Yes, You Really Need the Hatch Baby Rest Sound Machine!
One of our must have baby items is a sound machine - specifically the Hatch Baby Rest. Emily and I both got one for our boys in 2020. When Emily had Rea in 2022, she got another and at 32 weeks pregnant (surprise!) I just ordered one for Baby #2’s nursery. 4 kids between the 2 of us and we’ve now purchased a Hatch Rest 4x which clearly shows how vital we think it is. I am part of a few Mom’s groups on Facebook and I consistently see the question being asked “do I really need a Hatch for baby?” and “is Hatch really worth the money?” We are here to tell you… YES. You really need the Hatch Rest!
This is a purchase you won’t regret. We’ve used it from the newborn stage into the toddler stage and plan to continue using it as long as we can. We think the Hatch Rest is great for so many reasons including how easy it is to control, the multiple options and it’s sleek appearance. Keep reading to hear our top 7 reasons why we love the Hatch Rest and the 1 feature we think is missing from the 1st Gen.
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App Controlled
Hatch has an awesome app that you can download to go along with their products. Through the app you can change the color of the light and it’s brightness, the volume or type of sound, turn the Hatch on/off completely and set up programs. My son will sleep through pretty much anything, but there are times when I’m walking by his room, about to do something loud like vacuum outside his door, and I quickly open the app to adjust the volume a bit. It’s such a seamless process! You can connect more than one Hatch product to the app so if you have multiple children or if you get yourself a Hatch product, you control them all from the same place.
No Wifi Needed
This is one of the features we love the most about the original Hatch Rest! With this specific model, the Hatch is Bluetooth controlled, meaning you don’t need Wifi for it to work. This has been so beneficial to us, particularly when camping in the summer. We’ve stayed in an RV where we have electricity, but no Wifi, and were still able to use the Hatch and control the settings through the app. It’s also come in handy when we’ve randomly lost internet and were able to continue using the Hatch seamlessly. Hatch has newer models of the Rest, but this is the only one with the Bluetooth capability that we can find. If it’s not a concern of yours, you could easily get one of the + or 2nd generation models.
Sleek Look
Not everything has to look good if it’s functional, but we love that the Hatch Baby Rest Sound Machine does! It’s sleek white design looks good in any space. It doesn’t have a very wide base either so it doesn’t take up a ton of room on top of a dresser or nightstand. All of the Hatch products seem to fit into this simplistic, clean design making them look great in any room with any style of decor.
Set Up Favorites
The Hatch app allows you to customize and set up “favorites” which remembers the sound, volume, light color and light brightness that you choose. Setting up a favorite allows you to just tap the metal ring to turn on and it will immediately go to those settings. We use this feature the most and love how easy it is to turn it on once we’re done with story time at night. You can set up 6 different favorites within the app that are able to correspond with a particular sound and turn them on/off at your discretion.
Time to Rise
The Time to Rise feature offered by the Hatch Baby Rest is one that appealed to us the most during my first pregnancy. We knew it wouldn’t be a feature we’d use right away but that it would probably be one of our favorites as our son got older - we were right! We started using this feature when our son started daycare and had a stricter nap/quiet time schedule. We keep that schedule going at home and our son understands that when the Hatch switches from the red light with tv static to the blue light and birds chirping that we are on our way in and quiet time is over. He LOVES watching and listening for the birdies when nap time is ending. If he’s still sleeping when it changes, he wakes up and says “I heard birdies” when you walk in the room. I know we’ll use this feature even more as he continues to grow.
Low Night Light
We tend to keep the sound and light consistent all night while it turns on, but once feature we love on this sound machine is how low the light can get if we want! Occasionally, I panic that my child will never be able to sleep without that same sound and light so I change the settings on the Hatch Baby Rest during the night, including turning the light down. It can go as low as 1% which essentially allows it to just act as a very low night light, which I love. It makes it so I can see if I need to go in there and so he doesn’t freak out waking up in pitch black, but keeps it pretty much dark otherwise.
Mr. Independent Can Work It
As a surprise to no other toddler Mom, my child hit 1.5 and suddenly needed to do anything and everything for himself… including turning his Hatch on for nap tine and bed time. Since we already had his settings programmed as a “favorite” all we had to do was tap the metal ring on top to turn it on/off - SO EASY. Now, our son moves his stool by his dresser, carefully steps up, taps it on, steps down and then runs to his bed. He loves feeling like he has this control and it’s such a simple task that we’re happy to let him do it.
WHAT THE HATCH BABY REST IS MISSING FOR ME?
Emily and I both have little to no complaints about the Hatch Baby Rest Sound Machine, but the one feature I wish the original model had was a battery back up. If you lose power (like we did for 5 days after an ice storm) and don’t have a generator, or don’t run it overnight, then there is no way to keep it going. Hatch DOES have this feature on the Hatch Baby Rest 2nd Gen but we opted to get another of the 1st Generation for baby #2 so we can keep the Bluetooth capability and because we like the simplicity of it.
If you have this Hatch or any of their other versions, we’d love to hear your thoughts below!
