I grew to become a brand new dad a little bit over a 12 months in the past, however I keep in mind the day prefer it was yesterday. Like all dads, I used to be excited to welcome my daughter into the world, however I used to be additionally apprehensive about her security…and, a little bit selfishly, my very own sanity for the primary few months of her life.
Being a longtime tech journalist, I knew there’d be devices on the market that would assist, and after a little bit of digging, I found three units that modified the parenting recreation for me.
If you need to save your self a boatload of time and fear, these are the three well-reviewed devices I like to recommend you decide up. Want to beef up your private home safety now that you’ve a little bit one? Don’t miss our information on the best home security cameras while you’re here.
This $25 shusher that puts babies out in under five minutes
In a few years’ time, I’m sure my daughter will become an audiophile like her old man, but for the first few months of her life, audio quality isn’t her biggest concern.
That’s good because this $25 portable noise machine isn’t the world’s best-sounding speaker. However, it’s got a 52-hour battery life and can play lullabies, white noise, and a shusher that could put my baby to sleep in under five minutes.
In terms of design, it’s light and small; it’s a little bigger than a deck of cards and weighs less than half a pound. It recharges via USB-C (it comes with a cable in the box if you don’t have one on-hand) and you can set the built-in timer for up to 8 hours if you want it to run overnight.
It’s become such an essential tool in my life that I even bought a second one for my mom’s house when my daughter’s over there.
This formula mixer that’s basically a Keurig for babies
The last thing you want to do as a new parent is to sit by your kitchen sink at 3 o’clock in the morning waiting for the tap to heat up so you can warm a bottle. I did that, and I hated every second of it. Every minute waiting was one less minute I could sleep.
To claw back those extra minutes, I bought a Baby Brezza Advanced Formula Dispenser that essentially functions like a Keurig. You pour your formula into the top of the machine, set how many ounces of liquid you want dispensed, set the temperature you want and hit run. In less than 15 seconds, you have a lukewarm bottle of formula ready to go.
That said, there is a small caveat here that my baby’s nutritionist wants to share — if your little one has very specific calorie requirements like mine does, then you might still need to add the formula to the Baby Brezza’s warm water yourself. That’s because, while you can program a specific calorie count for each bottle (like 24-, 27- or 30-calories per ounce) there’s no guarantee that you’ll get exactly that amount each time. I found it to be pretty accurate, but sometimes powder build-up around the dispenser reduced the amount of formula that made it into the final mix.
If your kid isn’t a super preemie and is a pretty good gainer, I doubt you’ll have the same issue I had, but I definitely wanted to put that warning out there before you spend $230 on it.
This baby camera and smart sock that tracks heart and respiratory rate
If you don’t treat yourself to the Baby Brezza, you should 100% buy the Owlet Dream Duo that combines an FDA-cleared smart baby monitor with an HD video camera.
My biggest fear when I first brought my daughter home from the hospital was SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. SIDS can occur for plenty of causes, and it’s probably to happen within the first few months after start. Preemies have the next danger than common birth-weight infants, so I used to be particularly involved about her.
The Owlet Dream Duo’s sensor actually helped me sleep at evening with out worrying about my daughter. It tracks oxygen saturation ranges and coronary heart fee, and beeps if it ever detects a sudden drop in both of them. The base station has a temperature sensor built-in and moreover measures humidity and noise stage.
The 2K HD digicam is not among the finest child displays, however its superior app integration implies that your telephone will double as a child monitor you can take anyplace.
A phrase of warning from a battle-tested dad or mum right here: The sensor isn’t 100% waterproof. It’s water resistant, but when your daughter occurs to, I don’t know…projectile vomit her complete bottle of method onto the sensor and it stays there in a single day, you may return within the morning to a busted sensor. (Ask me how I do know.) Still, I’ve to offer props to Owlet for permitting me to change the sensor for a brand new one just a few months after the preliminary buy.
Don’t get me mistaken $300 is an expensive funding if you’re a brand new dad or mum, however having the ability to sleep realizing that my daughter was respiration often was value each penny.
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