Sleep Soundly When They Are Sound Asleep

When we brought our two bundles of joy home from the hospital we were not fully prepared for the every three hour feeding schedule and the sleepless nights. Since Tanner and Abigail had been in the NICU for about a week, we hadn't experienced a night (or day for that matter) with both of them by ourselves. We had two bassinets set up in our bedroom, one on either side of our bed, and just assumed that they would SLEEP in them. We soon found out that was not to be the case. The first few nights home were difficult. We tried many different approaches to putting them to sleep, some worked, other didn't. I swear that each night they came up with a "secret sleep plan" that only they knew and it was our job to figure out what it was. What worked one night, didn't work the next because they kept changing their "secret sleep plan".

One night after exhausting all our tricks of the trade (so to speak), I finally had had enough. I strapped each baby into one of the Fisher Price Infant-to-Toddler Rockers that we were given by our friends Barker and Linda as baby shower gifts, turned the vibrations on each seat, stuck a pacifier in each mouth, started a lullaby CD playing in the CD player. I laid down on the couch to keep an eye on them until the fell asleep, which they did after about 10 minutes. When I got back into bed my husband, Matt, asked me what I did and I told him. He was amazed and we were soon both asleep.

Tanner and Abigail slept in their Fisher Price Infant-to-Toddler Rockers for the first month or so that they were home. They slept much better in them because they weren't completely flat, the back could be adjusted to two different positions (similar to an air plane seat). There is a bar that folds out which prevents the chair from rocking, kind of like the kick stand on a bike. They also have a vibration switch, which Tanner really didn't need but Abigail required to go to sleep. We used the chairs for other times besides naps and sleeping. Tanner and Abigail sat in the chairs on the porch on nice days during the summer while I hung out clothes, in the living room while Matt vacuumed, or in the bathroom while I took a shower.


There is a bar of hanging toys that can be attached to the seat to play with. The center toy has a loop to pull which play music. It took a while for their arms to be long enough to reach the toys, but I will never forget how excited we were when we heard the music play for the first time from another room!


We didn't register for these chairs, we registered for two Brights Starts Comfort & Harmony Baby Bouncers from Target. I will admit I was planning to return these seats the second I opened them. What were we going to do with FOUR infant seats (since we received the ones that we had registered for)? After getting all four chairs home and reading about their features and weight limits I realized that we would get more use out of the Fisher Price chairs, so the Bright Starts bouncers went back to the store.

We haven't used the seats for several months now, in fact one of them is on loan to a friend with a younger child. Once Tanner and Abigail get older I am sure that we will use them again, not for sleeping of course...but for rocking and reading a book or watching an episode of Sesame Street. I can't wait for those days!