I swear by Taking Cara Babies, I’ve mentioned the program time and time again as it has helped with smooth sailing as far as sleep from newborn till now in the toddler stage. I’ve recommended the program to all my friends who have babies and not a single one has done anything besides rave and credit the program for their mental sanity. A few of them resisted and the ones that did inevitably told me they wished they had gotten the program sooner.
So why do I bring this up?
A key part of the success of the program is doing what Cara calls “pop-ins,” which are basically times you “pop-in” to your child’s room to offer re-assurance when they are screaming/crying. She goes into detail as far as timing and strategies for this. This has helped not only set the foundation for good sleep, but helped with bumps along the way (think separation anxiety, learning new skills, travel, illness…all of which often cause sleep disruptions). The problem was that to keep track of the timing of those “pop-ins” I was relying on my phone and inevitably ended up getting pulled into late night emailing and related work stress. This caused me to stay up for HOURS after baby had fallen asleep.
In complaining about this to a friend she mentioned that she uses a projection clock to avoid exposure to the blue light from her phone.
Projection clock!? I had never heard about this, but thanks to Google I quickly learned that La Crosse Technology is the leader in the space and they’ve been a game-changer. They have a ton of options from the basic clocks that just project the time onto a wall or onto your ceiling and work as an alarm clock, to the super-fancy that have additional sensors to enhance the performance – temperature and humidity sensor, pool sensor, rain gauge, wind sensor, water leak sensor, bbq sensor, etc., which work when connected to Wi-Fi. Once you download the La Crosse View app on your smart device you can monitor conditions based on the sensors that you have added to this base unit alarm clock.
I personally didn’t use the bells and whistles, but instead relied on the clock to project the time on the ceiling so I could ride the bumps along the way when it comes to toddler sleep, without being distracted by my phone, and it has been invaluable at helping the whole family sleep soundly.
