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(Review ID: 1224)
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1 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
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Not Worth It, February 8, 2007
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Reviewer: stacylane from Nebraska
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stacylane
saw things this way
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Overall Grade
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(4) |
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Pros:
it does keep baby closer than a standard bassinet
Cons:
uncomfortable for baby, expensive
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I purchased the Arm's Reach Mini (NOT the sleigh bed style) with the height extensions for about $150 on babycatalog.com. Theoretically, the Arm's Reach is a great idea - the benefits of co-sleeping without the worry. But in practice, it didn't quite work that way for me. First of all, my baby found the "mattress" (really, just a piece of wood with vinyl over it) very uncomfortable. He would sleep fine in his car seat, his swing, even his Pack n Play - but as soon as I put him down in the Arm's Reach, he would thrash and whine. I always ended up pulling him into my own bed by the end of the night.Secondly, this product does not quite offer the convenience of co-sleeping. I still had to sit up to take my baby out of the Arm's Reach, or put him back in. It was no more helpful after my c-section than a regular bassinet pulled up next to the bed.I'm also a little put off by this company's practices. Without the leg extensions, the Arm's Reach is comically short. We have an entirely standard-sized bed, and we needed all of the extensions. You cannot buy this product and use it without making that additonal $20 purchase. And they're surpisingly unstable; the co-sleeper wobbled the whole time we used it, which was not a good thing. Also, the claim that it "converts" to a changing table is hogwash. The instructions for this "conversion" are just to unhook the Arm's Reach from your bed. Even with all of the extensions in, the Arm's Reach is way too short to use as a changing table. It doesn't even come up to my waist, and I am only 5 foot 5. And of course, it still wobbles.The only real advantage of the Arm's Reach is that I could see my baby a little better than if he was in a regular bassinet. It was also a convenient place to store burp cloths, receiving blankets, etc. If that is worth an extra $50+ to you, then get the Arm's Reach. If not...
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Excellent especially for tiny ones, February 21, 2007
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Reviewer: nerdmama from Redwood City CA
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nerdmama
saw things this way
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Overall Grade
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(9) |
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Pros:
So easy to pick up & feed baby at 3am
Cons:
The price tag
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We have the full size one, but it's plastic not wood, and we found cheap sheets on ebay (do get the extra sheets, really.)
I wish we'd bought this when my son was a newborn. We started with the SnuggleNest in the middle of our bed, which made my husband and I feel cramped and separated. Then we tried moving the baby swing next to our bed-- probably a terrible position for sleeping every night and unbuckling at 3am was awful. I didn't break down and buy the co-sleeper until about 5 months. Fortunately my kid wasn't much of a climber and it took him a few more months to learn how to crawl over the tiny ledge into our bed-- at which point it becomes unsafe because he could theoretically also climb out entirely. Mind you, most kids at that age (8 or 9 months) will already have exceeded the weight limit of 20 lbs or so for the convenient cosleeper mode. But, while he was small enough, it was a godsend. It was really easy to lift or roll my son into our bed at 3am for a nursing and then move him back out of the way so we could all sleep. Not having to get out of bed when he cried was such a huge plus.
Then they recommend for older kids that it turn into a pack and play attached to the bed, which is really honestly no better than any other pack and play but it does have one wall slightly lower for lifting baby out. It wasn't really useful to us in that configuration.
Anyway, we've loaned it out to a friend but are looking forward to using it from day one with baby #2.
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