Great Bassinet, Longer Sleep
January 24, 2020
We really like 4Moms to begin with. We've been using the Mamaroo, Breeze Play yard, and baby bathtub since our son was born, and the products are really high quality, so we were super excited to be able to test their new bassinet as part of the Stellar Product Testing panel. After about 2 weeks, I can say that overall we are really happy with it!
A note: This is a "smart" bassinet with App control, but it's not a responsive product, meaning that it won't react to your baby's fussiness--that's your job. You can adjust the settings on the app, or on the bassinet itself. This is fine for us, but it's worth noting.
Our Story: We originally hadn't planned on getting a bassinet at all, because so many of our friends told us that they had their children sleep in the bassinet attachment of a pack and play. It turns out E didn't love sleeping in it, and he's such an active sleeper that he ended up moving all around and waking himself up. During the day though, E would really love being in his Mamaroo! He'd nap happily in that, and we found ourselves wishing we could let him sleep in it (don't worry, we didn't).
But when the chance to test the bassinet came along, we were thrilled! The bassinet has all the features of the mamaroo in terms of the motions, with added vibration and a safe sleep surface, which was really important to us. We also liked being able to see him sleeping because of the adjustable height and mesh sides. So here's the nitty gritty--
Pros:
*He already liked the mamaroo, so the transition to the bassinet was easy and simple.
*The app is really easy to use, and we were able to avoid some full wake-ups by using the app to adjust the speed and noise of the bassinet from bed. We always started with the lowest setting and adjusted up if he was getting fussy. Most of the time, we use the first 3 settings without escalating too much. The highest settings are pretty fast and loud, which honestly woke us up a little bit (even though he liked it).
*He definitely slept longer and fell asleep faster with the motion. We particularly like the car ride and kangaroo, and have found the "SHHH" noise helpful for calming mild fussiness (for most nights, we use the rain noise on the lightest setting).
*It's lightweight enough to move around without too much trouble. We've put the bassinet on both sides of our bed and in the living room for naps on occasion.
Cons:
*The vibration setting that you can use with the other motions is really unnoticeable, but somehow makes the bassinet louder? We ended up just never really using it, even though we were really excited about it.
*The 4 hour time limit has been a bit annoying, though not a deal breaker. Sometimes when E is fussy, we want the bassinet to run basically all night, and you have to wake up to restart it.
*On the few nights when E has been SUPER fussy, the bassinet didn't magically fix it. We didn't expect it to, but it's just good to make sure your expectations are reasonable. I think this works best for mild fussiness and calm, sleepy babies who normally need a little extra care for sleeping.
Ultimately, it's hard to say if this is a good solution for babies who need a lot of extra sleep help. Our baby is a reasonably good sleeper (at 7 weeks, he sleeps 5-6 hours at a stretch), and can fall asleep on his own without props. This bassinet is an extra bonus for getting him to sleep quickly, and having him sleep longer and more calmly. For us, that makes it worth it absolutely, and we think it would be worth the price. And we are "brand loyalty" people--once we find a quality brand we like to stick with it, and 4Moms has been consistently great with everything we have!
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.