Thingamababy

Before our baby arrived, shopping for a crib made my head swirl. Stores in our rural region left our handful of options looking all the same. Meanwhile, Web-shopping for a crib gave us too many options. What features do we even need in a crib? What about co-sleepers and bassinets?

I jokingly told Mom we should put the baby in a hammock. So I was more than a little surprised when she jumped on the Web and found a hammock, the Amby Baby Motion Bed.

The Amby has a foam mattress which sits in a cloth and mesh sling-like hammock. One end of the hammock has a zippered hatch that opens to make baby insertion and removal easier. The hammock itself is suspended from a white metal frame that resembles a banana hanger.

A premise behind the Amby bed is that babies sleep better because they are snuggled in the bed (like swaddling) and a baby’s own movements rock the bed, and in turn rock the baby back to sleep.

We loved the Amby for these reasons:

• Lasting sleep. Little Miss was sleeping through the night at 3 or 4 months of age (My and Mom’s memories differ on that point). Miss slept 10 to 12 hours each night, usually waking only once for a feeding or a leaky diaper. I don’t know whether this is typical for Amby users.
• Quick to sleep. Put Miss swaddled inside, zip the exterior flap, and then set the bed swinging or rocking. Miss would close her eyes and fall asleep in minutes.
• Portable. The bed was easily moveable from room-to-room to allow sleeping in our bedroom and, later, the baby’s own room.
• Travel bag. Whether staying at a hotel or relative’s house, Little Miss slept in her same familiar bed.
• The sling-hammock-thingie and mattress cover are washable.
• Cuddle Snuggler positioning rolls secured the newborn-size Little Miss from rolling side-to-side in the hammock.
• We bought optional mosquito netting (seen piled below the bed in the photo above), which came in handy the few times we spotted mosquitoes indoors. No West Nile, please.
• Amby also says its bed helps prevent flathead, helps prevent SIDS because babies must be put to sleep on their backs, and helps with acid reflux because of an inclined sleeping position.

What we didn’t like:

• The bed is rated for birth to 12 months, although some parents have luck with a longer duration. Little Miss outgrew the bed at 8 months (see last paragraph below).
• The whole bed-frame setup is ugh-ly!
• The foam mattress cover is not water proof. The mattress has a cloth cover and an elastic-attached sheet. Diaper leaks are a late night hassle, replacing the sheet, and if the cover gets wet, well, they only gave us one! We learned to place a diaper changing pad between the two so the cover remained dry.
• There was a brief learning curve for placing a swaddled sleeping baby into a bed that moves as you touch it.

We credit the Amby bed for minimizing our "sleepless nights" that parents report having during the first months of life with a new baby. I would recommend the Amby Baby to a friend. However, the Danish Leander cradle is a similar, new hammock-like product that I would also give serious consideration (see Daddy Types’ Something is rockin’ in Denmark posting).

At eight months, Miss experienced her first ear infection. She began squirming in the hammock and Mom thought maybe the rocking motion was causing the fluid in her ears to move around, causing Miss discomfort. We switched her to a floor mattress, and she slept on her stomach through the night. After the infection was cured, Miss refused the hammock, insisting on trying to sleep on her stomach. And thus, the honeymoon was over.

Also see Eric’s postings about his Amby at More Diapers:

• Amby Bed Night One
• Amby Bed Week One
• Bouncing Round the Room
• Amby Bed Revisited

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss our next unconventional sleeping arrangement.

Monday, October 3rd, 2005Sleep