White Noise-All Night or Until Deep Sleep?

[LexyLou]

We just started using a vacuum white noise CD which really calms DD and helps settle her down. Should I use it all night on repeat or just until she's in a deep sleep.

What do you ladies do who use some sort of white noise and what white noise do you use?

[solongtogo]

I'd vote all night as sleep comes in cycles...she's not going to be in deep sleep for the entire night and might need that noise to help her fall back to deep sleep again...We use a fan, and we keep it running all night. DH and I have always fallen asleep to a fan...

[vjel]

we currently use a fan too. we've done both but typically i just set the fan for a few hours and then it turns off. my dd (18mos.) can go to sleep w/o the noise but i have it so that when our neighbor's dogs come out barking like crazed maniacs, she doesn't get awoken (happened a lot when she was younger).

maybe try to just repeat til she's in deep sleep and see how she does?

[twinnyme]

I vote for "all night" because that's what we do - and because even when she's in a deep sleep she can sometimes be a light sleeper so though I do quick checks on her once or twice a night I don't want to make so radical a change in her sleep environment in the middle of the night - she might wake up. And STTN has been a hard-earned thing, so I do whatever works to maximize it. :D

However, that said, she sleeps fine without it when necessary. We were just at IL's for 4 nights over Thanksgiving and didn't bring it and she slept BEAUTIFULLY. And sometimes I forget to turn it on during naps and don't want to go in to turn it on. So eventually we may try to "wean" her off it a bit. But if I recall, your DD is still pretty young (my DD is 10.5 months) so for now, I might suggest using it however long you need to - though, come to think of it, before we had the humidifier (our white noise) when she was younger, we mostly used the sleep sheep which turned itself off after about 20 minutes, I think - and the CD of vacuum etc. noises which ran at the longest I think 45-60 minutes.

Glad the CD seems to be working for you, though!

[moderngal]

not white noise, but we use a Baby Einstein cd all night. it's driving me crazy, but it calms DS pretty quickly so it's staying...

[Kingdono]

We have one of those night lights that plays songs and projects onto the ceiling. I put him down with it and only let it play one cycle unless he wakes up and then I will turn it on for another cycle. We have done this from about 4 months when we put him in his crib and now he's 2 and loves his music.

[newyorkgirl]

We have an air filter that's kind of noisy, and we keep it on all the time. DS stays asleep when it automatically turns off sometimes, but we live in an apartment building where the walls are pretty thin, so there are lots of noises to wake him up, which is why I prefer to keep the air filter on all the time.

[jmvan74]

We use a fan and keep it on all night. DS's room is near the street, so too much noise without it. ;)

[linda_loo]

LexyLou - I ve seen you mention your colicky baby before (and you kind of give me the heebie jeebies, cause it really reminds me of what life was like with my 1st child)... we used white noise all the time. In fact, she is now 3.5 years old and I still use something in her room (a humidifier for winter).

[Franni]

We have ours on all night because I live on the ground floor in a busy block in the city, so the noise machine filters out much of the craziness out on the street.

[LexyLou]

LexyLou - I ve seen you mention your colicky baby before (and you kind of give me the heebie jeebies, cause it really reminds me of what life was like with my 1st child)... we used white noise all the time. In fact, she is now 3.5 years old and I still use something in her room (a humidifier for winter).

hehe, sorry..didn't mean to bring back bad memories.

Thanks for the input ladies. I think she would sleep ok without the white noise too but it makes me feel better since we have a neighbor with a loud mustang and her room is over the garage so when DH leaves in the morning you can hear it in her room...plus it really helps her fall asleep so I think we'll use it all night.

Last night we used it all night and she slept from 9:15pm to almost 7am!!:eek: I fed her and she went back down at 7:30 am!:eek: I would like to believe it's because of the white noise but I think it's because she had 5 shots yesterday.

[carolc]

We still use white noise all night, because Nora has always been a light sleeper. For all I know she doesn't need it anymore (she's almost two_ but I'm scared to mess with it!

A tip: we actually use a radio set on static. When we travel, we just need to find a radio. Easy.

[IrisHope]

We have it on for 60 minutes then it shuts off.

[AlisonCO]

We use it all night too - DS has a humidifier in the winter and a fan in the summer plus he gets to pick a CD to listen to while he falls asleep.

[BeachBum]

We have an alarm clock with "waves" as well as other nature sounds as the setting. We do the waves and keep it on all night.

[IrisHope]

I started sleeping with a fan at college to reduce noise and unfortunatly I cannot not sleep with the fan now and it's been 10 years. If I could avoid having DD need noise to sleep I would.

[nancy drew]

right now im using a fan in stellas room for naps and nighttime (all night), but thats because they are excavating the lot behind us and that happens to be right outside her window.

[kindermom]

Our DD sleeps with very quiet music all night. Unfortunately, I think she is hooked!

[cantwait]

Somewhat related - where did you get your white noise CDs? DS used to sleep with a fan in the summer and he STTN. Now, he is waking up more often. It never occurred to me that it might be the lack of white noise that is keeping him from falling back to sleep.

[LexyLou]

I got mine from a guy on Ebay on the cheap. With S/h is was only $7. Here's the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/INFANT-CALM-CD-White-Noise-Colic-Fussy-Baby-Sleep-Now_W0QQitemZ4801661842QQcategoryZ307QQssPageNameZ WDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[dragonfly_71]

We use the Hush-Baby CD which is white noise that is supposed to mirror what a baby hears in the womb. I only turn it on if DS starts to fuss when I put him down and I turn it up loud at first and once he is asleep I turn it down. It runs for 70 minutes and then stops. I do not play it all night and I always check on him when the Cd is done before I go to bed because I'm paranoid about SIDS. Not the kind where babies suffocate etc but where a baby just stops breathing for no reason. This might be completely ridiculous but if the CD really sounds like the womb, I am afraid DS might go into a deep sleep and stop breathing because he thinks he is back in the womb where he didn't need to breath.

[emschwar]

We use the Baby Einstein lullaby cd all night long. We've definitely noticed that it helps to drown out other noises. (We used to have it turn off after 90 minutes, but then we noticed Noah was waking up every night when we went to bed. Started playing the cd all night, and he stopped waking up then.)

We have forgotten it when we've gone out of town once or twice, and he sleeps fine without it. Well, he doesn't seem to sleep worse without it than he usually does when we're away from home (which is like crap ;) But it doesn't seem like he needs it to sleep.)

[2labradogs]

We used a white noise CD set on repeat (ocean waves track) all night long. I didn't wan't to be stuck listening to it forever so I stopped playing it after they turned 5 months and they still slept through the night just fine. If you are looking for a great white noise CD, "For Crying Out Loud" is great - it has a lot of different tracks - hair dryer, vacuum, rain, ocean waves, etc. Babycenter.com sells it.