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Review: Hatch Baby Rest Sound Machine

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No parent will tell you, “I love when my kid wakes me up at 4 AM thinking it’s time to start the day!” Many parents will tell you that that’s exactly what their toddlers have done to them before. Want an easy solution to this common frustration? Get a Hatch Baby Rest, a night light and sound machine that is controlled from your phone!

This isn’t just a normal Hatch night light and Hatch Baby sound machine. The Hatch Baby Rest is fully customizable and programmable to match your unique child’s sleeping patterns, and help train them to a sleep pattern that’s more healthy (like getting their full 8+ hours, instead of waking up at 4 AM).

I bought my Hatch Sound Machine weeks ago and here’s everything I love about it:

  • Modern and cute design: On a scale of 1 – Important, this isn’t all that significant. I doubt you’ll go buy the Hatch Rest for this feature alone. However, it definitely helps that this night light/sound machine looks great. From the design of it when turned off, to the dimmable light it produces, it’s sleek and cute. And you have the option to separately purchase covers ($12 for a pack of three changeable skins) that just make it even prettier!
Hatch Baby rest reviews
  • Buttons on the bottom/touch ring on top: Contributing to the sleek design, all buttons for the Hatch Rest are on the bottom of the base. This keeps little fingers from seeing and compulsively wanting to push every button in sight to turn on the Hatch baby light! And the top has a touch ring that cycles through the colors and programs if needed.
Hatch rest reviews
  • Toddler lock: Let’s say my older child figures out where the buttons are hiding and wants to mess with her night light after I’ve left the room. I can turn on the “Toddler Lock” option from my phone, making it so pushing the buttons won’t affect the program at all. Nice touch!
  • Customizable programs— Hatch Okay to Wake feature: My 4 year old struggles to know when it’s okay to come get me in the morning. She was waking up earlier and earlier, coming in to my room wanting breakfast or a show and then would get upset when I’d tell her to go back to bed. The Hatch Baby Rest has adjustable programs I can set that determine when it turns off, changes color, starts a sound, etc. I have mine set to be purple at bedtime, then green (okay to get out of bed) at 7:30 AM. My daughter was excited and eager to try the whole, “Don’t get out of bed until you see it turn green,” so it’s been working nicely for us. You can set more programs, like for naptime or play time!
Hatch Baby Rest Night Light and Sound Machine
  • No security risks: The Rest uses Bluetooth to connect the app to the base (won’t work without Bluetooth turned on). It’s incredibly convenient to use my phone to manipulate the machine, especially when the buttons are on toddler lock. But there are the physical buttons on the bottom of the base if I wanted to use those instead of the app. I’m not worried about it getting hacked or anything like that because even if someone did, what are they going to get? They could just mess with my kid’s sound or turn it off. Big deal.
  • Does NOT get hot: I leave my daughter’s Rest on all night. I’ve found this has helped her not start crying for me in the middle of the night (she always used to, just wanting me to come fix her blankets for her) or getting out of bed in the night to play. I have a program set from 7:00 PM to 7:30 AM and in the morning, I find the Hatch Rest is still just as cool to the touch, all over, as it was when I took it from it’s package! That’s impressive!
  • Many color and sound options: My toddler loves getting to choose what color she wants her night light set to and what sound she wants to listen to as she falls asleep from the Hatch sound machine. There’s a setting for no sound, if you don’t want that option, and there’s a color rotation setting, if your kid wants to see every color. You can even customize what color you choose, using the app to move the curser around a color wheel to get the perfect shade of green or pink or blue, etc. (Some sound options include waves, chirping birds, dryer, TV static, and more)
  • Easy volume and dimmable light changes: I love that I can turn the light on it low at night or brighter for day time naps. And no matter how bright, the light is still soft and encourages sleep. I love I can turn the Rest’s volume low or louder, and the highest setting is pretty loud, if that’s your thing.
Hatch Baby Rest Night Light
  • The adjustable light makes it perfect for middle of the night nursing sessions: I can’t wait to use this light with my next newborn for those many nighttime feedings. I can turn the light up to have the perfect amount to be able to see what I’m doing without having to turn on a harsh table or ceiling light. And then I will just dim the light back down to off or very low when I’m done!
  • Can switch between devices: Let’s say I had a Hatch in every room. I can connect them all to my same account on the app, and easily switch devices to customize what each kid wanted, right at my fingertips!
  • The machine becomes the “bad guy,” not me: My daughter likes to play and sing and be so loud during naptime that she wakes up her brother in the next room over. I used to have to go in every 10 minutes to tell her to be quieter! Now, I just tell her, “I shouldn’t hear you more than the night light! I need to hear the birds chirping and I can’t if you’re being too loud.” This gets her to quiet down and tricks her into being calmer, which then gets her to fall asleep when she otherwise wouldn’t. It’s great because I’m the one who sets the volume level of those chirping birds! #Momwin thanks to Hatch Baby!

My list for what I like is way longer than my disappointments, but there are a few things I’ll still (first world problem) complain about:

  • Bluetooth drains my phone battery: I usually keep my Bluetooth turned off because if I don’t, it drains my phone battery quicker. I don’t like having to remember to turn it back on before I can connect to the app. But honestly, this is such a little detail and I’m just grasping for things I don’t like! And if it bothered me that much, I could skip the app and use only the buttons on the base!
  • If the app is being used by someone else, you can’t connect: If my husband is using the app to change the color of the night light, for example, I can’t connect as well and try to change things around at the same time.
  • Can’t connect from across the house: This makes sense, though it’s still a bummer if I’m downstairs in the living room and want to turn off the Rest after naptime without walking upstairs. However, even though Hatch Baby warns you that the app won’t connect through walls, I’ve had no problem using it and changing/turning off/on the Rest from the next room over or from down the hall! So again, I was still impressed.
  • Not Hatch Baby’s fault, but my toddler has now started getting out of bed about 15 minutes before her Okay to Wake color change, saying her night light is “broken.” She gets impatient having to wait for it to change to green. But again, not their fault since a machine like this is really only as good as the kid believes it is. But Hatch Baby does a good job including so many options and features that your kid won’t get bored of it too quickly. So yeah…I’m still just grasping at straws to find something to put on this “don’t like” list.

I can’t decide which list to put this last one on so I’ll make it separate:

  • The price: The Hatch Baby Rest costs $59.99, which seems pretty steep at first glance. But when you take into consideration that it’s two machines in one, fully customizable and programmable, and the convenience of being able to manipulate it from your phone a room or two away, the price point begins to make sense. I haven’t had any issues with the app crashing or not working, and the app itself was free to download. So I feel sixty bucks is worth it for how excited my kids have gotten and for the sleep it has saved everyone.

When I first bought this machine, I set it up in my own room first to try it out. I usually sleep with a floor fan on so I’m used to have that white noise sound in the background. Even as an adult, I loved using this sound machine! I turned on only the sound and didn’t use the light option and it was great!

Final Verdict: If your kid struggles with getting out of bed too early, being scared of the dark, can’t sleep without some kind of noise, or just needs some more independence, run to Amazon, or your nearest Buy Buy Baby right now and order your Hatch Sound Machine. Get one for each kid’s room and for yourself, too, if you can afford it! This sound machine/night light combo has been one of my best purchases to date.

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