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May 14, 2025

Bedtime Essentials Every New Parent Needs

Establishing a bedtime routine for your baby takes time, but you will eventually curate a bedtime routine and environment that works best for your family. Confidence and comfort are key, and some bedtime essentials, like a baby monitor, will make the whole process a calmer and more enjoyable experience.

Reliable Smart Baby Monitor
Baby monitors are popular pieces of baby tech for new parents. There will come a time when your little one is snoozing and eventually getting a full night of sleep independently of you. Baby monitors give you a clear visual and audio of your baby’s sleep space. A modern baby monitor uses smart technology like a baby temperature monitor to help you monitor the environment and sleep habits. If your baby monitor comes with a smart sensor and ankle band, it can track your baby’s heart rate, oxygen saturation, and skin temperature fluctuations, helping you feel confident that your little one is comfortable, even when you’re not by their side.

Soothing Sleep Sounds
A sound machine that plays white noise or lullabies can be very useful for parents concerned about noise pollution in their child’s sleep space. This sound machine may also be a source of comfort for your baby, especially newborns who are used to a kind of whooshing noise or heartbeat from inside the womb. Of course, a smart baby monitor with a hub tracking environmental changes may be able to double as the soothing sound player near your little one. It is more convenient for parents because you have to buy one less piece of baby tech to complete the sleep space.

Obstruction-Free Sleep Space
Every baby needs an obstruction-free space to sleep. That means no blankets or toys until they are 12 months old and no pillow until they’re two years old. Until then, keep the crib clear to help them sleep comfortably. You can check a baby monitor that tracks environmental changes to make sure the temperature and humidity levels are in a range that suits your baby’s sleepwear and habits. Talk to your pediatrician about this if you want more details on the developmental stages a baby needs to meet before adding to the sleeping area.

Convenient Changing Table
Whether it’s a table or a changing mat you can unfold on the floor beside a diaper caddy, you need a space for quick and easy changes. Late-night diaper changes are common in the early months, so it’s always a good idea to keep the essentials for diaper changes ready to maintain the least amount of stimulation. Diapers, wipes, and hand sanitizers are a great start. Ensure these items are in an area where you can get a little light to see what you’re doing. If you have a baby monitor that also serves as a nightlight, this can come in handy.

New parents have a lot to juggle and think about. You might miss some things as you prepare for your newest family members, but these bedtime essentials will make the process comfortable so you can get through the nights of new parenthood with confidence.

Sources:

1.  Korioth, T. "Safe and Sound: Help Young Children Get a Good Night's Rest." AAP News, American Academy of Pediatrics. Available at: https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/article/28/3/25/21710/Safe-and-sound-Help-young-children-get-a-good

2.Webb, A. R., Heller, H. T., Benson, C. B., & Lahav, A. "Mother’s Voice and Heartbeat Sounds Elicit Auditory Plasticity in the Human Brain Before Full Gestation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414924112

May 14, 2025

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June 25, 2025
Postpartum Support: A Guide for Dads & Partners

New parents take on a lot in the weeks and months after having a baby. It’s plenty of fun with many new experiences. While the parent who gave birth, breastfeeds, and pumps has another full-time job, partners can step in to help in different ways.

Researching Baby Products
Parents often research and purchase baby products long before their little one arrives. As parents, both of you should be looking into high-quality baby tech and supplies. One of these essentials is a baby monitor, which you might forget to prioritize. Partners, it’s your turn to research smart baby monitor options that give you extra support.

Nowadays, this goes beyond simple cameras with night vision. You can find monitors with various features, including a smart sensor on an ankle band to track your baby’s heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, and external skin temperature variations. A design that has a nightlight is a plus, too.

Nap-Time Checks
You’ll hear plenty of moms and birth parents acknowledge how difficult it is to sleep when the baby sleeps. They want to watch over their little ones and catch up on things around the house. It’s also surprisingly easy to fall asleep during a contact nap. That’s where your partnership can help. Not only can the birth parent snooze while the baby naps, but they can also rest easy knowing that you’re starting the laundry, there’s a plan for dinner, and you’re making sure the baby is in the right position for a comfortable contact nap.

*Contact naps are only okay if the parent is awake or there’s another person present to monitor the snoozing parent and sleeping baby. 

Late-Night Wake-Ups
If the breastfeeding parent recently fed the baby, there’s breastmilk in the fridge, or your baby takes formula, there’s no reason why a dad or partner shouldn’t take on nighttime wake-ups. You can learn to change a diaper, prepare a bottle, and comfort a baby. We’re in the 21st century, and with birth parents being full-time employees at other jobs, it’s time to share the unpaid role of parent, especially in the beginning.

Someone who has given birth or had a C-section is still recovering from what is technically a surgery. If there is a caregiver who stays home while the other is at work, that home caregiver doesn’t get lunch breaks or a chance to decompress. So, let them sleep or take turns covering nighttime wakeups. You can both access your baby sleep monitor through an app, so it’s not the sole responsibility of one parent.

Scheduling Pediatrician Appointments
Your first pediatrician appointment is likely within a week or two after leaving the hospital or giving birth. There will be several appointments within the first year of your baby’s life, and dads can make those appointments. It’s super easy. After both parents agree on a pediatrician, contact the office and tell them it’s your first appointment with your baby. It’s probably way less stressful than ordering a pizza over the phone back in 1995.

Being a parent is exciting, and if you’re lucky enough to go into parenthood with a partner, do your best to be their best advocate. There are things that only a birth parent can do, and you can help with the rest.

New parents take on a lot in the weeks and months after having a baby. It’s plenty of fun with many new experiences. While the parent who gave birth, breastfeeds, and pumps has another full-time job, partners can step in to help in different ways.

Read more
April 10, 2025
A Quick Guide to Sound Machines for New Parents

Technology is helpful to new parents with a young baby looking for support. Rest assured, baby tech, like a smart baby monitor developed by pediatricians and scientists, is tested repeatedly before its release. That said, these products may have features you want to learn more about, like a built-in sound machine that plays white noise and lullabies. If you have heard how sound impacts a baby’s development, additional information can help you decide what’s best for your baby’s environment.

The Truth About Background Noise
White noise or lullabies serve as background noise while your baby sleeps. They help soothe your little one and calm them while blocking out other sounds. This benefits parents and babies, allowing them to get more restful, undisturbed sleep. However, too much of a good thing can have a negative impact. “Too much” means the background noise is too loud and playing too long. You can use a sound machine or a baby sleep monitor that plays white noise or lullabies at a lower volume without causing any discomfort for your baby. 

The Science Behind It
A baby’s ears have smaller ear canals than an adult. Over time, repeated exposure to sounds above 85 decibels (dB) could negatively impact hearing. For reference, 80 dB is typical for an average alarm clock (remember those?). When your alarm clock was on your nightstand, around the same level as your ears and within arm’s reach, it was very loud. When you moved it across the room, it wasn’t blaring as loudly in your ear.

Similarly, the decibel level an inch from an infant sound machine may be different than that of the decibel level by the time it reaches your baby’s ears. So, both volume and distance from the machine affect the noise level, and you have the freedom to adjust the volume and distance and follow user instructions to use baby tech properly. That way, you keep your baby monitor hub at a comfortable distance and volume for a good noise level.  

A Comfortable Noise Level
A high-quality baby sleep machine has a cut-off decibel level to ensure it doesn’t reach a level that could impact hearing development. This means it shouldn’t go over 85 dB. That’s not the default sound level for the baby tech product, either; it’s just the maximum threshold. Keeping the volume between 20 and 50 dB can help create a comfortable sleep environment for your little one. 

Along with a sound machine on a hub, a baby monitor can also feature a baby cam and a smart sensor attached to an ankle band. These features allow you to track changes to heart rate, oxygen saturation, and external skin temperature (as well as the room temperature thanks to the hub). By monitoring any changes to your baby’s sleep patterns, you can make changes as needed, including the volume of white noise or lullabies and where you place the hub. 

Whether that’s a baby monitor that plays white noise and lullabies or a data-tracking sensor on an ankle band, you can use all the support you can get. Whenever you have a question about your child’s well-being, you can also reference the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and talk to your pediatrician. 

Technology is helpful to new parents with a young baby looking for support. Rest assured, baby tech, like a smart baby monitor developed by pediatricians and scientists, is tested repeatedly before its release. That said, these products may have features you want to learn more about, like a built-in sound machine that plays white noise and lullabies. If you have heard how sound impacts a baby’s development, additional information can help you decide what’s best for your baby’s environment.

Read more
March 10, 2025
What Is Dream Feeding and When Would You Need to Do It?

 

In early parenthood, you wake up for midnight snacks more often than you’d ever believe, but you’re not the one who’s snacking. Newborns and young babies often rely on nighttime feedings to keep their bellies full and get the nutrients they need for growth and development.

As you learn more about your baby and track insights from their baby sleep monitor, you might wonder when you’ll finally get more sleep or worry that when night feedings stop, your baby isn’t eating as much. So, you want to learn a bit about dream feeding.

What Is Dream Feeding?
A dream feed is a nighttime feeding initiated by the parent. You might sneak a dream feed in just before your own bedtime or wake up in the middle of the night and initiate a feeding before your baby wakes up. During a dream feed, your baby is mostly or entirely asleep, and you do not wake them up to change their diaper. You gently take them out of their bassinet or crib, nurse or bottle feed your baby, and put them back to bed.

Why Do Parents Use Dream Feeds?
The most common reason parents choose to dream feed their babies is to get a longer stretch of sleep between the time they go to bed and the baby’s first nighttime wakeup.

Another reason a parent may dream feed is to maintain natural breastmilk production. Nighttime feedings may boost milk supply because of a hormone called prolactin, which supports breastmilk production. Levels of this hormone are higher at night. If breastmilk production decreases as your baby starts to get longer stretches of sleep, you might introduce dream feeds, but an alternative is nighttime pumping.

Lastly, a parent may start dream feeding their baby for added nutrition if their little one needs more calories. Talk to your pediatrician before dream feeding for caloric intake, as it has the potential to lead to reverse cycling, which means a baby wants more nighttime feedings instead of daytime.

When Would You Start to Dream Feed?
Newborns generally have smaller sleep windows, so they wake up naturally more often. A parent may see themselves initiating dream feeds as their baby starts to enter longer stretches of sleep. Generally, dream feeds trickle off as you stop breastfeeding or your child goes long stretches without needing you to feed them.

What’s the Best Way to Dream Feed?
The best way to dream feed is a way that causes the least interruption to your baby’s sleep. That could be different depending on your and your baby’s sleep habits. You will want to limit stimulation or disturbance to the sleep space. Make sure the room is at a good temperature with a baby temperature monitor for the room, and keep the lights dim (parents may be superhumans, but they don’t have night vision).

Not every parent has to dream feed their baby. It doesn’t make you a better or worse parent for doing it. You can always discuss dream feeding with your pediatrician if you have questions or concerns, but it’s not always a necessity.

In early parenthood, you wake up for midnight snacks more often than you’d ever believe, but you’re not the one who’s snacking. Newborns and young babies often rely on nighttime feedings to keep their bellies full and get the nutrients they need for growth and development.

Read more