Homemade Sound Machine

Aunt Robin directed me to her bedroom and drew the shades. A family get-together with lots of excitement, noise, and new scenery was bound to throw our little one off of his normal nap routine, but it was worth a shot putting him down for his morning nap anyway. I set up the pack ‘n play at the foot of the bed and then proceeded to rock him back and forth.

“Do you want me to turn on my sound machine?” Robin asked.

I was curious to hear what one actually sounded like. When I was a kid, I went to sleep to the sounds of nature’s white noise: rain pattering down on the rooftop or the rhythmic drum of the washing machine running. I’d heard of manufactured white noise before, I had never actually heard it for myself.

A button was pushed and that fuzzy noise that comes between radio signals blared forth. Crackly, whirring, a steady buzz. I was curious to see if it would do the trick and sure enough, it did! Our sweet little guy settled down for a four hour nap... one of the longest he had ever taken!

“Is he okay back there?” a few family members asked. I would go back to check on him but would find him snug as a bug on a rug, deep in Dreamland.

When I got home, I figured it was worth a shot to look into a sound machine of my own. We have wood floors throughout our home and with two little boys that don’t grasp the meaning of the word quiet, the only “white noise” our baby was getting during his naptime was the sound of shrieking laughter echoing on those floors and Hot Wheels being run down the hall walls (hardly soothing!). In the meantime, I figured tuning into white static on our alarm radio was worth a try. Our baby loved it and I got so accustomed to using it, I never did end up purchasing a sound machine. If you’re looking for a free sound machine, I encourage you to try using a radio dialed in between stations (or for a few dollars, you can also buy a white noise app for your cell phone or tablet)! Sweet dreams!