s/o curtains...

dmwbqb · May 2013

This may be a silly FTM question, but are blackout curtains necessary? Right now, we just have blinds and a valance in LO's room. It makes sense to me that we wouldn't want her to get used to sleeping in only a pitch black room all the time, but would you still want them for nighttime so you could make sure the room was dark when LO was put down for bed?

This doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but I wanted to see what the STM+ have done.

wifemomnurse · May 2013

We have them in my DD room and will put them in this baby's room as well. I have them because the direction of the sun this time of year makes it harder to cool the rooms on that side of the house. It makes a huge difference!

BlueJewelM · May 2013

I am a STM.

I did not use blackout curtains for the exact reasons you are thinking. DS can nap anywhere and is a great sleeper. Also nice because we travel a lot and if it doesn't get dark until 10 pm in the summer...I don't have to worry about making sure the room he is in is totally dark at 8 pm. A lot of people use them, but would I call them a necessity? Absolutely not.

Funny thing, I use blackout curtains in our master bedroom. Dh works overnights and sleeps until early afternoon. So for him...I allow blackout curtain use.

MommyKristin88 · May 2013

I never used them. It seemed like it would be annoying if I needed her to nap on-the-go, or somewhere that is not completely dark.

JilllyBean · May 2013

We are using them because it helps to keep the room cooler, there are windows on 2 sides and the sun is pretty much in there constantly so that is why we will use them. Curtains are freakin expensive though! All the hardware and stuff, crazy. We do have huge windows though.

wifeyvana · May 2013

We didn't buy blackout curtains right away with our first and after months of no sleep, we ran out and bought some. Biologically, people just sleep better in the dark. We'll be installing blackout curtains in this nursery right away.

JBrooks315 · May 2013

We had an extra one left over after we hung them in the living room and our bedroom. So we hung it in LO's room. It doesn't make it completely dark in there but does block a lot of light, it also keeps it pretty cool in the summer. Plus with a regular curtain the light street lamp came through at night. I wouldn't worry too much if you don't have one, they can be expensive. If we didn't already have one we would have just done regular curtains.

Scubagirl79 · May 2013

We are putting in the blackout curtains. I found them for a very reasonable price at Target. The nursery has 3 windows, and there's a street light outside, so I figured it would be nice to have the choice to make the room darker if need be.

dmwbqb · May 2013

Thanks ladies. I figure we will just start with what we have and go from there. One of my friends has kept her LOs room dark since day one and he still doesn't sleep well so I know there is more just a curtain that goes into it.

Our nursery only has one window and doesn't catch much direct sunlight, so hopefully it will stay pretty cool. I also thought that we could probably change the blinds to the blackout ones as that would be cheaper than curtains. I can't believe how expensive curtains are!

Soleil3 · May 2013

BreanneL24:
Some people won't put them up so babies get used to sleeping in light rooms. I think that is dumb. They simply sleep better in the dark so why wouldn't you want that? DH and I sleep in the dark as well so it isn't an issue for us. Hotels all have blackout curtains and if we are staying at someone's house, we will throw a blanket over the window if it is still light. He has been sleeping through the night since he was 10 weeks old and takes fantastic naps. We will definitely continue to use blackout curtains!

Hah pretty much this. Also, the sun is up at like,530 and doesn't set until 845, and when your kid wakes up with the sun, you aren't going to just hope that they learn to sleep through the light.

Soleil3 · May 2013

Home Depot sells blackout roller shades for cheap, like 12 bucks cut to size. Perfect for behind whatever curtains you already have, and they work awesome on blocking the sun.

LnR70707 · May 2013

We never used them. Unless you live somewhere where there is a lot of street light at night, they are pretty pointless IMO. DS napped in his swing, bouncy seat or PnP downstairs for the first 5 months.

That.Just.Happened · May 2013

We very purposely chose to NOT make DD's room completely dark when she slept so that we wouldn't have issues when we tried to put her down in other places (we travel quite a bit). Her old room didn't even have any sort of window covering at all on two of the small windows (and just blinds on the two big windows). That meant that at nap time and during the summer, it was still quite light in there when she went down. Her room in the new house has blinds on all the windows, but they are just blinds and still don't darken it all the way.

The nice thing is that she really will sleep anywhere and I don't have to worry about it. Personally I think you are setting yourself up for trouble if you use the blackout shades, but that is JMO.

ETA: she is a rockstar sleeper, sleeps more than 12 hours at night (and until 8 or 8:30 in the morning) and takes 2.5-3 hour naps. Always has. The light definitely doesn't affect her sleeping habits.

BelhurstBride · June 2013

I didn't put them in DD's room until I thought they might help her sleep better.

Honestly? If your kid is going to be a sh!tty sleeper there's not a lot you can do about it. Using or not using black out shades for a newborn is not going to affect how or where your kid is going to sleep in the future.

Soleil3 · June 2013

^ Yup. I have one that is just an early bird, and wakes up when the sun comes up, and the other will sleep through anything. I didn't do anything different for either, we've almost always used blackout curtains though because my older early bird child will only get about 8 hours of sleep if we don't. Not enough for her.

s/o curtains...

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