“I still use the Hatch Baby sound machine for my kids. I love it,” Tahir says. “It was gifted to me by one of my oldest friends when I had my first daughter, and that's five years now, and it's held up. I can't stand something that I have to get every few weeks, and I'm very impressed with the product.
“I love a sound machine. I never slept with one before kids, but it really helps dull out the background noise for all of us. We live in New York City. Apartments are small. There's noise outside. It really helps. The kids sleep really well, I actually think.
“I started using it after I got my kids into it because I noticed there were some nights that when they were infants, I would be a scared mom, sleeping in the chair in the room. I got used to it. It does dull out the background noise, and now it's more soothing to me.”
As someone who makes traveling a priority in her family’s life, that small sound machine made a huge difference in prepping her children for sleeping on the go. “You know how the airplane has background noise? I think they were such easy kids to travel with because they would hear this hum of the plane and be out within minutes because they were used to it.
“In the beginning, I used to go see my parents in Michigan and my husband's parents in Ohio, and we would go to Miami often. I would put it in my suitcase. Again, first-time mom. I was afraid to try anything new, and it probably would have been fine, but I would travel with it.
But, those powerful tiny but mighty machines come with a hard to ignore nightlight feature. “There is one setting that switches them to all different colors, but I noticed when I put that one on that my daughter and my son would both stay up a little bit. So, I just try to avoid using the light.
“I try to avoid any light in the bedroom. It's okay to have a nightlight. Some kids are afraid of the dark, and a nightlight is okay. My kids are not there yet. Maybe they will never get there, but we don't use the light.”