Hatch Rest+ Baby & Kids Sound Machine | 2nd Gen | Child’s Night Light, Alarm Clock, Toddler Sleep Trainer, Time-to-Rise, White Noise, Bedtime Stories, Portable, Backup Battery (with Charging Base)

LOVE Rest+! Rely on it every single day – Lengthy review of all features
I got the original rest & then upgraded to this one because we really wanted to have the clock feature and the volume buttons on the back vs. underneath as the original rest was.In total, we’ve had Rest for 2 years now. The Rest+ is a great improvement!Our 3 year old has been sleep trained with this; I love how customizable it is and you can add a light +/- sound for any time of day. There’s no limitation to what it can do!PROS:- Monitor: We keep the Hatch Rest on my kiddo’s night-table & on toddler mode so he can’t change the settings. So although the monitor doesn’t filter out its own soundscape, it’s not impossible to hear what is going on in our kid’s room. We typically don’t use the “Hold to Talk” button unless absolutely necessary, but so far no issues.- Timer: We love having a timer feature to count down to how long until we go outside, how long until lunch/dinner time, or whatever it is we’re doing that day and we need our kiddo to be patient. It also SUPER helps with the “is it time yet?” questions.- Favorites: For our purposes we have 3 favorite settings. We tend to keep the same sound (wind) and have one setting to turn on (warm white light) in case we need to go into his room for any reason, but the sound remains the same to signify its still bed time which is helpful. When our kiddo was a baby we’d keep the favorite settings for nap time so we can quickly turn it on; our routine wasn’t set in stone then, so our cycling through the favorite settings were our go-to!- Programs: Our motto for anything is to keep it simple! We have the soundscape & no light turn on at 6:30pm to signify the start of our bedtime routine. This stays on until 5am. At 5am, the same sound & volume remain, but we added a red low light to show that its not time to wake up. At 9am, the sound turns off and the light turns a bright green. Our kiddo usually sees the red light, will go pee and go back to bed and sleep some more or stay in bed until the light turns green. (Prior to this he was waking up at 6am everyday). When the light turns green, he happily runs out of his room straight for breakfast singing that the light is green & its time to wake up. At this point we have the routine completely automated so there is not much need for me to go into the app for any reason other than set the timer.- Design: Love that the top ring is now the off button with a simple long-press. Love that the volume and light buttons are at the back of the device (for reference, the previous model had the off, brightness, & volume buttons underneath making it difficult to adjust if you also had the coverlets for it). Rest+ has battery! Major plus! We’ve been in situation with a power outage or our outlet giving out leaving us without our trusted Rest, so def props on this new design!– Digital Clock: Love this! We’d accidentally fall asleep with our kiddo and wake up not know how long we were in the room or how much time has passed; we’d also get super involved in books or songs that we’d stay in our bedtime routine for too long; so this has helped immensely in being better with our own time management. Contrary to other reviews, you are able to fully turn off the clock if needed; you can also dim the light. We have it at the lowest setting and it’s perfect! Not too bright at all; we also don’t rely on the clock throughout the day but even when we glance at it on a bright sunny day (curtains & shades wide open), we can still see those dim numbers and don’t feel the need to adjust the brightness at all. In the past for naptimes, once the shades were closed we could clearly see the time as well. :DCONS:- App: The app can be wonky; it used to be perfect but once the Hatch Rest+ launched we did noticed a delay in connectivity with the Rest+. If you’re still on manual routine mode, my recommendation would be to connect to the app to automate routine as we have done above so there’s not much input needed on your end. Use the favorite settings & programs to your advantage; even if you down follow it to a “T.” WARNING: If you’re not a regular phone user, try to automate things as much as possible so you don’t have to go into the app often as that will cause you headaches. The Rest+ is still a step up from the original, so even if you don’t use the full features, I would still recommend this one over the original Rest.- Monitor: As mentioned, the device doesn’t weed out it’s own soundscape, which is part of the reason we keep this on his nigh table as a lamp so it’s close enough that we can listen to him. Not a deal breaker.- Timer: The app makes it difficult to use this feature, especially in the last few months as the device seems to disconnect completely from our wi-fi; luckily this does not remove nor reset any of our settings. We’ve also moved on to simply using the stove’s timer since our kiddo now spends a lot of time in the living room & we have an open concept apartment.- Favorites: No cons; this is awesome.- Programs: Motto is keep it simple; no cons here. It’s worked amazingly over the last 2 years.- Design: No cons.SUMMARY (aka TL;DR):Overall, I have gifted this product multiple times as it’s the best soundscape I’ve found on the market + alll of these amazing bonus features; it’s definitely worth it for the price. Will recommend it over & over; hoping Hatch can fix/update the app, but it’s still not a deal breaker if you’re able to automate the “favorite” & “program” settings. BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR NEW PARENTS.LOVE this product! 😀

IT WORKS!!
Starter: I paid for this myself. And it WORKS!!! My toddler is 21 months old, we have a 6 week old. Toddler didn’t start sleeping through the night until this last week when we bought the Hatch. He has always been a poor sleeper, the last several months he’d been waking up somewhere between 3-5:30am crying for me to come get him. His favorite color is blue so I set this up to turn to a low red light at 8pm with brown noise. At 7am it turns blue and the noise turns off. We have a conversation every night and throughout the day about how if he wakes up tonight and it’s not blue, cuddle his stuffed animal and go back to sleep. That if he wakes up and he’s ready for the day just hang out and play til it’s blue then I’ll come get him. Oh my jesus he actually doesn’t!! This is the fourth morning where he woke up around 6:40 and just hangs out talking to his peep until it’s blue then he excitedly sits up in his knees mamaing happily until I open his door.We’re going to transition to having his door cracked so he can come out on his own. I’m sooooo happy!!!

Most Unintuitive and Frustrating “Helpful” Device Ever
Our family has a first gen Hatch and I’ve never actually loved it. It was wonky to setup and the internal scheduler and app was always a pain but we figured it out and adapted to the wonky. This Rest+ Gen2 takes that wonky to a brand new level. On top of that, the idea of paying for a subscription for what it does is bonkers. Hey Hatch, if you want to compete with the likes of Yoto and/or storytime subs, build real content first. $0.136 per use per night? (I’m sure the subscription fees will go down over time…) Might as well round up and drop a quarter in a swear jar every night and invest in college.Let’s start with battery capacity and charging: 8 Hour charge. What 1,2,3,4,5yr old has an overnight sleep schedule of less than 8 hours? So paying extra for a portable sleep device that can’t be used one time on a full charge seems, well, less than optimal? If you’re like me, you keep the device on the base plugged in basically 99% of the time. And that just means that the device constantly charges and drains from battery. Picking up my Hatch this morning, you can feel the heat radiate from the Rests base & assuming battery. What’s kryptonite to batteries? Heat… The device should cut off the battery and pass through while at a nominal charge. I wouldn’t have high hopes for battery longevity and have no idea how complicated it is to change but I’m not finding that answer easily online. I think there is some passive false advertising here. This isn’t a portable and fully functional device, it’s an integrated UPS/battery backup for an overnight outage or roaming nap. A simple trio of double A’s and a battery notification would be much more appropriate IMO to prevent e-waste and MFG costs.Alright, that was a lot about battery and design (and otherwise the hardware’s sounds, lights, etc, are all great) that is pretty low hanging fruit on the frustration findings.. The real problem is this Gen2 has real UX (user experience) issue. It’s like the designers don’t have children or didn’t bother testing with those who did? Like the majority of the 2 & 3yr olds on the planet, my youngest has more than one sleep schedule. 1) Overnight 2) Daytime nap. Can you create two discrete events that include starting sleep, sleeping, and waking up with the rest 2? Nope. Just one. Could you do this in the 1st gen? Yep.Do you want sounds and/or a light on 24×7 in your child’s room regardless if they are in there, or if anyone is even in the house? If so, this device for you. If you’d prefer a sleep device taking it’s own medicine and going to scheduled sleep when not in use, sadly you’re out of luck. No scheduled off functions in the programs and apparently you can’t even tap the top of it to turn it off as a programmed favorite or 5th function. Do you get frustrated with tech that doesn’t do what you want immediately when you want it? Good news, it’s portable and light. Just try to aim it away from children or pets. Yes you can use your phone to turn it off but do we really need 100% connectivity at 2 in the morning? Writing this does get me thinking, maybe there are some APIs to use Home Assistant or other home automations to build your own scheduler..And then I think maybe it’s just how my brain works and how I want to interact with the app. Old dog, new tricks and all that but I’m fairly capable of learning new tricks if only there were effective instructions. Perhaps a video of how to program and use the device for the most common scenarios? Digging through the website the best you’ll find is a 2 pager suggesting you download the mobile app and use it. Thanks for the tip! If Hatch spend 25% as much time on the usability and instruction as they did their packaging (quite fancy pull tabs and tips), this could be a 5 Star device.

We had 2 separate machines for noise and light before getting the Hatch+. While it may be a little more cumbersome to change the settings through the app, the scheduling function works very well and has been hands off since the day I set it.You don’t have the sign up for the premium. Everything you need is already free. Oh, the free story was terrible. “Nightime at the Zoo” is just a collection of un-funny puns read by an old man some aspiring comedian couldn’t find work and got hired to be a VO artist. Make the ONE FREE THING good and people will want more.

My infants had difficulty sleeping, they are light sleepers and you can hear every little noise in the house and our neighbours which would cause many sleep disturbances. I purchased this as a last resort tried other sleep machines but they did not compare to this one and the multi function use.Even better, it can operate without power for up to four or five hours during times when you experience an unexpected power outage like we had a few times over the years. My children are older now at 5 years and they still use it to block out noise, create a comforting sleeping atmosphere and has other multi uses, I.e clock for telling time and scheduled lights for when it is time to wake up.

I was warned that this item required a subscription to access features. What I found was that the most basic features DO NOT require a subscription (simple music and sounds, lights, etc). I read online after extensive research that this machine does not work if you are not connected to wifi – this was a concern as we bought this version specifically to use even when our power goes out (which happens a lot) – we were able to test that theory and I am happy to report that if you have a sequence setup, it will work even without wifii – as long as the battery is charged.Sound quality is unmatched – the sounds and music is so clear and not grainy like other machines.The light is adjustable in color and brightness – perfect to set a specific color for your babie’s room.I have not subscribed yet, but I appreciate that they have different features for different ages; this machine really grows with your child. My 5 year old does not like the sound of lullabies (makes her sad), the hatch offers different sounds and music for her age group. My baby enjoys the lullabies.