Cloud b Sleep Sheep

On the evening of January 28, at approximately 7:27 p.m. CT, my husband managed to tap out a short message to me on his Blackberry while attempting to rock Baba G to sleep.

Unfortunately for him, it was one of the rare occasions when I was actually relaxing and watching TV and not online in any way. So I didn't understand why he seemed so flustered once he'd put BG in his crib and returned upstairs.

Him: Why didn't you come down?

Me: What?

Him: I sent you that message about the noise—why didn't you come down?

Me: I have no idea what you're talking about, I wasn't on my laptop.

Him: Well there was this really strange sound, like a sick mouse or something, like something was moaning or wailing. And I couldn't figure out what it was...

Me: —Oh, so you wanted ME to come down and uncover this scary and sick creature that's possibly dying in our basement somewhere?

Him (starts laughing): ... but then when I put BG to sleep I realized it was that sheep thing. You had it on the "whale" setting.

It took a minute for me to process what he was saying, but then I started laughing, too. We always have white noise (in the form of a static-filled AM radio station) playing in BG's nursery, but we also have the Cloud b "On the Go" Sleep Sheep attached to his crib, and I often hit the "Waves" setting on it to, shall we say, further enhance our noise-muffling attempts. (We live in a very loud neighborhood, to put it mildly.) The Sleep Sheep is a soft little sheep (duh) that hangs onto a crib bar and emits one of four sounds for either 23 or 45 minutes in order to help your kid get to sleep.

That night I must have accidentally hit the "Whale" setting, and the gentle giants' eerie songs were apparently loud enough to scare the bejeezus out of my husband. [It's pretty hard to hear, but the 8-second mark on this video might help you get the idea.]

I was glad my husband solved the mystery, but then I was curious as to what exactly he'd written me. I just about doubled over when I turned on my phone and saw his urgent message:

"Weird noise downstairs ... come figure it out."

Who would've thought this little sheep could cause so much panic?

The bottom line: My friend CM used the Sleep Sheep for her son who's a year younger than Baba G and she highly recommended it. As I knew I was going to need all the help I could get with creating a peaceful atmosphere in BG's nursery, I was really happy when we received the Sleep Sheep as a gift after he was born. Because they mesh well with white noise, I prefer the Ocean Surf (waves) or Spring Showers (rain) settings, but I know other friends' kids have seemed to like the Whale Song and Gentle Stream options, too. And apparently their daddies are in on the situation and not mistaking the whales for ailing city critters.

Cloud b makes several different bedtime and sleep-related products, and I'll be reviewing at least one more of them (Twilight Turtle) in the future.

But back to the Sleep Sheep. It's certainly not a must-have product, but it does make for a great gift or a cute nursery accessory if you know you're going to need help blocking out noise. It costs around $25 on Amazon.

Oh, and as I was about to hit "Publish," I realized that I should probably clarify that we do NOT have any issues with mice or what have you in our condo. But when my husband and I first started dating in the late '90s, he DID have a lone mouse in his apartment, and it rattled him to the bone. He was totally freaked out (whereas I was like "Oh, cute mousey!!!!"). Clearly he is still suffering from the awful memories of how that little guy used to terrorize him.