What is it about those pregnancy hormones that makes us want to shop? I already enjoy shopping a little more than I should, but when I was pregnant it was a whole different story. I was a women obsessed, and not with that random kind of spontaneous shopping. Oh no - I was a very well informed, very obsessed, very hormonal preggo with Platinum, and my baby was going to have the best of everything.
That hormonal obsession lead me to this, the Safety 1st Rocking Bassinet - Toile. As you can see in the picture provided, the toile pattern is in a lovely shade of blue that, I'll have you know, perfectly matches the blue walls of my bedroom. Actually, it matches the blue walls of half of my bedroom - the half I had the energy to paint during my second trimester, but didn't have nearly enough energy to finish painting during the third trimester, and haven't had time to paint in the four months since the baby's birth.
The design of the toile is nursery rhymes, so there's dishes running away with spoons, cows jumping over moons, eggs on walls, and Jacks prepping to climb beanstalks. The other print is a nice sort of checked/diamond pattern, and the cover of the included mattress pad has the toile on one side and the checked/diamond pattern on the other. There's a very subtle flowery sort of accent strip of material that serves as the trim, and the rest of the piece incorporates shades of white and off-white. The flowery trim makes it a slightly girly piece, but because of the blue color and the non-gender-specific nursery rhymes I think you could definitely get away with this for a boy baby, too.
For mom and dad, this piece is ultra convenient. If you chose to keep it in your bedroom, it is high enough so you can easily tend to baby while sitting on the edge of your bed, and can pick baby up without much bending over - unless you're REALLY tall, then I imagine you have to bend over pretty far to pick up most things. The bassinet also comes with wheels (two of which are lockable), great for when you want to move a sleeping baby into another room without picking/waking her up. You also have the option of not using the wheels, as the unit comes with stationery feet, but I think the wheels are easy to put on and add to the unit's convenience factor.
The bassinet itself is very large - the largest I've seen of any similar unit - and at four months, 14-1/2 pounds, and over 24 inches long, I could still very comfortably and safely put my daughter in it to sleep. There is a hood on the unit that can fold down or snap up over baby, presumably to block out any overhead light, but I've found that the material is too thin on the hood to really do that effectively. The unit is suspended between the very sturdy frame and can be manually rocked, or it can be locked in place for a sturdy night's sleep.
Under the bassinet is a two-compartment basket that's big enough to hold diapers, wipes, powder, ointment, burp towels, a change of clothes, a blanket, etc., etc. Anything you think you might want to keep handy will fit nicely there, although it's not the most convenient thing to bend down so low to grab at things you need for a diaper change. Chances are that you're going to pick up your baby when she's crying anyway, so you might as well walk her to her changing table in her room and take care of business. I cleared those baskets out of everything after just a few days of that and that was perfectly fine with our two cats, each of which find the compartments to be perfect little kitty beds.
This is, in my well-researched opinion, the best bassinet on the market, and if you need one then I highly recommend you buy this one - its larger size alone and ability to hold your child longer than the average bassinet is reason enough to make this worth every penny of its $70 price tag.
However, before you rush out and buy this, be really serious with yourself about whether or not you're going to use it. We have a tri-level home, so I just assumed that I would need another bed besides the baby's crib somewhere in the house. I also assumed that I'd want her to sleep in our room the first few months, out of convenience for night feedings/changings and our own new-parent fears. It wasn't until after we bought this bassinet that we learned from a very wise source that babies learn to sleep through the night quicker if they don't sleep in the same room as their parents. Fearing years of sleepless nights, we put her in her crib in her room at two weeks old, and she's been sleeping through the night since she was two months old. As far as the rest of the house goes, we have a Pack 'n Play in the lower level - a much more convenient, long lasting, and versatile item - and in the mid-level of the house, well, we just don't hang out there enough to justify her needing a bed there.
So, the morale of the story is that if you have a multi-level home and you spend a lot of time in a particular room that doesn't have enough space for a pack 'n play, you might want to purchase a bassinet - or more specifically THIS bassinet, because it's the best - but even then, don't buy it brand new, because a used one was probably used more to hold baby's toys than baby.
I bought mine on eBay for $60, with shipping.
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