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May 2021 Moms
mrosek91
member
Product spotlight: Cribs, travel cribs, sleeping surfaces
mrosek91
member
Happy Monday! We'll be tackling lots of baby furniture and gear over the next few months, but one of the major focus points of the nursery is the CRIB! So let's start there!
Many people find themselves with a million different sleep surfaces, e.g.: a bedside bassinet for when they're itty bitty, a sturdy crib (which may or may not convert to a toddler bed down the road) for their nursery, travel cribs, a Pack and Play for other areas in the house, a portable sleep surface like dock a tot for putting baby in random spots, and we want to hear about them ALL! Do you like all the bells and whistles like a SNOO? Or perhaps just the minimalist dream of the Finnish Baby in A Cardboard Box tradition? Please share!
Prior and Upcoming product spotlights
Many people find themselves with a million different sleep surfaces, e.g.: a bedside bassinet for when they're itty bitty, a sturdy crib (which may or may not convert to a toddler bed down the road) for their nursery, travel cribs, a Pack and Play for other areas in the house, a portable sleep surface like dock a tot for putting baby in random spots, and we want to hear about them ALL! Do you like all the bells and whistles like a SNOO? Or perhaps just the minimalist dream of the Finnish Baby in A Cardboard Box tradition? Please share!
Prior and Upcoming product spotlights
Re: Product spotlight: Cribs, travel cribs, sleeping surfaces
Crib: We went with a Delta convertible crib. It feels sturdy, we have it set up as a toddler bed now and it can convert to a full when he's older so I love the longevity of it. It also made the switch from a crib to a toddler bed really easy because it was still his bed. We didn't have any trouble at all.
Travel Crib: We travel overnight a few times a year so invested in the Baby Bjorn travel crib. The set up is so freaking easy and it's fairly light. Does travel well. That said, I kind of wish I had gone with the Lotus because that zip side would be very convenient. The Bjorn is just so high from the top to the ground and I'm short. There was a time he got sick on one of our trips and I couldn't reach him to comfort him while going to sleep. That's really my only complaint though and probably isn't a problem for anyone taller than me (5'2")
We are planning to get a bassinet this time. We are debating between the mommaroo and halo.
BFP #1 January 28, 2016
Felicity Joy, born September 2, 2016
My Chart
BFP #2 September 11, 2020
EDD May 23, 2021
Crib. We bought a Babyletto convertible crib for our first and she is still sleeping in it as a crib at almost 3 years old. Our plan is to keep her in it for as long as she'll stay in it or until we're ready for the twins to move to their room, whichever comes first and then just move her to a full bed (which we are getting as a hand me down from my in-laws). We'll move that crib into the new nursery and then we'll have to buy a second crib which won't match because I'm not spending $400 just to get a matching crib
Travel. We've used our 4moms pack and play as our travel crib and it's been great. We don't plan on doing much traveling after the twins get here so not worried about what we'll do for them at this point.
Crib. We kicks the babies out of our room pretty quickly, (between 2-6 weeks). But my older two actually stayed in the pack 'n' play for the first year of their life. (The oldest because we were in an apartment and didn't have room for a full crib, and the second because the older was still using the crib.) When we were ready for a crib we just went to Buy Buy Baby and bought one that looked good. I actually picked it because it was the only one I liked that came in blond wood, blond wood was very out of fashion at the time, so they only had like 3 options. We went to check out and it turns out the blond was discontinued, at that point I was so shopped out I just got it in the gray. We like it a lot, it's survived three rough and tumble boys so far, but for the life of me I can't tell you what company it is. It is a convertible, but only because it's very hard to find anything else these days. We have no plans of converting it, we keep moving toddler out into real beds, and putting new babies in. (This baby will be in the pack 'n' play until my 1 yo learns to climb out of the crib. The only reason the 1 yo didn't spend any time in the pack 'n' play is because my 3 yo learned to climb out at 18 months. Hoping this one takes a little longer.)
Travel. We use the Graco pack 'n' play, and are happy with it. Not that we do much traveling.
Also snuggle me vs dock a tot?
no experience here but everyone I know that’s had a baby in past year has sworn by dock a tot so I intend to get that
We used a Graco pack n play that has a bouncer and diaper changer, and we loved it. We had it set up in the basement for the first few months because that was where we spent the majority of the time when hanging out.
@mimser I have had a few friends who used a dock-a-tot and none of them recommended it because they all said the transition out of it was very hard. For that reason, we never used one...we have always been lucky because DS is a really great sleeper.
Travel: over the years/kids we have tried a number of things, pack and play, mini pack and play but this past year we found a winner! The fisher price on the go baby dome, its good for both indoor and outdoor use and super portable. Its great for when baby is small but once they start standing then you may want to upgrade to something bigger.
Home We started with the Graco pack 'n' play in our room with the insert to raise the bottom to prevent bending over. We had the changing pad insert, but I was always uncomfortable using it, so I used the main surface instead or our bed. Maybe it was because it wasn't flat enough for me or the fact that I didnt want him sleeping under it and I hated removing it and replacing it ever time we needed to use it. It was just more convenient to remove it, forget about it and just use any flat surface available.
When he was 2&1/2 months I went back to work for a few weeks and the playpen moved permanently to my mother in law's house as a sleep surface. We then set up the crib in our room and did some unsafe things, in my mind, to raise the mattress to a more accessible level. (Four crates under the mattress.)
But then covid struck and we moved back in with my MIL and he was in the Graco for four months. I did not know you can get a play pen mattress. Wonderful investment if you are going to use the play pen exclusively for sleeping. By the time I found out it was too late. Around 6 or 7 months, when he started to stand up, he started throwing himself in his sleep, which was ok with the playpen walls, but painful to watch as he hit the thin pad on the bottom. When he moved back to the crib at 10 months he was still throwing himself, but it the opposite problem. The mattress was soft but it was scary to watch him deadfall into the wooden crib walls. I had been terrified of using crib bumpers, for SIDS, but we did use them for a short while to see if it would help.
Around a year he stopped the crazy falling, which is a relief because we do a form of Co sleeping. Around 10ish months right after we started back with the crib, I took out the side where the toddle opening was and pushed his crib onto the side of our bed. He had some trouble getting off our very high bed for a while, so I regret not waiting a month or two until he was an expert. But with the breastfeeding in the night it was much easier to feed laying down and then when he was sleeping just roll him over to his bed. Around 10 months I started feeding lying down, couldn't figure out earlier, but I fell asleep faster than the baby in this position so he spent a lot of time in the bed. Having bed closer really helped with getting him off the bed and leaving more space for us. (We have a full, so we have no extra space and I moved the bed specifically so my husband would stop leaving because the baby was taking up all the space)
@mimser My preference would go to a bassinet, like the by my side sleeper instead of a cushioned surface like snuggle me or dock a tot. They sleep so much at the beginning and I was always scared about SIDS. Although mine slept a lot in his brights starts rocker, because that was the only way for me to calm him and that's not a safe sleep surface either.
BFP #1 January 28, 2016
Felicity Joy, born September 2, 2016
My Chart
BFP #2 September 11, 2020
EDD May 23, 2021
And there might still be time to get a black Friday/ Cyber Monday deal.
turns out my MIL was holding the mattress at her house (all of these hand-me-downs are all over the place!) so we will see the condition of the mattress before purchasing anything new
I was gifted a bouncer already--can I just use that in lieu of something like a dock-a-tot for putting baby down in during the day? I am torn on if I should get a pack and play or not....don't plan on doing too much travel due to Covid (I do live across the country from my family, but if I travel to see them my mom/siblings have things I can use). Our house is 1 level, very open floor plan so I feel like it will be just as easy to put baby in the nursery as it is to have all these extra things in my living room? Am I crazy!?
Full disclosure: our baby was a *very* fussy newborn and was only really happy if she was being held facing out and walking laps around the house. Sharing that to say that had she not been like that, we probably wouldn't have ended up with all three of those things.
Babybjorn vs Guava Lotus va Phil and Ted's?
I like the price of Phil and Ted's and just how easy it would be to take this to the park for a picnic for example.
Here's an ok video that has all 3, plus an extra.
The Guava Lotus seems pretty nice, with all the extra extra accessories.