Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper Bassinet - Natural
by Arm's Reach
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List Price: Our Price: $134.48 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $131.99 (click here) Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper Bassinet - Natural
Customer Review: A Must-Have for breastfeeding moms who want to sleep!
Summary: 5 Stars
We have used this co-sleeper with our 2nd son for almost 3 months now. Since he still likes to sleep tightly swaddled and isn't rolling over yet, I'm hoping we can get at least another month out of it to give him time to start sleeping through the night. :) Anyway, I love this bassinet/co-sleeper. With our first son I had a regular bassinet and found it next to impossible to even sit up to put him back into the bassinet after breastfeeding him in the middle of the night. (It's amazing how sheer exhaustion can make simple things seem impossible.) I ended up with him sleeping in our bed most of the time, or holding him while we slept. This led to him sleeping in our bed WAY longer than I had ever wanted! I had seen this mini-cosleeper back then but didn't want to spend the money on it. When we got pregnant with #2, I knew I wanted to buy this and hoped it would be worth the money. I have not been disappointed! I can lift our newest son out of the co-sleeper, feed him, and slide him back into the co-sleeper all without even sitting up. To a sleep deprived mom, that's huge! I also love being able to have him near enough to hear him breathe, but not have to worry about rolling over on him or pulling my covers over him while I sleep.
I use this as a co-sleeper attached to the bed. My husband set it up originally and he didn't think it was hard to set up. It was a little challenging to lift our king size mattress enough to slide the straps under to attach it to the bed, but once attached, it's easy enough to remove and reattach with the clips nearest the co-sleeper.
As for the legs, I read some of the other reviews that said to use the bed risers from Bed, Bath and Beyond because they're cheaper and more stable than the ones from Arm's Reach. We got the squarish 3 inch bed risers from BB&B. With those and the legs/casters that came with the bassinet, it is the perfect height for our king size bed AND it is very stable. At around 3 weeks, our son started having a bit of reflux, so I added one pair of the 2" extenders that came with the bassinet to the end where my son's head rests. It gives a very gentle slope and seemed to help his reflux.
I also noticed a few reviews had issues with the sheet. I washed and air dried the sheet before the first time we used it. It air dried really quickly (a couple of hours maybe)and didn't shrink at all. I bought a bassinet-sized waterproof pad at Babies 'R Us to protect the sheet. It lays nicely in the bassinet and nothing ever even gets on the sheet so I don't have to remove it or wash it frequently.
Since this review deals with a sleep-instrument, I also want to say that after having two babies, I fully understand that some babies are programmed to sleep and others are not! My first was not and thankfully my second is. I really don't think that it's necessarily the sleep environment (ie. crib, bassinet, co-sleeping in bed) that affects a newborn's sleep as much as HOW the newborn came programmed for sleep. Thus, this is a tool to make co-sleeping/sleeping/breastfeeding easier for the PARENTS. For more resources on baby sleep, I recommend the books "Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler and Preschooler" by Ann Douglas and "No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. Both are informative and helpful when you're in the sleep-deprived trenches of early parenting and beyond.
Customer Review: So Nice During Those First Few Months!
Summary: 4 Stars
We just retired our co-sleeper after 7 months of use with our first baby. I wanted to write a review because when I was pregnant and as a new mom it was so hard to decide if it would be worth the money.
We found the co-sleeper to be a life... rather, sleep-saver, for the first few months. It made exclusively breastfeeding soooo much easier because I didn't even have to get out of bed. I could breastfeed in a semi-awake state and then fall back asleep easily (priceless when you are waking up every 2 hours). We also had our changing table at the foot of our bed so I went back to sleep after feeding and my hubbie took his turn to change the diaper and lay our little one back down without having to make a trek to the nursery.
As new parents, we naturally felt anxious about leaving our baby alone for even a second. We slept with a night light on so we could look over and actually see her whenever we wanted. We didn't lose any sleep worrying if she was ok.
We found the co-sleeper a little tricky to set up and take down but unless you will be doing that daily it isn't that big of a deal. We like the portability of the co-sleeper. We moved it into the living room for our daughters naps so we could clean or just spend some alone time cuddling in our bed (by the way, co-sleeping does NOT ruin *good* marriages). We also took it out of town with us and didn't have to worry about those scarey hotel cribs. It traveled very nicely!
My only disappointment with the co-sleeper is that I wanted to use it longer. We got the mini to fit our small 2 bedroom apartment but I was worried that the weight limit was only 23lbs. Well, at 7 months our little one is starting to pull herself up on the sides which means she could easily topple over the edge. Thus, we have moved on to a full size crib at just shy of 15lbs. Interestingly, the co-sleeper warns that it should not be used with babies over 3 months or those that can roll over. Hmm, I feel sorry for the parents with the 23lb 3 month old!!
So, was it worth it? Yes. However, a standard bassinet that you can probably find easier and cheaper would probably do just as well. The nice thing is that gently used co-sleepers have a great re-sale value online so even if you find it is not worth your money you can get most of it back by selling it.
WARNING TO PARENTS: If I can stress one thing it would be to follow the directions and ATTACH IT TO THE BED. We didn't at first until one night when I fell asleep in our bed while nursing and our daughter slid off my lap. I awoke to find her wedged between our mattress and the co-sleeper with just her little head peaking out!! OMG!! Thankfully her little feet caught the frame of our bed so she didn't slide all the way down. Had we attached it to the bed as the directions say there would not have been a big enough gap for that to happen. So ATTACH IT! - it easily dettaches and reattaches for portability anyway so there is no reason not to.
Customer Review: LOVE this bassinet!! The best thing we bought!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Love this mini-co sleeper! I spent days, hours looking for the "right" option for us for our first baby. We live in a 2-story home, we don't like a lot of clutter and wanted to have a bassinet option for our son to sleep him for the first few months.
After seeing our friends standard size co-sleeper (same company) we decided that was WAY to big for us and would totally take over our master bedroom (we already had to make room for a glider that we bought). The mini-sleeper is great! We never did hook it up to my bed. Just rolled it right up next to my side of the bed (mesh side) so I could hear my son breath etc (you know how you check your newborn every minute to make sure they are alright).
The pros:
-like the wheels and the fact that they lock ( I could wheel him in the bathroom when I showered when he was really little and my husband went back to work)
-mesh side so you can peek right in without getting up out of bed
-pockets on both sides of sleeper (we stuck binky's and also the sound generator-we took it out of our sheep)
-the zipped storage on the bottom for blankets, jammies etc
-high enough so that our large mix labs could see and smell baby without "touching" him
-waterproof pad (we still tucked a nice blanket over the pad which worked fine
Cons:
-it' not the easiest thing to put together
My son is now almost 4 months. It's amazing how he's grown but he's stil sleeping in his mini-co sleeper in our room. We are transitioning him to his crib this weekend (not because the mini is too small).
The best thing we brought for our son to sleep in!! We are hopefully planning to have #2 and this will be perfect again!
PS: I did breastfeed my son but just found it easier to keep it as a bassinet rather than attaching it to the bed. Easier to get in/out of our king bed withOUT the mini attached to the bed. And it's like 1/2 a step to get up and grab them from the mini sleeper to feed him.
Customer Review: Adds more shut eye and rest
Summary: 4 Stars
Was it worth spending the extra money when baby would only use for 6 months or so? Heck yea! I would gladly spend any amount of money to make my life easier with a newborn and to get more sleep. I bought this because I wanted the baby in the room until he was ready to be in his real crib. It's nice to have baby close by so you can feed or tend to the baby's needs immediately.
I didn't attach the sleeper to my bed because you can just easily keep it close to the bed with out it moving. It has wheels on it so it is very portable. I had it in the bedroom at night and rolled it into the living room during the day for the first 2 months of baby's life. I also didn't need the attachments to make it taller.
It's a little tricky attaching a mobile because it doesn't have rails like a normal crib. But there is a little opening that enabled us to use two different types of mobiles at two different times. I have a Fischer price projection mobile that wouldn't stay up without some extra support. So, I put a sonicare toothbrush travel case between the base of the mobile and the co-sleeper rail. It's working out great! The hard firm plastic supports the mobile and there is no hazard to the baby.
Keep in mind: The original co-sleeper can be used longer since it's bigger and converts into a play pen.
I DON'T like:
*The mattress is attached to the crib with Velcro. It's a pain in the butt to replace the sheet when the Velcro keeps
attaching to the back of mattress as you try to put it back on.
*The mattress is becoming uneven from use. Noticed this after about 2 months of use.
*I noticed the material under the mattress is sagging (when mattress is taken off) from the baby's weight.
I LIKE:
*Portability, a little heavy but at least it rolls around.
*Extra storage space underneath the crib
*Easy access to baby at night
*Compact
Score: A
Customer Review: It's okay...
Summary: 2 Stars
Our daughter is adopted and we didn't get much notice of her arrival. So we quickly bought the co-sleeper after reading all the great reviews while we waited for her crib to be delivered. We ended up also ordering the leg extensions (as our bed was too high for sleeper without them), and the canopy (as we have 2 cats and were not sure how they would react to her). So it ended up being a pricey purchase.
Pros: It does allow the baby to be right next to the bed. Set-up is pretty easy. Has wheels on one end so you can roll it like a wheelbarrow. Fabric is soft. Fur mattress cover is nice. If you order directly from the Arms Reach website, there are more color options (which I discovered after we purchased the natural). Canopy has a nice zipper feature to get the baby in and out.
Cons: We couldn't use it as a co-sleeper without using all of the extensions. The mobile that came with the canopy makes it hard to get the baby in and out of the zipper. The canopy only works if you have all four sides up and are using it as a bassinet rather as a co-sleeper. Taking it down was a bit more challenging than putting it up as the "locks" that you have to disable are located under fabric and were hard to find and press. It made getting in and out of bed challenging.
We ended up using it more as a bassinet than a co-sleeper. We also didn't like it because I woke up with every gurgle, cough, coo, grunt, etc. that she made. Granted, that could have just been new mom jitters, but it made for rough nights, especially since I'm not one to fall asleep quickly. We ended up sleeping in shifts and that worked better for us.
We bought a Graco Travel Lite Crib for use in another room during the day and liked it better than the co-sleeper. No extensions needed, initial cost was cheaper, easier to break down, can be used as a crib as well as a bassinet, it's small, and the colors are cute. Much better if you are on a budget.