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I agree with Janie that it is important to try your rocker/glider in person. You are going to be spending a lot of time in your rocker, so comfort is a high priority. This may be one of those items that is worth the splurge for added quality and comfort.

I'd add that you should check that the arm rests are the right height for you, particularly if you're planning to breastfeed in the rocker.

Warning: I know lots of people who bought gliders, only to never use them. I myself found breastfeeding in bed or on the sofa much more comfortable.

This is certainly not a *must have* item for a nursery if you are worried about a budget.

I always advise my friends to skip the glider and the stand-alone changing table if they want to save money or have more play space in a nursery.

I like rocking chairs just for myself so if it's something you envision the rest of the family using after your child is older, it could be a wise investment. I've had my eye on this one at Land of Nod which is still spendy at $650, but a bit less than the PBKids version.

http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=1500&f=86

I would be VERY wary of the babies r us upholstered rocker. The forums in baby bargains have given this chair very poor reviews. I saw it in person and was unimpressed.

I had the same dilemma as you, and was pretty set on this chair from JC Penney:

http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?DeptID=42249&CatID=42337&GrpTyp=STY&ItemID=10d6c84&attrtype=&attrvalue=&CmCatId=42249|42330|42331|42337

Best chairs, the manufacturer has a good reputation and I've seen some of the chairs from their nursery line at BuyBuyBaby.

Honestly, with upholstered furniture, you get what you pay for. The upholstered rockers at target, walmart, and babies r us look really cheap and aren't comfortable. The JC Penney glider was the lest expensive we found that wasn't total crap.

Oh, also, a lot of Baby Bargains posters like this company:

http://www.goodnightroomfurniture.com/page2.html

The gliders are 299 and the ottomans are 125 (I think). The gliders got good reviews on the boards.

Other reccomendations that I have seen are to look in regular grown-up furniture stores... supposedly you get a really nice lazy-boy for less than the pottery barn rocker.

Also, on the baby bargains board someone posted about how to turn any upholstered chair into a swivel glider. If you went this route, you could buy a decent upholstered chair from ikea, like this:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49839455

and just add the hardware yourself. if you need more info about this option, reply to this post and I will try to find the link that has all the info about the swivel glider hardware.

-Kristen

oh, also, I forgot to add that we ended up finding our upholstered glider on Craigslist. It looks brand new. We paid $250 and the chair and ottoman retail for $600 at buybuybaby.

-Kristen

It's a little more contemporary than the picture you posted, but we have (and love) the Room and Board glider. It isn't as cheap as some of the other options, but it's nice enough to keep even after nursing:

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product.do?method=get&id=622581&coll=4107166&cat=42

We got our chair from a local baby store. The brand is bestchairs.com. You can look up a local retailer. They look better in person than on the site and they have a ton of great, modern fabrics to choose from.

I don't know what i would do without my chair every day and my son is 17 months old.

I also have the room & board rocker/glider, and I love it. So does my daughter (8 mos old)! I pick this chair over any other in the house for me time and avec bebe time. Definitely an investment, but I will have it in my home for manhy years.

I just bought an upholstered rocker made by Little Castle. Purchased on Long Island at showoffboutique.com. It gets delivered tomorrow, but was very comfortable when I sat in it in the store to test. Comes in a ton of different fabric options. Still pricey, but about $200 less than the PB rocker.

Thank you for all the great comments! I think we will probably go the way of buying a comfortable upholstered chair and then adding rocker hardware. I had no idea that was a possibility. Thanks again!

Brittanie-

Here is the Baby Bargains post that discusses where to obtain the glider hardware and I think also links to a page discussing how to install it.

Honestly, it didn't look that difficult and had we not found our glider on CL we probably would have gone that route. You also get the benefit of being able to pick a chair and fabric you like!

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=6&topic_id=7492&mesg_id=7492&page=

-Kristen