bonzobean's Full Review: Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer
Nothing is more precious than memories of those first few moments with your newborn. I remember the birth of my son five years ago. I had to have an emergency c-section because my son’s heartbeat dropped rapidly and my blood pressure was sky high. They got him out immediately but because I had a c-section and had the sheet in front of me, I couldn’t see him although I could certainly hear him. The moment his head came out of the incision, he was screaming and he continued to do so for the next five minutes while they checked him over and ran some tests. That kid had some healthy lungs. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, my husband carried him over, still screaming of course, and I immediately started talking to him. The moment he heard my voice, he immediately quieted, opened his eyes and he stayed quiet from that moment on. Just the memory brings back those tears. He knew his mommy’s voice.
Fast-forward nearly five years and my daughter is also being delivered via c-section. They lifted her out and she immediately began screaming as well. She screamed and screamed while they checked her over and then my husband brought her over to me. With fond memories of my son, I spoke to her and, you guessed it, she continued to scream and scream. In fact, I think that little girl screamed for six weeks straight. If you had looked in the dictionary under ‘unhappy baby’, you would have seen her red, scrunched-up screaming face.
With one very unhappy baby in the house and my husband away with the military for the first few months of her life, I was desperate to calm her. We had purchased a swing before she was born because that was always a sure way to soothe our son. Of course, the swing only made her angrier. I tried running the vacuum cleaner which always calmed my son and she screamed even louder. We tried tummy drops, soothing music and everything else that was recommended. After several weeks of almost no sleep and just being exhausted, our pediatrician suggested giving a vibrating baby seat a try. I stopped at our local WalMart on the way home and picked up the Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer by Fisher Price which was really the first one I saw and raced home with this, hopefully, miraculous contraption.
The Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer
If you are wondering what this contraption is, well, Fisher Price claims that this bouncer “pours on the soothing with all sorts of aquatic sights and sounds, calming vibrations that soothe baby like a ride in the car, and gentle bouncing motion activated by baby’s own movements.” The bouncer, itself, is a very well-padded fabric, almost hammock-like seat cradling the baby. The fabric is a variety of blues intended to resemble the ocean. A removable toy bar is attached with a couple of swinging toys, a see-through aquarium with plastic fishes, bubbles, and lights. Along the seat is a switch that turns this into a vibrating seat and can be used until baby reaches 25 lbs or sits up by him or herself. One interesting note, the packaging does state that this is not to used as a carseat and I have to wonder why that little warning even needed to be included but if we really need to be warned not to use hair dryers while sleeping or bathing, I suppose this warning might be just as necessary.
Once I arrived home, I immediately set down my sobbing baby, tore open the box and, much to my dismay, found out I needed to assemble this contraption.
Assembling the Bouncer
To assemble the bouncer, you need one Phillips screwdriver. After I had torn apart my husband’s toolbox and shop looking for this screwdriver, I finally found one in the kitchen drawer (of course). After spending several minutes trying to comfort my daughter, I set out to put this bouncer together. You start by fitting the base ‘wires’ together which will hold the seat in place and then hook the footrest onto the base. The ‘wires’ are really stiff and you do have to use a little muscle fitting this altogether. Next you attach the pieces with screws and aligning the screws and wires takes a little more muscle. After you have finally wrestled the screws in place, if you’re anything like me, you realize the wires are backwards and you take the seat apart and start over while adding a few specific words of your choosing. After you’ve got the seat together properly, you then get to wrestle the pad into place and attach the restraint belts. Next you simply snap the toybar into place and assembly is complete until you realize you forgot to insert the 4 ‘D’ batteries and have to wrestle off the seat cover, find that darn disappearing screwdriver and then put it all back together again. On the ‘pain in the rear end’ scale, I put this seat at about a 7 or 8 and it ended up taking me about 45 minutes to get it put together but that included time to sooth my crying baby.
The toy bar
The removable toy bar consists of a pseudo-aquarium with two plastic fish, a plastic smiling starfish and painted-on sea grass. Once you turn on the unit, soft yellow and purple lights filter through the aquarium and bubbles cause the fish to kiss (now, everybody, altogether…awwww, how sweet!!!). The two hanging kick toys act to activate the sounds in ‘baby activated’ mode and have a teether attached.
The Settings
The seat has only one vibration mode. You either have the seat on or off. However, you have five choices of music or sounds. You can choose the lullaby, ocean waves, summer rain, babbling brook setting or quiet mode. You may also choose which sound setting to use or put the switch on ‘baby activated’ and every time she kicks the toys, she’ll skip to another setting. Each mode of music and sounds lasts for approximately 10 minutes and, once it shuts off, you just press the button and the sounds start again. The vibrating seat stays on until you turn it off which means you can leave it on all night if so desired. The best part is you have two loudness settings – soft and loud.
Did the Bouncer soothe my baby?
If this were the true fairy tale ending, I would be telling you that the moment my daughter sat in this vibrating seat, she instantly calmed and has been happy ever since, but if you read the beginning of this review, you already know she screamed for six weeks so obviously this wasn’t the case. However, I can tell you, when she was in this seat, she would calm for brief periods and even fall asleep in the seat. In fact, my pediatrician said that if it would help me keep my sanity, I could even let her sleep in this seat at night, which I did do more than a few times. The vibrations along with the music seemed to be the winning combination. If I just turned on the music, she continued to sob and likewise with just the vibrations, but turn them both on at once and you had a pretty good chance of some peace and quiet.
What I liked most about the bouncer
Honestly, the only thing I liked about the Aquarium Bouncer is that when the music and vibrations were on, we had a fairly good chance of our daughter being content. I also liked that the seat cover is washable and the unit can be fairly easily wiped down and cleaned.
What I disliked about this bouncer
I do have several complaints about this bouncer. We traveled frequently and there was no easy way to pack up this seat. It didn’t fold and was a bit bulky. Also, you are only given one reclining position with this seat. As my daughter got a little older, she preferred to sit up more and would get annoyed at being in the same position. While the lights, music and aquarium were nice, my daughter was never really captivated by the hanging toys and teethers because they were down by her feet and kicking them never seemed to do much for her. The vibrating seat needs one ‘D’ battery and if you leave the switch on and forget to turn it off, you’ll find yourself using a lot of batteries and, believe me, it is easy to forget the vibration is on even with the whirring noise it makes. I also found that the toy bar, which requires 3 ‘D’ batteries, tends to eat up the batteries quickly as well.
Final Recommendation
So, after describing what a pain this contraption is to put together and all the things I didn’t like about this bouncer, you want to know if I recommend it? The answer is unequivocally, “YES!!!” For the first time, I was able to get some sleep and my daughter had some content moments in this seat. You could have told me I’d have to take that seat apart after every time she used it and then put it back together for the next time and I still would have done it each and every time. As any new mom who is desperate for peace, quiet and sleep will tell you, you’ll do anything to achieve that goal. I cannot guarantee these same results, but my daughter did have quite a reputation in the hospital and our pediatrician’s office as being the ultimate fuss and if it worked for her, good chance this seat will work for other fussy babies as well. If you have a fussy baby, know a mom with a fussy baby or just know a mom about to have a baby, I would really recommend the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer.
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