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Northern California Babies
Co-sleeper vs. Pack-n-Play
I've been going back and forth between the Original Arms Reach co-sleeper and a Pack-n-Play with a bassinet attachment. The co-sleeper has a higher weight limit for the bassinet which is really appealing to me..and it can convert to a playpen. The Pack-n-Play is less expensive which is ultimately why we ended up registering for it, but I'm not sure if that is really what I want.
The plan is have the baby in our room as long as need be, which is why the higher weight limit seems nice. But, I'm not sure if that is really a neccesity.
Any feedback on one or the other?
TIA!
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Re: Co-sleeper vs. Pack-n-Play
We have a PnP but we never used the bassinet feature. In fact we rarely use it at home. It has come in handy for him to sleep when we travel though. We did buy the Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper and Lucas slept in that in our room until he was 9 weeks. We used that instead of the bassinet feature of the PnP because it took up less room in our bedroom.
One thing to consider is how easy the Arm's Reach is to disassemble and pack up. The PnP is super easy to fold up and take with us places which is nice.
I really really wish we had done the co-sleeper!
While it's nice to have the PNP to take places with you, he outgrew the little diaper changing station (and he's only in the 50% weight wise) and he doesn't like it since the bassinet kind of rocks back and forth with movement.
Sooo he's co-sleeping in our bed right now.
He naps by himself during the day outside our bed, but at night he's with us.
I vote Co-Sleeper
the secret blog
We LOVE our PnP and use it a lot, however it was too big to have in our room as a permanent fixture. Since we didn't know how long we would want/need to have DS in our room, we borrowed a Kolocraft bassinet from a friend. It was perfect. And since its one of those items you really only use for a short time (for us only 6 weeks, for others several months) we were super stoked not to have to shell out a lot of $$ for it.
Yeah, I don't know what to suggest. We did the PnP, but Maddie outgrew the weight limit, so we ended up moving her entire crib into our room with the side dropped down and pressed against the bed.
A higher weight limit would be great, but then it's not useful for traveling like the easy to set up PnP is.
Wish I could be more helpful!
Would it be bad if I said both? I would buy the arms reach to set up in your room and a pack n play without any bells/whistles for travel etc. We have a pack n play that was super cheap, base model and it works great for travel. I wouldn't have used it in the beginning though. The arms reach co-sleeper would have been amazing in the first two months.
I was just looking on CL to see if I could get a used Mini. Not sure if that would fly with DH though...
He's not into used items? I get that.
I bet you could find a used simple PnP for next to nothing. Personally, that's what I'd go used on since you won't be using it nearly as often as the cosleeper.
Welp, I'm probably going to make things even more complicated, BUT...
We thought DD would sleep in our room for the first 3 months. We had a separate bassinet (from my mom) that would accommodate her for that time period plus some.
I think she was about 2-3 weeks old when we gave her the boot. The child was a loud sleeper, and each noise she made woke us up, then ultimately woke her up because we were fussing over her. We moved her to the crib in her nursery and we all slept tons better.
So....I think I PNP is useful for a lot of reasons. Much more so than an Arms Reach co-sleeper. But, maybe get the PNP for now, and if it looks like you're going to be able to continue to co-sleep for a longer period of time, you can get the Arms Reach then? I do think you'll use the PNP for much more than co-sleeping so it's a worthwhile purchase regardless.
I will ditto this. G got a bassinet we planned to use for a bit. Then he got booted to his room a week later for the exact same reasons Mrs.K&C mentioned.
Photo by Zemya Photography
I liked the co sleeper a lot. We will be using it next time
The negatives are that since its right up next to your bed you need to be careful with bedding and pillow so they dont fall in on top of the baby..and since its connected if you are tossing and turning tons the co sleeper moves.
But like I said I loved it...I co slept with JLK and didnt want to do that as long with Chunk and this made it so the baby was right there. I found it really easy to transfer from nursing in bed to the co sleeper. When he needed me I could sleep with my hand on his tummy to calm him without having to be awake.
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You could always get the pnp and get the co-sleeper later?
EJ has been in his crib since the second night at home...the first night he woke a million times when he was in our room, so we decided to try out the crib and see what happened and he only woke 3 times. He has always slept better away from us (my DH tosses and turns and makes a lot of noise....snoring from both of us, etc).
We use the pnp a lot since I spend one weekend day a week with my parents and it is perfect for his naps. I find the pnp super valuable, but had EJ been better sleeping in our room the early months I would have run out to get the co-sleeper.
Money Matters The other half's blog.
EJ is growing up too fast!
The PnP was a total waste for us....she never slept well in it. I wish we would have saved the money and not gotten it.
We loved our arms reach co-sleeper. It was a life saver and she slept in it for the first 3.5 months. For the first couple months we had her attached to our bed and then we pulled it off so that our tossing wouldn't disturb her at all and had it up as a free standing co sleeper...it was GREAT! I cannot recommend it enough!
We had the co-sleeper, the mini clear view. I loved it, but baby didn't. At about 5 weeks she would wake up every time I put her down in it, we had to switch to the Amby and it was much cozier for her. i know they had all those issues with the Amby but we will definitely use it again if we have another and she/he also doesn't like the co-sleeper.
I especially like our co-sleeper because it is small and mobile and the sides are made of see through mesh. I could put her down in one room and then if I wanted to move to another room, just wheel it down the hall. I left it right outside the bathroom while i was showering, etc. I don't know, maybe I am crazy, but i wanted to be able to see her at all times initially. Also if she was sleeping in our room and DH wanted to give me a break, he would wheel it out to where he was and I could sleep for a bit. Ours doesn't convert to a play pen though.
It was off CL, for $60 and it was in perfect condition with organic sheets.