know I'm with you), and you may like this sleep resource from Johnson's: http://www.johnsonsbaby.com/sleep. I've played around with it, and here is a short review of the site from my perspective, as well as other resources for sleep.

BEST: The best things about the site are...
  • Customized sleep profile (Click the purple cloud at the bottom) - They partnered with a pediatrician to create a questionnaire about your baby's sleep habits, so you can receive a sleep profile and tips on what to do to help baby to get to the next level in the healthy, happy sleep game. You can download the sleep profile, and answer the questionnaire periodically to see baby's progress or just take the tips.
  • Learn a lullaby (Click "Quietly off to sleep") - There is a section on the site where you can listen to and download both lyric and instrumental versions of three popular lullabies and PDFs of the lyrics (for free). I admit I never knew all the words to "Lullaby and Goodnight" or "Hush Little Baby." I've added the instrumental versions to Gavin's playlist, and I'm excited about learning the words, so I can have more songs to choose from when calming or distracting him.
THE REST: In  my opinion, the "I could take it or leave it" or "It could be better" parts of the site are...
  • Yes, I am sure they want you to buy their product, but the sections I visited weren't pushy (a plus). I chose to try Burt's Bees Calming Lotion (with lavender scent) instead because it has more natural ingredients.
  • Baby Massage: I thought this was a good introduction, but after a few days I was looking for more specific techniques. One place that I found some were: http://www.parents.com/baby/care/newborn/how-to-massage-baby/?page=1.
  • They let you create a "soothing symphony" of various white noise sounds. We've used white noise with Gavin since he was born. This was probably my biggest disappointment because when you've created the perfect symphony, you cannot download it. They only let you receive a link to go back and play it later.  This sent me looking for free downloadable white noise, which led me to: http://sites.google.com/site/freewhitenoisesounds/. It seems that this person recorded some white noise sounds to share with all of us, which is super cool! I didn't love them all, but some are really good. The recordings are short, so you may need to add a few dozen copies of them to a playlist to get a sound that lasts thirty minutes or so, but that wasn't a huge drawback for me. I was a little wary about downloading something like this from an individual's site, and while I can't vouch for the person necessarily, I did it, and my computer is still happy and healthy.
I'd love to know about resources you've found, too! Happy Sleeping!

2 comments:

  1. I don't know LEilani still not sleeping through the night. With Connor, I had to put him to sleep, Leilani actually will fall asleep by herself in the crib, but she wakes every 2-3 hours.... I tried warm bath before bed every night, full tummy, passi fire, and myself....Well, I guess she is almost 1 so it can't last forever....

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  2. So good to see you here! Falling asleep on her own is a great thing! I don't have the "secret sauce" yet either, but I did want to recommend "No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. My next post will be about books I love, and I'll put a link to it there. Wow, almost 1! So exciting and scary, if you know what I mean...

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