apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We spent a long time looking for a co-sleeper for our soon-to-arrive wee one. Ultimately we decided to go with a regular pack-n-play with a bassinet, since it will be the most useful for the longest amount of time. Even if he hates sleeping in the bassinet and I end up either with him in my bed or in the Snuggle Nest we already have (that our older one *hated*), we won't feel like we wasted money since we will still need a good pack-n-play for travel.

we use a similar one to this http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/product.aspx?modelNumber=9965MIN&CategoryID=3
right now. Works great so far (he's a month old).

The Snuggle Nest is good in theory, but we found that it is so wonky in real life. Has anyone had good luck with one?

This is the one I was drooling over when I was pregnant:

http://www.babygadget.net/2007/06/culla_belly_cosleeper.php

Alas, I do not speak Italian.

Oh, but we ended up using the First Years Co-Sleeper and it worked great for us.

Ha! Anita, I'm with you. Loved the Culla when I first spotted it a while back, but had to settle for the First Years co-sleeper. Oh well. As long as it works, right?

For anyone who's into the idea of keeping their little one in bed with them when they're too big for a co-sleeper, we got a Snug Tuck pillow (essentially, a soft bolster guardrail designed specifically for cosleeping), and it was great:

http://www.snugtuckpillow.com/photos.htm

There are a gazillion colours to choose from fo covers. We picked unbleached organic cotton, which looked great. As an extra bonus, now it's on our toddler's "big kid" bed, where it looks much nicer and less institutional than the usual wooden or plastic rails.

we had the first years cosleeper and found it weird to use. we actually had gotten a boppy lounger as a gift. we swaddled our baby for the first three months when he was sleeping because he was super arm crazy. we would swaddle him then lay him on the lounger between us. even though it says not to use the lounger for sleeping..we did. it actually made us feel safer when we started putting him on the actual bed because we were used to having the boppy between us.

Sara, I'm definitely not posting this to make you feel bad or retroactively guilty, but using the Boppy as a sleep device has been linked to several cases of SIDS:

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802060326

Just an FYI for other folks.

We moved when our little one was 3 weeks old and we used a handmedown snuggle nest during our move. It was just me and little one staying at family for a week and I would swaddle him and lay him in there next to me. That way I didn't have to take the pack and play (the car was packed to the gills) and he was young enough to not roll over. I liked it. Pretty convenient for that. I would recommend for travel but not for everyday...

I'm surprised the Arm's Reach Beautiful Dreamer Cocoon Sleeper didn't make this list. We're going to try one of these with our newborn:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2958428

We're going to put it hanging slightly over or immediately next to the bed, so access should be very easy.

I don't know if they have babybay in the US, but this is the German site http://www.babybay.de

Friends rave about it, but I don't know that I want the whole family sleeping together!