
Ask HN: Baby Registry, HN Style - etxm
About to be first time parents, there are so many gadgets on the market not sure what’s good and what’s garbage.<p>As a parent, what has been impossible to live without?
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davismwfl
My youngest is 14yo now, so not a new parent but two things I really liked as
reassurance measures personally.

I put a night vision web camera in the babies room and a sleep pad which
detected breathing or the lack of breathing as a tool to help prevent SIDS.
I've never believed in kids sleeping with the parents or sleeping in the same
room beyond the first month or so (but to each their own). I also had other
little things like the baby monitor etc, but the two I did that were tech
focused were the sleep pad and the web camera (which today would be 1000x
better than what I did before).

There are many new designs around the SIDS detectors to fill the need of like
the sleep pad I used so you can check those out if you are interested in that
at all. Amazon sells a bunch of different ones. One newer option is check out
[https://owletcare.com/](https://owletcare.com/) . I am not affiliated in
anyway or have any experience but might be worth checking out.

Outside of tech. Get a good book on sleep training, you will be much happier
people understanding how babies work and how sleep changes from infant to
toddler and toddler to adolescent and then to teenager. It will save you lots
of grief if you understand it and work with it instead of fighting it.

It is awesome to be a parent, good luck you will enjoy it!

~~~
etxm
Thanks! I’ve heard of SIDS but didn’t know there were detection devices. Also
not a fan of the idea of co-sleeping. I’ll check a few out!

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jetti
My son will be 3 months old in 2 days. There are two things that have made
things so much easier for my wife and I. First, a Fisher-Price Rock and Play
Sleeper[0]. We never got a bassinet and we were going to borrow one from a
family member but they ended up starting to use it. We had a pack & play type
thing that had a bassinet that was ok for sleeping. It worked for a bit but he
ended up not sleeping well in it. There was no stability and any movement he
would make would wake him up as the bassinet would move. My wife and I were
frustrated and looked for other options and that's when we found the Rock &
Play. You can connect to it through your smartphone and control what it does
(rocking, music, light show, vibration) easily. I have a setting that turns
everything on and puts it on a timer. It is amazing since I can do that from
the bed (he sleeps in our room for the time being) and it will soothe him to
sleep (if needed, we don't turn on any of the features if he falls right to
sleep).

The other thing that I recommend is a swaddle. You can swaddle your baby in a
blanket and that is what I learned when my wife and I took a class on caring
for a baby. It was super easy to do, however, that is because we were
practicing on a doll. When we got home it was a bit more complicated as my son
would be squirming which made getting a good, tight swaddle hard. We ended up
getting a SwaddleMe brand swaddle. It makes it super easy to swaddle him
tightly and quickly. With the swaddle and rock & play he has been sleeping
through the night since 6 weeks.

[0] [https://fisher-price.mattel.com/shop/en-us/fp/baby-
sleepers/...](https://fisher-price.mattel.com/shop/en-us/fp/baby-
sleepers/premium-auto-rock%C2%91n-play-sleeper-with-smartconnect-dpv51)

~~~
etxm
Awesome! I appreciate it. It’s nice to hear someone say that have had through
the night sleep without tossing a bunch of money at a Snoo.

And congrats!

