Baby swing, baby rocker, etc

melissaquinn106 · February 2014

Hey ladies question about all these baby things... So I went to register the other day and there are several baby holding devices such as a baby swing, baby vibrating chair, baby fold up rocker, pack n play, jumper, etc etc etc. my point is, how many of these are really necessary and when does it get to be over kill. I mean I'm just picturing my house with nothing in it but baby holding devices. I'm gonna have to get rid of the couch! Help!

eortman · February 2014

My kids never cared for the swing, but we couldn't have lived without the bouncy seat.

andyandrachel · February 2014

A lot of it depends on how much space you have and what your baby likes. My kids loved their swing and bouncy seat. We also used a rock n play for the newborn stage instead of a bassinet. Once they are big enough, I put away the swing and take out the exersaucer. I skipped the jumper, the exersaucer we have has some bounce to it. I don't use a pack n play until baby is mobile, by then I have put away the rock n play and bouncy seat as well.

Unknown · February 2014

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pfeilele · February 2014

Our saving grace was the swing. He would side eye the bouncy chair. They make swings now where the seat comes off and turns into a bouncer.

Pack and play was used on vacations and grandma's house. You don't need one if you won't be traveling with baby much. ETA: my almost 17 month old will still have to use this because he won't settle down enough to co-sleep. He needs his own space.

Rock and play was nice for our room. It's small and portable, but definitely not necessary.

Jumper can wait until they are older and the other stuff is packed up. We got a jumperoo and he LOVED it. If he still fit, I'm sure he'd willingly be trapped in it for a while. He didn't start using that until 5 months.

Big+Lil · February 2014

The swing and exersaucer were wasted space for us, we liked the seat and the play mat. And with the first baby, the best baby holding device was me.

pantherRN · February 2014

We got a swing, a bouncer, and a Rock n Play. If you have the room to store them, I would register for the jumperoo, exersaucer, etc. We don't have the room, so we'll just wait to buy one.

The PNP isn't necessary for us. We'll use the RNP in our room. The only place we would really use a PNP would be at the ILs and they already have one.

reils500 · February 2014

With DS I had a vibrating seat which I found at TJ Maxx for like $30. I liked it for its portability, I would bring it into the bathroom while I showered.
A neighbor gave me their Bumbo seat With tray which I used when he started eating. I also got an exersaucer from them which DS loved when he was older (7 months plus).
Oh and we had an activity mat for when he was newborn to 5 months or so.

Soon2BMrsN · February 2014

Both of our boys loved the swing and the bouncer equally. We bought the jumperoo when DS1 was ~5 months so we didn't have to store it before then.

helloblueeyes · February 2014

Bliss+Berry said:

I have a Mamaroo. It's kind of a combo swing/bouncy seat. DD loved it and I'm hoping this LO will as well.

DH played with one in the store the other day and now i'm hard core coveting a rockaroo!!

bchildrn · February 2014

I'm so glad this thread came up, DH and I were in buy buy baby last night and trying to decide what to register for and what's best to use. Being a FTM I really have no clue. I shared the posts with DH tonight, so helpful! =] thank you!

AnotherPreggo · February 2014

We used a baby bouncer a LOT during the beginning months. We had bought a swing off of CL, but DD didn't like it, so we put it back on CL (that's the great thing about buying used... got back what we paid for it

).

In total... the "baby gear" we have from DD =

rocknplay (used 0-5 months),

bouncer seat (used 0-4ish months?),

pack n play (used for traveling),

exersaucer (used 5-8ish months),

bumbo seat (used 2-5 months. I put her on the floor in the shower in it so I could shower

>- )

floor gym mat (used 2-6ish months)

bgoodbpar · February 2014

Rock n play and swing we used for quite a while. RnP was used for sleeping for 5-6 months and he enjoyed the swing while awake. I gotta admit I saw the mamaroo and really want to get it so it's nice to see some that have given it a go successfully with their LOs.

zellatrix · February 2014

When you guys say they slept in them, did you mean at night? Because DS def slept better in the swing but I was always too scared to leave him all night. Even though it was right next to our bed and it had a five point harness.

bgoodbpar · February 2014

@zarkarella The rock n play is safe for sleeping at night. It's supposed to be really good for babies with reflux too apparently because of the slightly elevated position. We used it like a bassinet and kept it bedside. It has a harness. It's actually called a "rock n play sleeper".

ETA: DS had a crib too but slept better in the rocker and that made it much easier as he was EBF. Saved me from having to get up and get him from the crib at every night feeding.

cookieinva · February 2014

I am sure in reality you don't *need* any of it. We had a pack n play which got use from day 1 regularly; a bouncy seat which got lots of use but not immediately; a plug-in swing which got less use that the bouncy seat and which he didn't like until a few months in but used longer than the bouncy; and a jumperoo which didn't get used until even later but once it was the right window for it got lots of use. Of these, the only ONE DS ever slept in was the PNP. Never had a rock n play, which I feel is sacrilegious to say here the way they are revered here but its true.

I think the thing is you wouldn't necessarily be using these all at the same time. They are really sort of developmentally appropriate at different points. Also swinging or vibrating is not for every baby. So it makes it hard since you din't know ahead of time what baby will like. This is probably also why you can find like-new ones for sale so often. Somebody bought it, they tried it but baby never got into it, so they are selling it.

andyandrachel · February 2014

zarkarella said:

When you guys say they slept in them, did you mean at night? Because DS def slept better in the swing but I was always too scared to leave him all night. Even though it was right next to our bed and it had a five point harness.

DS1 would only sleep in his swing. From 8 weeks on, he slept 12 hours straight over night in the thing! I was so nervous, I asked the pediatrician about it. He didn't see any problem with it and told us to do what worked for our family.

With DS2 we bought a rock n play and he slept in that next to our bed for the first 5 months. It was great. It is small and light enough that I could move it from room to room during the day. He also liked the swing a lot for napping during the day. We upgraded from our hand-me-down swing we had with DS1 to a A/C powered swing for DS2.

AutumnBonfire · February 2014

We were given all of these items by people, so we had/have a lot of choices of baby holders. We used the RnP with DS until he got too big for it and hardly used the bassinet. The RnP took up less space and is a lot more portable. We had a swing upstairs and one downstairs that were both used until he grew out of them. When he got a little older, he liked the exersaucer and the Jumperoo (kept in the finished basement so he could 'exercise' while mommy was on the treadmill).

He was not a fan of the bouncer. The PnP took up too much space and we didn't use it much for him. My parents have their own PnP which was given to them and MIL has her own from previous grandchildren, so we didn't need it to travel.

The house did get cluttered so we tried to only have one or two things out at a time. Since I didn't pay for any of it, it wasn't a big deal to put something in the basement or away in the attic. Maybe the new baby will have different tastes.

Ylvelill · February 2014

I am not a fan of swings, rockers, bouncy chairs... I don't plan to get any.

alyssa719 · February 2014

My DS didn't like the bouncy/vibrating chair if the other option was to be around me... so he ended up spending more time in a high chair instead of that... and the swing, his grandmother said he loved the one at her house, but didn't get much use at mine (probably more due to lack of time than anything else though).

He did love the bouncy seat that attaches to the door frames (I'm not even sure if they sell these any more since I think if you have the wrong doors then they fall down and people never pay attention to that stuff), and also the exersaucer type thing, but the one with wheels (which also sometimes gets bad reviews from babies running over their feet - which never happened to ds).