5 Sleep Gifts that You Want on Your Christmas List

I’ve been there...you’re tired, grouchy and ready to throw money at anything that says that it will help you and your baby sleep. 

However, not all baby products are worth it. Trust me. When I work with a family, we look at everything. Their house, their schedule, their baby’s sleep environment. Some things do help set your baby up for great sleep, but others are actually working against you. The reality is that your baby’s sleep environment matters. 

So are you ready for my list of favourite sleep products? Ready to learn more about the things that are actually going to encourage sleep? 

Let’s go! Here are the five things that you absolutely need this year. 

#1 Blackout Curtains or Blinds

If there’s one thing that you get, make it this.

Darkness is the number one factor that is going to help your baby fall asleep and stay asleep. 

I tell my clients to make the room dim before bed and then completely dark once you put your baby to bed. Any light that sneaks its way through is going to hit the skin and wake up your baby. Blackout curtains are also a game-changer for making naps easier. 

Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about blackout curtains. Here are my favourites: 

Sleepout Portable Blackout blinds (discount code: lilbabysleep)

Gro Anywhere Black out blinds

Black out window film

Slumberpod discount code: Lilbabysleep for $20 off (#1 for travel)

#2 Sound Machine

Oh white noise...where would we be without you? It’s great for newborns, babies that share a room with siblings and you can take it with you if you’re traveling for the holidays. 

You want one that plugs into your wall and one that you can take on the go. The plug in one is key for overnight sleeping. It needs to last the whole night long because your baby WILL wake up when it turns off. 100% guaranteed and this is horrible, especially in the morning hours when they need a consistent sleep environment. 

So how loud should it be? About as noisy as a vacuum cleaner in the room, or 55-60 dbl. 

Here are a few options:

Portable white noise machine

Plug in white noise machine

#3 Sleep Sacks/Swaddles

So first, let’s outline the difference between the two. 

Swaddles are for newborns and mimic a womb environment. It prevents newborns from startling themselves awake.  

After eight weeks, we need to transition to a sleep sack with the arms out. This is because babies could potentially rollover. In a swaddle, that is so dangerous, since babies will need their arms to hold their heads up. 

Sleepsacks are also warm and cozy and snug. They can even become a positive sleep association. Putting on their sleepsack at bedtime can signal that it's almost time for sleep and make them drowsy. 

Find the right swaddle or sleep sack here

#4 Monitor

Watching your baby sleep is way better than anything you can find on Netflix. They’re so peaceful and watching them sleep soundly can give you peace of mind that your baby is okay!

Let’s just make sure that your monitor isn’t going to affect your sleep. Turn down the volume. You don’t need to hear every little noise they make, and trust me. Unless you live in a castle, you are going to hear your baby if they cry during the night. 

Monitor option

#5 A sleep consultant

Okay, this one is a little self-serving, but hear me out. 

It’s okay to need help. Sleep is HARD. It’s okay if you want someone to help you come up with a plan because you are just so very tired. That’s where I come in. I look at your sleep environment, your baby’s sleep and all those other little things and come up with a plan with SOLUTIONS that work for your family. 

I’m there every step of the way with support and encouragement and understanding. I’m there with the knowledge and experience from all of the families that I’ve helped. I am committed to helping each and every one of my clients get a good night’s sleep. 

So, if you want to add long term sleep to your gift list this year, let’s book a call and talk some more.

Book a free 20 minute discovery call here 

This is basically all you need! Don’t spend on fancy bassinets, unsafe products that are going to cause more long term sleep problems or bells and whistles that will likely disturb sleep even more. Less is more! Save for the simple things that matter.

7 Things we turn to that cause unsettled sleep!

We all doubt ourselves, mostly because as parents we don’t study sleep or even have the time to think about it until we are overwhelmed, sleep deprived and frustrated.

This causes parent’s to desperately try to get their little one to sleep in any way possible…

Maybe if I let her show signs she is sleepy….

I transfer her to her crib ever so quietly….

I’m up anyway, so I assist her a little at the beginning of the night, so she sleeps longer…

I let him sleep as much as possible during the day…

I feed every 2 hours to make sure he is not hungry…

I get them up to start the day at dawn…

Do you do any of these?

Do they work?

Often they don’t. Some might but are not sustainable unless you are OK with waking up every 2 hours overnight? I’m going to assume that you value your sleep and would rather sleep all night long if you are reading this.

So how can each of these cause the opposite effect of what you are looking for?

These are short-term band-aid strategies. Things we do because (understandably so) we are DESPERATE to get some sleep or avoid a crying child. Am I right in my assumption?

So let’s talk about band-aid solutions vs. long term solutions. Band-aid solutions are ad hoc; you regret them instantly, don’t want to continue to do them or “wing it”.

Long term solutions are thought out with an understanding of what is going on. They meet the needs of your baby and set them up for success. They help them develop vital skills that will yield great results for years to come.

Which one do you want?

Let’s talk about why these things MAY cause unsettled sleep…

Maybe if I let her show signs she is sleepy….Once your little one shows signs, IT'S OFTEN TOO LATE! They are overtired, and they will likely release stress hormones that will prevent them from getting restful sleep and keep them in a very light stage of sleep. This is why overtired children often wake up early.

I transfer her in her crib ever so quietly….and then they wake up. Unless you have a newborn, transferring a baby to their crib while they are in a light stage of sleep will result in a startled baby and frustrated parent! If they do transfer well, then YAY! But they are likely to wake up after one sleep cycle and cry for another round. All. Night. Long. The best place for babies to fall asleep is where they will wake up in two hours again unless you want to hold to sleep many times overnight and through naps.

I’m up anyway, so I assist her a little at the beginning of the night, so she sleeps longer…this is a common one. Parents are up anyway, so they figure if they assist their little one to sleep, they will sleep longer stretches independently. We know that babies wake up fully or partially every 90-120 minutes, and if they are assisted at the beginning of the night, we can’t expect them to do it on their own selectively at the end of the night/at 3 am. So it’s MORE important to have them re-settle in the way you want them to re-settle all night long at the beginning half of the night. It will seldom get you a long stretch but cause more fractured sleep.

I let him sleep as much as possible during the day…Never wake a sleeping baby! NOT, yes, please wake a sleeping baby. This is a complete myth. If your little one is sleeping too much during the day, they will have less sleep drive at night and can wake more frequently. We want to even out total day sleep requirements but not take away from night sleep to give to naps. Night sleep is most important as it’s where we hit our deepest stages of sleep.

I feed every 2 hours to make sure he is not hungry…Unless you have a newborn (and even then newborns usually wake up to each every 3-4 hrs), then your baby (over four months) is likely, not hungry every two hours. However, they can be easy to settle with a feed because it’s the sucking that puts them to sleep. This can cause something called “reverse cycling,” where babies start to get most of their calories in during the night, so start to eat less during the day and it can become a bit of a cycle. The good news is that this is easily fixed but requires careful planning to even out feeds and times.

I get them up to start the day at dawn…Please don’t get up for the day at dawn unless you have to or you are a morning person and want to (if this is you, take some time for yourself while your baby sleeps). It sometimes feels like the easier option to start your day when your baby wakes up, but it cements that time as “wake up time” for their body. Our bodies use external cues to know when to get up for the day; food, light and social interaction signal that it’s morning time! You don’t want to reinforce this wake-up time but instead treat it as a night time wake up and encourage sleep cycles to shift later.

Please don’t feel bad if you do these things. We don’t know what we don’t know, and if you are happy to continue doing it, then absolutely you do you! However, if it’s not working for you, and you want to make a change, then these are the first things I would change.

The best thing to do is to develop a plan, but that depends on your family, the approach you feel most comfortable implementing, and your baby.

Reach out to get you clarity and a step-by-step action plan, so you don’t have to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or exhausted.

Lil xx

Your Sleep Consultant.