For any parent anxious to get their new baby to sleep soundly, the best tool I have found has been a white noise machine.
Benefits of White Noise for babies:
Recreates the womb environment
The inside of the womb where baby lives and sleeps for 9 months is hardly a tranquil or quiet sanctuary, the sound of mom’s breathing and heartbeat are continuously pulsing around the baby and after they are born, the sudden silence can be “deafening” to them. It perpetually reminds them they are no longer in the safe place they once were and that can be a disconcerting reminder that mom’s not nearby.
Enter the white-noise machine which replaces this noise with a recreation of the rushing hum of mommy’s insides. I
Masks noises which prevent sleep
Baby’s also aren’t used to all the new sounds in your home, if your house is anything like mine you have a variety of squeaking floorboards, creaky hinges and just general amounts of outdoor noise that seems to always occur at sleep time.
Nothing is more frustrating than getting your baby off to sleep and someone down the hall banging a door closed, waking your baby. Then you start over from scratch. Not fun!
The white noise machine is great for smoothing out and masking external sounds so baby can sleep without distractions.
Low-maintenance system
The early weeks and months of baby’s life is anything but low maintenance. However the white noise machine is a tool that, if you purchase electrical units (which I would recommend)
May help parents get to sleep during off-hour naps
Up all night? I have such a hard time sleeping during the day, every neighborhood seems to have a construction project going on these days with noisy ladders, radios, trucks and hammering going on. Good luck sleeping through that. I have my own white noise machine on most of the time to get me to sleep better during my own day time naps. If you can get grandma or grandpa to relieve you for a few daytime hours or if you’re lucky enough to have a good napper, using the white noise machine you may be able to get a few hours of daytime sleep.
Great Baby Sleep Tools
I have found the following tools useful and own (at least one of each) of them myself. 
Marpac SleepMate
First off is the Marpac SleepMate which I consider the Cadillac of sleep machines. It’s a bit pricy, but it has worked for me for years without any trouble. It also is great because it is electrical and never runs out of batteries in the middle of the night. Another thing I enjoy is the natural sound of rushing air which you can adjust to different volumes and pitches to suit your needs.
If this doesn’t work for you, you must live above a bowling alley or disco. 
Sleep Sheep
Another great tool we used early on was the Sleep Sheep. It features pretty good quality electronic sounds which our baby found soothing. The babbling brook and rain were my two favorites, I found the whale sounds a bit eerie for sleeping to.
I also was amazed at how long the battery lasted in this device, we didn’t change it for many months and we used it quite frequently in the early months of our baby’s life. It does have an auto-shutoff after 45 minutes which may or may not suit your needs. It does help to keep the battery from dying early though.
We Want To Hear From You!
I’d love to hear about your experiences with white noise machines for you or your baby. Feel free to add a comment below or you can contact me here.
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