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What is the Hatch Night Light and Sound Machine?
We went with the Hatch Rest+.
What exactly is the Hatch Rest+?
This version is a sound machine, night light, and time-to-rise light, plus can serve as an audio baby monitor. Meaning you can listen in on your baby but cannot see them because there is no screen.
For a full review of our baby monitor the Vava you can check out this article The Vava Baby Monitor Review! Why We Still Like It Two Years Later!
You can control the Hatch settings from your phone and link it up with your Alexa as well. The Hatch is plugged into the wall but has an option to place a battery in it as a backup for power outages.
You can easily adjust features like volume and brightness. You can set scheduled times for morning, naps, and bedtime.
In most cases, you will start out using the Hatch as a sound machine and night light for middle-of-the-night feedings. Later you start using the color-changing features to explain to your toddler when they can wake up in the morning and when they should stay in bed longer.
The Hatch is what you want it to be. Some people will fall in love with one feature, while other people will fall in love with another.
Next, we are going to talk about the benefits we found with using the Hatch and when we introduced it to our child and why. Let’s get into it and see if the Hatch is a product for your family.
1. Understanding the Meaning Behind the Colors
Introducing the Hatch while your child is still in the crib is helpful because they can learn the meaning behind the colors while you are still in control.
You could of course wait until you make the transition to a big bed, but then nothing is stopping them from getting up.
If your child is still in the crib you can designate the setting and start teaching them in advance. For example, red means night night and green means wake up.
You come in and get them out of the crib in the morning when it is green. You start making this connection that green means wake up.
You can of course use any color you would like, but red and green are commonly used.
The idea is that you teach them the meaning of the colors now and have a more successful transition to the big bed when that time comes.
You can manipulate the colors from your phone if needed.
For example, after getting home from vacation our daughter was ready to get up 45 minutes before her Hatch was going to turn green. We weren’t going to make her suffer all that time. We waited a bit to see if she would go back to sleep and after determining she was ready to start the day we got on the app and changed the color to green.
It is quite easy to override the schedule you previously set. Once it is green we then go in.
Our daughter can’t tell time so we don’t see this as a problem. We just focus on staying consistent that green means wake-up.
2. Better Morning Routine
Another reason we started using the Hatch was to develop a more consistent morning routine. We have had bedtime down to a science for over a year now. We can do it at 8 pm on the dot every night that we want to.
Mornings however were not in our control. Our daughter woke up at varying times.
I have found that as a mom I enjoy waking up before my child. I get dressed and do the basics of getting ready for the day.
If possible I get to the kitchen and sit down with a quick glass of water. All I need is about 10 minutes to myself to feel so much better going into my day.
By placing the Hatch light on a consistent schedule our mornings have found routine. I honestly love it.
I thought the Hatch was going to be all about bedtime and teaching our daughter to stay in her bed. I didn’t realize the impact initially that it would have on our morning routines.
3. Preparing for Baby Number 2
As I am writing this I am about a month or so away from giving birth to baby #2. We introduced the Hatch a couple of months ago now and think it is a great thing to introduce to prepare for baby #2.
Like I said previously, it will make mornings consistent with our oldest child. This will likely impact how I do things with the baby.
Potentially I will get up at say 7 am. I will have from 7-715 to take care of myself. Then from 7:15-7:45, I will have time to get the baby fed, changed, and either dressed and up for the day or put back down to sleep longer. I don’t know exactly what their routine will look like. At 7:45 our daughter gets the green light.
I could in theory breastfeed the baby at 7:45 and my husband gets my daughter at 7:45. He is fully capable of handling her. However, I want her to be able to still get mom time with my oldest child.
I also don’t want to be nursing and have her craving attention. I know myself and how overwhelming that would be for me first thing in the morning.
Starting the Hatch even while our daughter is in the crib is definitely a strategy for welcoming baby #2.
The other factor is our children will be sleeping next door to each other. When the baby wakes up during the night we hope our daughter first off sleeps through it. If she doesn’t though, ideally she will see the red light and know to go back to sleep.
Everything is so up in the air with welcoming a second child.
4. Easy Transition to Big Bed Later
The final reason I recommend introducing the Hatch night light while they are still in the crib is simply for a better transition to the big bed later.
It can’t hurt, right?
They ideally will already understand the routine and what the light means.
We are sticking with the crib for the foreseeable future so I’ll have to later update how this worked out for us.
Conclusion
We have enjoyed using the Hatch night light and sound machine in our home. Looking back I would actually recommend getting it from birth.
It can serve as a night light for feedings in the dark and then once your child is old enough to understand be used for nighttime and wake up times.
I typically am quite thrifty with baby items and often skip on what is trendy.
In fact, before getting the Hatch we used an old cell phone as our white noise machine. It was free, small, and easily portable. It served us well. You can check out other ways we saved money with Money-Saving Baby Item Swaps that are Simple and Effective
We just got to the point of wanting to prepare for the future transition to the big bed and also realized we could use more consistency in those times.
I think the Hatch is a great product that can truly help make parenting easier.
Check Out My Articles
Money-Saving Baby Item Swaps that are Simple and Effective
How A Strong Night Time Routine Can Improve Your Mornings Each Day
The Vava Baby Monitor Review! Why We Still Like It Two Years Later!
Steps to Take Before Making the Move from the Crib to a Big Kid Bed
