Product Spotlight: Cribs & Sleeping Surfaces

miss_lynn9

Sorry I'm late, It's a holiday in Canada and I completely forgot! This was supposed to be last weeks but I missed it. 

Each week we'll spotlight a new category of product. Feel free to comment on threads like these throughout your time at the board, not just when they're in their week in the spotlight, if you discover something new OR are new to the board. This week it's.... Cribs & Sleeping surfaces!

FTMs are encouraged to ask questions & STM/+s encouraged to share their knowledge based on experience. You can use any or all the prompts relevant to you below to share info in an easy-to-read format. Pictures/screen grabs, if put in spoilers, are welcome!

For STMs:
Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot)?
What sleeping surface do you have?
Link/Picture?
Cost?
Pros/Cons?

For FTMs:
Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot)?
What are you looking at?
Any questions for others?

Next up: Diaper Bags

miss_lynn9

Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot): house, she had her own bedroom but we room shared for about 8 months. 

- Bassinet: Halo Premiere. I really liked this one. It has music, vibration, and a little light. It is also very handy that the front part can push down so it is easier to take her out and put her in. It moves up as down so I could get the perfect height. It also twists. 

- Crib: It's a hand-me-down and about 13 years old so I have no info on it. I REALLY wanted a cute crib and bedroom set but H didn't want to spend money on one.

- Crib mattress was important to me. I went with the kidicomfort organic 2 sided mattress and I love it. One side is 0-12 months and the other is 12 months +. 

- pack and play. I had a cheap one second hand but I don't remember what it was. It worked for us but it was stolen recently so I decided to splurge on a more expensive one. Its a Nuna and I like it so much better than the other one. The cheaper one I had to have the center up while I clicked the sides in place or put them down, and they were sometimes difficult to do. The Nuna you just pull up on the center to close it, or push it down to open. It's also so much more comfortable than the cheaper one. 

Wishilivedinflorida

Lifestyle: house, every kid has their own bedroom (unless we have any more accidents!! 🤣)

Bassinet: Arms reach cosleeper. It’s very handy because you can use it as a side car or a free standing bassinet. When my babies got down to one or two night feeds we moved them to their own room in this until their cribs arrived. I am intrigued by all these rocking/moving bassinets on the market but will only splurge if we are desperate. I am interested about renting a snoo if it comes to that. 

Crib: We bought nice furniture sets with converting cribs for each kid so far. They are still using them as full beds and they should hold up til college. We didn’t order furniture til they were born…just be aware it’s usually a 12 week minimum if you aren’t ordering a basic crib stocked at a big box store. 

Mattress: I think we used a Serta? I like the ones with cooling because my kids run hot. 

Pack n play: We still have our pack n play and it’s nothing special. We got the kind with a changing topper but it never sat right and the babies just rolled around in it. It also has the suspended higher up bassinet thing to hold the mattress higher when they are little. I also hated this because it swayed so much my kids would startle awake. I tried to use it for living room naps and it sucked. If I didn’t already own this I’d look for a different brand. But it does the job when the baby is old enough and DD slept in it during travel until she turned 3. They used these for naps at our parents when we were at work and they worked just fine. You can buy them second hand anywhere so it’s a good option to save on. 

marebear15

Lifestyle:
We have a 4 bedroom house, so the nursery is only for baby. We only travel about once every other year.

What sleeping surface do you have?
Just a crib. I cannot sleep with my baby in my room, so baby starts in the crib from day 1.
We got a Delta 4-in-1 crib from Amazon (the specific model isn't sold anymore), but didn't buy any of the kits, so it can only go from a crib to a toddler bed. It sturdy enough to hold my weight when I crawl in with my toddlers and has held up well to 3 kids so far. The raising and lowering of the mattress is a pain-in-the-butt, but I'm assuming most models are like this. 
Mattress: I honestly can't remember the brand, probably Graco or Sealy? It was just a normal Target crib mattress, waterproof, but not dual sided. I bought a fabric mattress protector to go over it so you don't have the plasticky sound when the baby moves.
We also picked up a used pack n play for traveling. It's not cute, but it's functional.

heytallmama

For STMs:
Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot)? We have 3BR house, and travel up to my parents or in-laws a few times a year. 
What sleeping surface do you have? We had an IKEA crib and mattress for our 1st 7 years ago and it served us well! We're doing it again - we have an IKEA crib and mattress for baby's room. We're also using a friend's Halo to keep the baby in our room the first few weeks. With our 1st, we had baby in a Pack n Play in our room for the first 4 weeks and then moved her into her own room, so we'll use the Halo for the same purpose. My mom kept the pack n play she'd had for their house, so we'll be able to just use that when we visit them, and will honestly probably pick up a PnP to either borrow or get 2nd hand for when we go to my in-laws. 
Link/Picture? This is the crib we got this time around! My friend has the same one and I love the built in drawers and how it converts to a toddler bed! 
Cost? This one was pretty pricey but for our first we had gotten the one that's $150 or so and it was great. I'm just more aesthetically inclined this time. 
Pros/Cons? Con is that I am sad the Rock n' Play is recalled because my daughter slept like a champ in that for her naps lol My best friend has this and swears by it so I'm considering getting this to have on the main floor of our house to be able to put baby down because that Halo is heavy af and will not be moved between flights. 

missmuisq

@miss_lynn9 Can I request a small schedule adjustment? Looking ahead, nursing clothes/bras, hospital bag essentials, and postpartum mom essentials strike me as things I'll need as soon as baby is born or just before (which, for some of us, could be late February, or sooner if baby comes early), and I was wondering if we could bump them up, especially for us FTMs who don't have past experience or leftover stuff.

Maybe we could do them in weeks 21, 22, and 23, after health and safety? Maybe keep baby containers and baby spring/summer essentials with that cluster too. Thanks!

miss_lynn9

@missmuisq definitely! I'll make some changes to it. 

firecracker_mama

Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot)? House, baby will have their own room but will room share for a while. DS3 was 2.5 years before moving to his own room bc of home renovations. Not this kid! I was so beyond ready to have DS out at 8 months that this kid will likely follow that timeline.

What sleeping surface do you have? We have a bassinet (rock with me, *not* a rocknplay), pack n play, and a crib. I used the PNP a lot for travel. We don't go on a lot of vacations but we drive the 3 hours you visit family a lot so we do travel a decent amount an will use it a lot. Fwiw DS3 uses a hiccapop toddler inflatable bed now. Highly recommend.

Link/Picture? They're leftovers from the first kid so I don't have any links! 

Cost? All gifts from my original registry with DS but the bassinet was $60-70, PNP was about $70-80, and I can't remember the crib price. Less than $500. Turns into a toddler bed and a full size bed. 

Pros/Cons? I'm not a co sleeping person. It's not for us and I just can't do it. We follow AAP safe sleep recs very strictly. Having good, convenient, separate just sleep surfaces was vital to me. I'm glad I had all that I had. 

gravcass

Sleeping arrangements were a huge issue with my ex. FTMs Be sure to talk to your partner about everything before baby is born. Example:  My ex insisted on putting a blanket over our newborn, to the point of when I would fall asleep he would cover her, so i was afraid to rest. Also refused to remove the queen bed in the nursery to make room for a glider so I could nurse then put her to bed. The glider was two stories down instead.. so if I wanted to nurse then put to sleep I had to climb all the way up two flights to do so with a sleeping infant and hope she stayed that way.

With that said, I'm gonna be honest here and share that her and I co-slept after she grew out of the bassinet.
I had extremely high hopes of my convertible crib. But because of the disparity in sleep expectations with my parter and I, it made it extremely difficult to get actual sleep without doing so.  After falling asleep nursing one time in the middle of the night with her in my arms in the queen bed beside the crib (fluffy blankets, pillows and all) I decided on the safe sleep 7 to co-sleep with her. Stripped the bed except for a light sheet, one small pillow for me, firm mattress. It was only me with her and the ex normally fell asleep somewhere else. I had something like this for traveling. What I had though had more mesh on the sides.

I had extreme anxiety with sleep because of all the above mentioned issues plus more. One of the things that helped me personally was the owlette monitor. Not for everyone, but helped ease a lot of my worries and allowed me to actually sleep. 

This go around I have the ingenuity dream and go bedside bassinet. Normally goes for around $150 but got one off Facebook marketplace for $80. 
After he grows out of that, I'm not sure. I have a more supportive partner this go around, so might be able to use a crib. I'm waiting to purchase that until a month or two in. 

Pros/Cons?
To co-sleeping: Pro: Easy to breastfeed. Longer sleep. Less crying. I wasn't falling asleep in unsafe locations anymore. 

Con: seen socially as less safe in the States, so lots of judgement. No one else can be in the bed. Hard to transition to child sleeping on their own later on (at least in my case) 

muggsd

Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot)? House. We travel somewhat regularly, but obviously not so much recently. 

What sleeping surface do you have? Crib in baby’s room, playpen for downstairs naps. We’ve been able to either bring or borrow a playpen for travel. 

Link/Picture? We got our crib(s) as hand me downs so I don’t know the brand. And a basic graco pack n play. 

Cost? Cribs were free! Playpen would be $80CAD today. 

Pros/Cons? We have had all of our babies in their own rooms from within a week of birth. I usually will sleep with them for the first week until I’m feeling healed enough to be going back and forth in the middle of the night. (Our bedroom is right next to the nursery, and we just sleep with doors open). I appreciate not having to work hard at a transition later on. 

For daytime sleep we use the playpen in the living/rec room, or a fisher price rock n play, only if I’m in the room, and only until they are 2 months or so (they weren’t recalled in Canada ).

Co-sleeping isn’t for me - I can’t sleep with a baby in my bed because I get too anxious about it. When we do have baby with us in the beginning, I just put the play pen in our room. 

mamahosch

Lifestyle(House, Apartment, Travel a lot)? House. The layout of the bedrooms in our house doesn’t give me peace of mind for my toddler to be on his own in the basement bedroom( walkout ranch with sliding doors). So baby will share with him in his tiny bedroom when baby hits 6mos or so when we’re done room sharing. Hopefully by that point we will have begun the building process or moving to a new build spec home.

What sleeping surface do you have? Crib. DS is still using it 🤞🏻 but baby will be in the Halo Bassinest in our room until he outgrows it and then switch to the pack and play with the raised floor feature. Most likely he will stay in the p&p due to space issues in the kids’ room.

Link/Picture?

this is one version of the halo Bassinest. There’s a few different models but I believe this is the one we got! The swivel sleeper.


Cost? Crib was $50 from a coworker! The Graco pack & play was a shower gift but runs around $200? I don’t remember lol. And the Halo Bassinest is not cheap but so worth it for the features.

Pros/Cons?
pros to room sharing - baby is right there for middle of night feedings and wake-ups! I refused to cosleep - too much anxiety and I personally know someone a bad accident happened to with it. 

The Halo Bassinest is also great to easily reach baby right next to your bed and it swivels and height adjusts for your bed! 

miss_lynn9

Just an FYI I'd you didn't already know that DocATots aren't a safe sleep surface. 

DockATot has been banned here in Canada since 2017. 

Wishilivedinflorida

@miss_lynn9 Andplusalso I never got the concept of charging serious $$$ for a glorified pillow. But this is a good reminder/PSA. I was in Target today and there are so many of these dang things and copycat products it frightens me. 

disneybaby23

@miss_lynn9 I literally was just looking at those the other day. I actually saw on Instagram that Mandy Moore had one for her new baby and I was browsing because it looked convenient. Literally 30 mins later I saw the notices about them being so dangerous so definitely a big no! You’d never know there was any issue though browsing through them on target’s website. Crazy!