Co-sleeping gear
One of the things I’ve been considering for baby number two is an Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper. When Sam was born he slept in the bassinet attachment of a pack n play next to our bed (when he wasn’t actually sleeping in our bed) for the first four or five months of his life and it was fine. But one of my complaints about the pack n play was that it wasn’t level with the bed so I had to lift him in and out of it every time he needed to nurse. That is probably why he spent so much time actually sleeping in our bed.
The Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper looks as though it solves that problem. With the leg attachments we could make it level with our mattress, eliminating my need to stoop or bend, but looking more closely at the actual product I wonder if it makes sense at all. It looks like the fourth wall, the side that butts up against the bed, doesn’t go down completely. Based on the images from the site it seems like there’s still a partial wall which means I wouldn’t be able to just slide over and nurse, I’d still have to lift the baby from the co-sleeper and return the baby to the co-sleeper.
If that’s the case, what’s the point? Aside from being slightly more level than a pack n play what are the advantages, if any of using an actual co-sleeper? Unfortunately our crib doesn’t have a drop side. If it did, we’d be able to sidecar the crib, completely eliminating any barricade between me and baby, an idea which seems to make more sense.
Does anyone have any experience with the Arms Reach Co-Sleeper or a crib side-car that you can share?
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March 4th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I have the co-sleeper and there is a lip on the fourth side - very annoying. However, it is minimal - I don’t have to sit up up in the bed to lift him - but can sort of scooch him up and over to me. However, at 3 am, that’s still a bit too much for me, so he still spends most nights in our bed. I’m glad we bought it, it does work for us, but I don’t recommend it highly.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Jackie -
I have this model of the co-sleeper and to be honest, I wasn’t too impressed. IF Noah had slept alone (not on my body) it might have been a great piece for us. However, it doesn’t allow for constant contact. I kinda think the name is a little misleading, at least to those of us who do co-sleep because this side-car doesn’t always match up to the exact bed height and it doesn’t allow for side by side nursing or constant contact, no matter how you position yourself. You might as well use any old basinette and just keep it right at your head. I found the original model to be a little large too - considering the size of a newborn and infant. It also takes up a large part of the bed side making acrobatics necessary to get into and out of bed, especially if you already holding the baby. We got ours as a hand-me-down from a friend and I plan to try to use it again with future children, but with Noah, it just wasn’t the right fit.
Over the weekend we bought a Safe and Secure Sleeper, also known as the Snuggle Nest, which is a little plastic bed-like thing that fits in your bed between the adults. Noah has slept in that a few times with mild success. Although, we are smallish-average size people and we have a queen size bed, it doesn’t leave much room for us or for me for nursing so I’d only recommend if you have a king bed. Email me if you want me to send a pic of what it looks like with Noah in it.