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  1. #1
    etwahl is offline Emerald level (3000+ posts)
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    Default How dark do you keep your baby's room during the daytime?

    We're trying to figure out all the stuff we need to do to get the baby's room ready. We have wood blinds in there, but during the day, a lot of light gets in, and it's pretty bright. I guess I'm wondering if that's okay, or if we need to add say, a room darkening shade or something like that.

    Do you find your baby sleeps okay with light? Is that a good thing to get them used to enabling them to fall asleep at any time?

    I just remember seeing friends who kept their baby's rooms fairly dark, but was wondering what everyone suggests!!

    Tammy,
    Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

  2. #2
    akc Guest

    Default RE: How dark do you keep your baby's room during the daytime?

    Hi -

    You have no idea how much we struggled with this. I thought wood blinds would be ok as well, but the room is in the direct sunlight all afternoon and a ton of light got in. Now, my daughter can sleep in a mildly dim room, but definitely goes down easier and sleeps better in a dark room. It's really less the light than the fact that they start to get inquisitive and social and want to see things (like the ceiling fan I painted stripes on in her room to match the carousel theme - she could look at that for hours even if her eyelids are trying to fall!)

    Our solution for the moment is to prop a pillow on the bottom of the blinds and then a blanket above that. Not so svelte looking. And, I'm too lazy to take it down so the window is never letting the sun in. If I had it to do again, I would have gotten one of those honeycomb shades with the blackout lining. Would have made life much easier (but do be aware it makes a room hot in the summer b/c no air gets through, so you'll want to use fans or AC in the summer if you live in a warm climate!)

    The other thing I'd highly recommend is a dimmer switch in the room. That way you can dim the lights to get the baby ready for sleeping and still be able to see if you need to sneak in and feed him/her or give them a pacifier etc. Bright light is just too harsh for them for a while. We had a night light over by the changing table area and kept the lights on a really low level dim for practically the first 3 months!

    Good luck! :) March is such a great time to have a baby. My Maeve came in July and it was hot as hades. My best friend had hers in March and she was in recovering and going through the first month or so when it was still early spring and out and walking by mid-april, all May and into June. She looks great - for me, it was too darn hot for me and the baby to go anywhere until September!

    Alexa

    p.s. I'm adding two things here: 1) there is probably some rationale that says you should teach your baby to sleep in a semi-dark room or else they won't be able to do it elsewhere - I don't know, I'll take sleep everyday over bad sleep a handful of times somewhere else, and 2) there are different intensities of black out blinds, so be sure to pick the one you want!

  3. #3
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    Default RE: How dark do you keep your baby's room during the daytime?

    We went through the same dilemma. But, Alia came 2 weeks early, and we hadn't figured out what we would do yet! We ended up getting the room darkening blinds. I fully open the one away from her crib and only half way open the one at the end of her crib. At night, I shut both blinds, and we now turn off the nightlight once we put her in her crib (we left it on for the first few months).

    Alia seems to sleep well during the day (she's 6 months old and takes 2-3 naps during the day for a total of 4+ hours). And will go to sleep at 9pm and awake anywhere from 7-8:30am. She seems to know that when it's dark she can sleep for a long period of time.

    That's what worked for us. I know of some people who never use a nightlight, and others that spend years with nightlights. It's just a matter of what they get used to.

    Enjoy your little one!

    Michelle - Mom to Alia Jailin born 5/16/02

  4. #4
    pshontz Guest

    Default RE: How dark do you keep your baby's room during the daytime?

    We keep our baby out in the living room with all the lights on during the daytime, everyday noise (washer/dryer, dishwasher, TV, phone, etc) going. She sleeps just fine. We do this on purpose so that she can sleep in any condition and it works great. She can sleep in a dark or a light room. She is 2 months old and sleeps about 6-7 hours at night, then naps off and on during the day. We didn't do anything special to the nursery. At night we use a 25-watt pink light bulb in her nursery lamp so that we can do nighttime feedings and diaper changes in a dim light and get her back to sleep quickly.

    Our baby spent her first 5 days in a hospital nursery (very bright and loud 24 hours a day) and slept fine there so I suppose she was already used to those conditions -- but I had had advice to get your baby used to sleeping through noise so that you didn't have to tiptoe around when she is napping.

    Priscilla
    SAHM to Laura 09/14/02



  5. #5
    egoldber's Avatar
    egoldber is offline Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Default RE: How dark do you keep your baby's room during the daytime?

    You may find that your baby becomes less of a deep sleeper when she gets a bit older. Many babies lose that ability to sleep through bedlam after a few months.

    That being said, I don't do anything special to keep it dark in Sarah's room. We have wood blinds, but I have many times forgotten to close them. I haven't found that the degree of ambient light affects her ability to sleep. But other stimulation definitely keeps her from sleeping now that she is older.

    HTH,
    Beth, mom to older DD (8/01) and younger DD (10/06) and always missing Leah (4/22 - 5/1/05)

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