Using a Sounds for Silence White Noise Machine to Help Babies Sleep

When you have a newborn baby, nothing is better than the sound of your baby sleeping ... especially if you're dead tired from exhaustion. You will do anything to help your baby sleep longer. There are many techniques for getting your baby to sleep, but what about keeping your baby asleep?

MW just a few hours old.

What Is a White Noise Machine?

A white noise machine, or brown noise generator, produces ambient noise that is soothing and helps block out noise from other rooms and outside. Some white noise machines play a prerecorded track while others produce organic noise with a fan.

How Can Background Noise from a Noise Making Machine Help My Baby Sleep?

By blocking out background noise, your baby can sleep longer and more soundly. This is especially important if you have children who are older who might wake your baby up early from a nap or in the mornings, and even more especially if you, like me, live in a very small house/apartment (i.e. our toddler's room is on the other side of the wall from our TV).

Alex when he was just an iddy-biddy 'ittle baby

According to Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block, "Most babies sleep better when a harsh, continuous white noise plays near their bassinet. These womb-like sounds drown out other distracting noises and have a profoundly lulling effect. ... [T]he mere addition of white noise to your baby's nursery may extend his sleep by an hour or two."

Authors Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack of The Sleepeasy Solution also recommend it. "Protect your child from distracting sounds ... with some steady white noise. ... Once your child is sleeping better, feel free to see if he can do without it. Some kids, though, will always sleep better with white noise and ... it's a harmless [sleep association] as it does not interfere with sleep but actually should enhance it."

With so many benefits to white noise machines, it's no wonder so many parents are using them as sleep aids for their kids. It's easily controlled (unlike pacifiers which can be lost and music which eventually stops). You can have a white noise machine playing throughout the night if needed.

Options for a Baby Sound Maker Including Sounds for Silence

There are quite a few options out there when it comes to providing a sweet bliss for your baby's room.

Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine

One of the most well-loved is the Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine, which has over 1,500 ratings and a 4.7/5 star rating. This machine has many options including 24 loop-less soothing sounds. Although it's advertised for use with young children, it works well for adults too. One of the cons mentioned is that the light doesn't have a brightness setting, but you can turn it off. Some parent's prefer to keep the light on, so they can check on their baby without turning on a lamp, which might wake babies up.

Another white sound maker designed for little ones is LetsFit White Noise Machine. Sounds include three white noise, three lullabies, two clothes dryer, and five nature sound tracks. It includes an adjustable night light that gives enough light for diaper changes while allowing the baby to sleep soundly. This noise machine has a 4.8/5 star rating with over 2,000 reviews.

Want to go simple with just a straight white noise machine (no frills), check out the Dohm-SS Single Speed Sound Conditioner. This is a great option if you need a loud sound machine or a soft one. It has a volume control for high and low but can also be adjusted using the top and side screens. It doesn't have all of the options but really, you probably will only need the basic white noise machine option. It should be noted, however, that this is an organic white noise machine. Where other machines play a pre-recorded white noise sound, this white noise is created by using a fan inside the machine. Users love it as well, with a 4.3/5 star rating on Amazon.

Another simple choice is the LectroFan White Noise Machine by Adaptive Sound Technologies. It doesn't give you as many options (no jungle sounds or running water), but it's perfect for blocking out sounds from the house. My husband and I use this one in our bedrooms and on my day off from work, I can sleep in till I wake up naturally. The kids rarely wake me up, which is such a blessing!

Why a White or Brown Noise Generator Might Help You as Well

LectroFan via Amazon

As a parent, we need sleep. Often our kids wake us up way too early (sometimes at 3 a.m. because they think that's "wake up" time. When is 3 a.m. ever a good time to wake up?). By using a white, pink or brown noise machine (whatever color you prefer, really) in your room, you may be able to avoid getting up quite so early. These machines can help block out the noise of your kids so you can get that precious extra hour of sleep before you have to get up.

We personally use the Dohm-SS Single Speed Sound Conditioner and the LectroFan, so I can personally vouch for both of them. If I had to choose, I would pick the LectroFan because it's lasted longer than the Dohm and it's compact, which is perfect for trips. Also, when I had an issue with it shortly after purchasing, they replaced it despite it being mostly my fault. Since then, it's been perfect and has lasted over 6 years, no problem! The Dohm is a very basic white noise, and lasted about seven years until finally the fan inside gave out (and since we often forgot to turn it off, it would be on all day too).

So if you're looking for a way reduce noise pollution that reaches your baby, whether traffic sounds, booming music from neighbors, construction or just your other kids having fun, consider getting a white noise machine. Do any of you use white noise machines? What kind do use? Tell me in the comments :).

Healthy Strawberry Banana Smoothie with Pineapple

Tonight for dinner I decide to make the traditional strawberry banana smoothie, but I wanted to jazz it up a little, so I decided to make a healthy banana smoothie with pineapple in it. I think I was think that it would sort of be like a strawberry pina colada. Yummy! I think, though, that it would have helped if I'd added more coconut flavor and more ice to thicken it up.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk
1/4 of a pineapple, chopped
1/2 lb strawberries
1 cup baby spinach
1 banana
2 tsp Truvia, or to taste
   ice

Add to blender and run till smooth.

I was a little hesitant to add spinach to my strawberry, banana, pineapple smoothie since this was my first time, but just like other smoothies with baby spinach, you couldn't taste it.

Why Add Spinach to Smoothies?

With no fat and hardly any calories, spinach is nutrient-dense. It's full of antioxidants (those things that prevent cancer and help you to stay healthy, even from colds), including flavonoids and carotenoids and helps to lower blood pressure.

Here's a breakdown of what you get in just one cup of spinach:

• 30 g calcium
• 810 mg iron
• 167 mg potassium
• 24 mg magnesium
• 2,813 IU vitamin A
• 58 micrograms folate
• 7 calories

Spinach also has vitamin K, fiber, thiamine, and phosphorous. 

So the next time you're making a smoothie, whether a smoothie with pineapple or some other combination, consider adding spinach to the mix. You may need to add a little extra sweetener, like stevia or monk fruit sweetener, because spinach (as well as other greens) tend to saturate the sweetness of the fruit, but in the end, you have a healthy smoothie.

Even my preschooler loves it!

And what's even better is that my kids loved this smoothie with pineapple too!

Is a Banana Smoothie Healthy?

If you're wondering whether banana smoothies can be healthy, the answer is yes! Depending on what you put in it, you can make healthy smoothies with bananas. A couple important things to remember:

• Add protein or make it a side dish: If you're planning on replacing a meal with a healthy banana smoothie, be sure to add some protein to the mix. This could be some sort of nut butter (peanut butter and almond butter come to mind) or protein powder or some other source of protein, you need that to stabilize your blood sugar levels so they don't spike from the sugar in the smoothie. If you can't do that, eat the smoothie as a side dish along with a balanced meal.
• Diversify: That means don't have the same foods every day. Find new and exciting things to put into your banana smoothies. Healthy smoothies don't come from just having milk, bananas and ice. Try new combinations. What I've found is that bananas do add wonderful flavor to your smoothie, but make sure you're always trying new fruits and vegetables along with the bananas.

So try a smoothie with spinach and see what you think. Let me know in the comments.

Beating the Summer Blahs with a Daily Schedule

Now that summer vacation is here, school is no longer there to help with the daily schedule. When summer hits, it's easy to fall into bad habits like sleeping in, wasting days not doing much, and not keeping a good schedule each day. Rather than falling into bad habits, create a schedule for your kids to help them keep their brains and bodies active throughout the summer months.

Making a Summer Schedule

Of course, this is just one idea for something you can do every day during summer vacation. Think of what else you want to do this summer to keep up a routine. For kids ages 5 to 7, a sample schedule may include:

Wake-up and get dressed
Eat breakfast
Clean up breakfast (have child clean up his or her own dishes)
Brush teeth
Clean up bedroom or spend time cleaning up something together in house (picking up living room, dusting, etc.)
Take a walk or spend time outside togetherPractice writing
Color/art project/drawing
Read books together
Lunch time
Lunch clean up
Quiet time (i.e. playing quietly on own, looking at or reading books on own, watching some TV, etc.) This is a great time to get stuff done you need to get done!
Snack time
Dinner prep (have your child help get dinner ready). Afternoons are also a great time for play dates or going to the park.
Dinner
Dinner clean up
Bedtime routine (brushing teeth, getting on pajamas, reading a couple more books, etc.) I often use this time to just talk with Alex about his day and about how he's feeling and what's going on in his head. It's great one-on-one time if you can swing it (though it's hard depending on how many kids you have and their ages).

Of course, you should always be flexible when it comes to your schedule, but if you have a general routine to follow, it will help prevent the summer blahs.

Scheduling Summer Activities

Another great way to beat the summer blahs is to get out your calendar. Decide on some things that you want to do this summer, such as visiting the local zoo, taking a camping trip, visiting at nearby state or national park, taking a day trip to the water park or even trips to the local pool. Decide on what days you're going to do these activities throughout the summer months.

By having a firm schedule for these activities, you'll have something to look forward to throughout the summer and as the dates for the activities get closer, you'll have motivation to plan for them so they actually happen. This way you won't get to the end of August and realize that school is about to start and the summer was wasted.

On the calendar should be days with activities with you and one of your kids one-on-one. Try to plan something once a week with one child. This way it won't be too overwhelming and you can have a few good mother-child dates throughout the summer.

Summer is upon us. Make it a good one!