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As far as background sounds go – there are 2 very different<\/strong><\/em> trains of thought…<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Be as quiet as possible<\/strong><\/em> and block out<\/strong><\/em> background sounds, so babies aren’t woken up by the sounds you make at night.<\/span><\/p>\n or<\/span><\/p>\n 2. Allow babies to hear a variety of background sounds<\/strong><\/em>, so they learn to sleep through them.<\/span><\/p>\n In my experience, a hybrid<\/strong><\/em> of both of these ideas worked the best<\/strong><\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n I’d start off quieter<\/strong><\/em> at bedtime when my baby was in the early stages<\/strong><\/em> of sleep. <\/span><\/p>\n Then gradually<\/strong><\/em> as they got deeper into sleep, I’d be less quiet<\/strong><\/em> so they would get used to the sounds of me walking around, etc. I wouldn’t be as loud as I was during the day – but I wouldn’t be extremely silent<\/strong><\/em> either. <\/span><\/p>\n I’d use a background noise sound loop<\/strong><\/em> that I made (see below) to help set the mood for sleep and then fade it off as they fell asleep. <\/span><\/p>\n In this way, I set them up for sleep – but they weren’t dependent on a noise generator running all night<\/strong><\/em> – or – on perfectly quiet<\/strong><\/em> home all night to be able to sleep. <\/span><\/p>\n They learned how to sleep with mild house sounds happening in the background. On a subconscious level, this let them know that we were close by and that they were safe<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Here’s a crazy soothing sound loop trick I came up with back in 1996.<\/span><\/p>\n My daughter was fussing and having a hard time settling down to go to sleep. I had tried rocking her and singing to her, but it wasn’t working.<\/span><\/p>\n I had a crinkly plastic grocery bag in my pocket which I pulled out to put it aside. As I tied it into a knot, it made quite a crinkling sound<\/strong><\/em>, and my daughter’s fussing grew a little bit less. I took note of it and being a bit of a common sense scientist – I untied the bag to see if she would be soothed again and Bingo! The crinkling sound calmed her down<\/strong><\/em> some more.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the next couple of weeks, I began to experiment with the sound of the bag. I recorded a sound loop of the bag crinkling using my computer. I used Sound Forge to manipulate the audio, and I began experimenting. I slowed down the crinkling sound, and every time I altered it, I’d play it for her.\u00a0 I repeated this process until I found the optimum speed that calmed her down the most.<\/span><\/p>\n The crinkle sound was so slow that it sounded like the ocean<\/strong><\/em>. It struck me that this might be similar to the sound she heard in the womb<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n I made a few tracks of this – offset them in time – and mixed them together – fading them in and out to create the effect of multiple waves<\/strong><\/em> coming and going. After that, whenever she was having a hard time getting to sleep, I’d play that sound and it helped her<\/strong><\/em>. I never figured out how much I’d slowed down that sound and I don’t have a way to reproduce it now as the sound files were on a computer that is long gone.<\/span><\/p>\n If you’d like to try something similar just record a white noise type of sound and play around slowing it down until you get something that sounds like the ocean. Then mix 3 or so tracks in and out. I imagined a heartbeat<\/strong><\/em> as I mixed the tracks back and forth to help set the tempo of the cross-fades.<\/span><\/p>\n If you don’t have the time or energy for that – here are some alternatives you may want to check out…<\/span><\/p>\n You have your very own built-in white noise generator<\/strong><\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n It turns out that for ages people have said, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”<\/strong> to calm their babies – which is why that sound is so common when we’re trying to quiet down someone. <\/span><\/p>\n Saying, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”\u00a0 comes naturally to us when we’re trying to calm or soothe a baby<\/strong><\/em>. It has a valuable ancient and scientific purpose.\u00a0 It is a type of white noise that is familiar to babies – like the sounds they heard in the womb. <\/span><\/p>\n Using the “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” technique is free and natural<\/b>. The hardest part is keeping it going for a while. <\/span><\/p>\n Y<\/span>ou are performing – constantly blowing out your breath – which takes a lot of breath support<\/strong><\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n You’ll find yourself out of breath after a while. Be mindful that you don’t get too light headed<\/strong><\/em> as you’re holding your baby and blowing out. Fainting or getting dizzy<\/strong><\/em> and falling with your baby would be bad. You will, however, develop quite nice breath support and you’ll be able to go longer and longer<\/strong><\/em> the more you do it.<\/span><\/p>\n Some people use an air purifier<\/strong><\/em> as white noise<\/strong><\/em>. The upfront investment in a home air purifier can range from $59 to $299 – which isn’t cheap, but you also get the benefits of the air purifier cleaning the air. <\/span><\/p>\n If you try using this to create white noise –\u00a0 make sure you get one that uses a fan motor<\/strong><\/em> (that’s what makes the white noise sound) and check the reviews to make sure it does a\u00a0 decent job of cleaning the air since you’ll be paying for it.<\/span><\/p>\n I bought a digital noise generator<\/strong><\/em> for $69.00 that had various sounds (rain, water, thunder, birds, etc.).\u00a0 However, it turned out to be more stimulating than calming<\/strong><\/em> for my daughter. <\/span><\/p>\n Some “bedtime” music<\/strong><\/em> can also have this same stimulating effect. <\/span><\/p>\n So, be careful before plopping down too much money. See if you can find one that has a money back guarantee so you can test it out with your baby and return it if you have the same result I did.<\/span><\/p>\n You can create your own white noise<\/strong><\/em> with a hairdryer. It’s handy because most people have a hairdryer around the house already. It’s a little cumbersome because you’ll need to hold the hairdryer and it can use a bit of electricity<\/strong><\/em> to run continuously – even on the warm or cool setting. Check out this YouTube video that demonstrates how it can work. It’s another version of “Shhhhhhhhhhhh” to add to your toolbox.<\/span><\/p>\nStranger things have happened<\/span><\/h3>\n
To find what works – experiment with your own sounds<\/span><\/h3>\n
How to calm a crying baby in 15 seconds:<\/span><\/h3>\n