New photos, 3/22/09

Boys being boys

Biting Mom!

and fussy face!

Especially for Baby Ultimate Sleep Positioner

Chris and I walked into the local Babies 'R' Us store to register. We decided that our little one deserved only the best when it came to a sleep positioner. We looked over all of the different products available. There were some as cheap as a few dollars and simple as 2 foam pieces that Velcro together, and some a little more expensive that included fancy air flow systems and wedges and blah blah blah. We settled on the most expensive one they had. The "Especially for Baby Ultimate Sleep Positioner". This one is made from memory foam like those temper pedic mattresses that no one can afford, and had several adjustable parts, special breathable all temperature cover and even a built in sound maker that beats like a heart until baby is soothed to sleep. When it come to the sleep positioner, we were willing to spend more because of all of the studies that suggest that a good sleeping position plays a big role in the prevention of SIDS. There is not much that is scarier than SIDS when baby is tiny. I think it's the first major worry after bringing baby home. This particular sleep positioner sells for as much as $39.99. I ordered mine new from ebay. I think I paid about $34.00 for it.

We got home from the hospital that first day and I had the bassinet and the positioner all set up and ready for baby. I'm thinking, "this is going to be the best of all of the baby products that I bought". It seemed like anything that cost that much must be magical.....

I placed him, swaddled, oh so carefully on it, and came back five minutes later and he had wiggled almost all of the way off of it. I carefully readjusted him, walked away and came back and he had wiggled most of the way off of it again! Every time i laid him on this thing it was only a matter of a few minutes before he had wiggled off of it. I never even got to use the little heart beat sound maker. Eventually I gave up on the positioner and the bassinet and we came up with a sleep routine and arrangement that works for us. He sleeps in bed with me! We actually put some of those net bed rails, like you would use for a toddler bed, on our bed and kind of turned our bed into a crib. Justice sleeps between me and the bed net. It works really well for us. Once or twice a night we get up and change his diaper and switch sides so he can nurse when he wants to and we can switch breasts midway through the night. My baby never wakes up at night! I wake him up for a diaper change and to nurse.

So...... The fancy "Especially for Baby Ultimate Sleep Positioner" goes on my list of totally unnecessary baby products. Save your money Mom's and Dads!!

After I wrote this I looked up some other reviews to see what other moms though of it. I was disturbed. There is a note of humor in my review, but a lot of women were really upset by this product. I actually read several reviews where women said they felt it should be taken off the shelves. It seems that almost everyone experienced the same thing that I did with the baby wiggling off of it. However, some women said that baby's head would flop over the side, and that it is actually a suffocation hazzerd. Other's said it's flimsy and flattens out under babies weight, baby outgrows it really quickly. I can see the truth in that. It almost seemed like Justice was almost too long for it when he was just a few days old (at about 20").

All in all it seems like I'm not the only one who felt this product was pricey and maybe even unsafe.