review: Fisher Price Papasan Cradle Swing

This is the Fisher Price Papasan Cradle Swing.

Background.
This swing was given to me about 3 1/2 years ago by the wonderful ladies who I worked with at Crossroads Nursery. I hadn’t originally planned on getting a baby swing (all I knew of were those wind up ratchety things that creak and sway in old church nurseries), but I was more than willing to take this one as a gift! My boss said that her niece swore by this thing, so I figured why not give it a try. After all, it looks pretty cool and cozy and I know I sure wouldn’t mind curling up in one if they made it in my size!

The good stuff.
We started using this swing for B the day after we brought her home. She loved the gentle rocking motion, and it really does cradle babies oh-so-cozily. We could swaddle her up and tuck her in between the cushy headrests and not even bother with the buckles (but we would leave it on the lowest setting, just to be safe). So for the first week we kind of thought of it as a fun place to put her. After the first week, when Andrew went back to work, I began to see it as The-Most-Important-Thing-I-Owned. As an infant, B insisted upon behind held all the time, and greatly preferred it if we held her while we were walking around. As you can imagine (and as some of you probably know from experience), this can be a bit problematic especially when one wants to take a shower and is the only adult home. So for those times when I simply had to put her down (usually just for my shower and the putting on of make-up) this swing came to my rescue. She could lie here contented for a good half hour and that was just enough time to get done what I needed to.

The speed settings worked well, although we really just left it on the lowest one for the first few months because she was so light that that would get it going fast enough. As she got bigger we probably bumped it up a notch or two.

The music isn’t bad, but B never really got into it.

The mirror on top for the kiddos to look at was a hit, as were the spinning birds, butterflies, and leaves (we had the Nature’s Touch version). B loved to stare at herself in the mirror as she’d swing side to side…I think we even got some fun videos of that when she was little.

The not-so-good stuff.
I have two complaints with this swing. First, it runs on batteries. It would be so much nicer if one could just plug it into the wall (they may have remedied this in the past 3 years). That said, in the 8 or so months that we used it I think we only replaced the batteries once or twice and as you may have gathered from what I wrote above, we used it a lot. Secondly, the base is a bit large. The legs spread out quite far in order to steady the swing and this makes it a bit difficult to tuck the swing into a corner. So if you live in a smallish apartment (or a house of a smaller scale), be prepared for the swing to make quite a dent in your floor space.

Final thoughts.
For me, the pros waaaayyyy out weigh the cons. I would have this thing sitting in the middle of my kitchen if that was the only way I could fit it into my house, and I would give up my Starbucks for a week (yes! even as a new mother!) to buy the batteries. Fortunately, these are so popular now that they can be fairly easily found on Craigslist or other resale places for about half of what they cost new. But even with a price tag of anywhere from $110 to $280 (depending on which design you get), it’s a fantastic investment in my opinion. I can’t wait to pull ours out in a few weeks and get it all set up for Baby E!

review: IO wrap top

I’ve given up on trying to find non-maternity related things to post about here and I’m just going to start writing about all that is on my mind lately – maternity and babies! The first thing that I’m going to do is start a new category for the ol’ blog, and that is the “review” category. I plan to review things (probably mostly maternity/baby things) in an effort to smarten up all your buying for baby!

This is the Isabella Oliver Wrap Around top.

Background.
I first fell in love with these shirts when I was pregnant with B, but I couldn’t afford to splurge on them then. In fact, I still can’t afford to splurge on them, but eBay seems to be bursting with some IO products and I was able to get this shirt in the lovely red color at a nice discount, so it was doable. Nothing like indulging in a pricey but beautiful piece of clothing to make you really excited about that new baby bump!
The shirt is basically a little cropped top with really long ties that you end up wrapping all the way around and down your belly. Once you get the hang of wrapping it, it’s not too hard. The deep V neck necessitates a camisole for most occasions, but having the camisole underneath kind of helps hold the shirt in place so it’s not really a bad thing.

First, the good stuff.
This shirt is absolutely perfect for those first “tween” months when your normal shirts may be a bit small but the maternity shirts (unless you get an XS) look like potato sacks. You actually wrap it around your body to fit snugly and so it does a great job of showing off the beginnings of your baby bump. It’s basically made to fit. They come in beautiful colors that will go with just about anything, and it’s the sort of style that you can dress up with a black pencil skirt and stilettos or dress down with a pair of jeans and boots.

Now, the not good stuff.
For a regular retail price of $125, I expected this shirt to be made of some really fantastic fabric. I was a bit disappointed to see that it was a pretty run of the mill knit, and the stitching around the hems wasn’t very well done (but I did buy this shirt slightly used, so it could be a result of laundering and I’ll try not to hold that against the company).

I’m not a particularly long torso-ed person, but the wrap around ties on this shirt are barely long enough to cover my 4-month belly. The ties need to be at least 2′ longer to fully cover the belly and get any kind of nicely hanging bow at the side.

I’m not a fan of having to constantly ask my husband if “there are any holes”. Since the shirt is just wrapped around, you have to keep an eye out for gaps between the wraps, which can happen fairly easily if you do a lot of bending or turning. Wearing the camisole helps to lessen the gapping, but it’s still a little unnerving.

Final thoughts.
If I’d ordered this from the company, I probably would’ve sent it back because in my opinion it’s just not worth $125. But having gotten it at a decent price, I’m relatively satisfied and wear it maybe once every two weeks, mostly for occasions where I really want to look pregnant. So if you can get it on eBay for a good price (or make your own – wouldn’t be hard at all), I recommend it, but otherwise, use your $125 to buy 5 tops on sale at the Gap.