Moses Basket and Bassinets

I went with the Graco bassinet and have used it for all three of my babies for the past 5 years. (I have a 1 year old, 3 and 5 year old). It's great as I take it with me when I travel and when I'm cooking I would put my baby in the bassinet and not worry. Don't go out and buy a crib so soon. I moved mine from the bassinet into a crib when she was around 9 months old!

Hi G.,

I have had both, and would recommend the Moses Basket. It is small enough to take from room to room and easy to take in the car when visiting friends and family. I used a Moses Basket for the first three months with my son, and loved it. Good luck!

p.s. i found my moses basket on ebay...

~P.~

Hi and congrats!! I personally think the newbie will want to be as close to his mama as possible. Sleeping with your babe is awesome especially if you are going to breast feed. It makes it alot easier to just role over or at least not have to get out of bed to nurse thru the night. They really crave your smell, breath and heartbeat. And its been proven that it lowers risks for SIDS- as they follow your breathing knowing your there. Dont worry you wont role over on them....your mama button has already been turned on I imagine. Good Luck and check out Ricki Lakes new documentary on birth- its great. The Business of Being Born.

I used a small cradle for my daughter, and she ended up refusing to sleep in it. the entire first month, I would let her sleep in her swing next to my bed because that was the ONLY way she would go to sleep. I personally think that moses baskets or bassinets are great because the baby is right there when they wake up in the middle of the night, and it's really easy for you to check on them when you wake up worried. The only problem I had with my cradle was that it was really big and in the way. It made it really difficult to get around things in my bedroom. After the first month, I started putting her in her own crib in her own room. And here we are, 5 months old, and she sleeps great. All in all, the basket/bassinet is your choice. I think it's good to have the baby with you the first month, its a lot easier than getting up at 2 am and stumbling to the other side of the house to get the baby to feed her! Haha..good luck!!

I loved using the moses basket for the first couple of months with my second child! With our first, we used a cradle and a pack-n-play, but I found the moses basket worked much better. You can keep it in your room (even in your bed!) in the beginning. When we moved her out of our room, we simply put her to sleep in the moses basket and put that inside the crib. For naps, she slept in it wherever I was in the house. It is also convenient for travel and my daughter always slept really well in it.

I got a moses basket as a gift for my 3 child and just loved it. You are right it doesn't have a long shelf life but when she was so tiny it was all she would sleep in. Sure was better then the laundry basket i used before getting the moses basket LOL. I used a playyard with the bassinet insert and that was a life saver too. The moses basket is more mobile but both are worth it during the first few months.

Have you heard of the "Co-Sleeper"? Its like a pack and play but one side is missing so you can pull it against your bed. Its so cool! I would recommend it.

Your child will use a moses basket or bassinet for a relatively small amount of time (less than 4 months). I would suggest buying a pack'n'play portable crib. They are wonderful and your child can use it as long as he/she is in a crib (age 2 or so). We sent the pack'n'play up in our bedroom and had our son sleep there for a couple months. Then we transitioned him to the crib in his room. We set the pack'n'play up downstairs and I use to when I change his diapers (it has a changing table attachment) and he can lay in it. It has two levels, just like a regular crib so when your child can roll, you lower the mattress. We will be taking the pack'n'play with us when we travel to Hawaii next month. It folds down and has a handy carrying bag that we can check at the airport.

I second the mini cosleeper. We have the arm's reach. I considered selling it on ebay, but decided to just pack it up and keep it in case we ever get prego again! I loved it.

It rolls on wheels like a wheelbarrow, attaches securely to your bed, has lifts and can be slightly lowered depending on your bed height (we had a futon platform, not very high, it never quite actually leveled out, but we still had it next to the bed and kept it in use for a long time.) I ended up dragging my daughter into bed, but the cosleeper was great for afternoon naps as well as when I just didn't want her in the bed for whatever reasons. I think it's really great if you are breastfeeding, but it's probably good for non-bf moms too, since you don't have to get up and trek across the house to make a bottle.

I highly suggest this over either the moses basket (I didn't want one, I have cats) or a bassinet (my mother had one and our daughter, though on the small side, outgrew it in a few weeks.)

The cosleepers are truly great, and they come in a variety of colors. There are also versions that are wooden, fancy, etc. We just got a plain fern colored one, it's fabric, has a breathable/zippered storage compartment and we opted not to buy the little mosquito tent, but I did really want it for awhile.

Good luck!!! And congrats!!!

Hi G. - I'm a mom of 3 - 12,10 & 8. I had a bassinet that I used for each one. I had it by the side of my bed so that it was easy to nurse at night. I have to tell you that with each child they were out of the bassinet earlier and earlier as I could not sleep with them right by me. They moved into the crib after 2 weeks. We had a monitor and their room was across the hall and I woke up no problem when they needed me. By moving them to the crib, it allowed all of us to get the much needed rest and I didn't wake to every little grunt. All of my kids slept through the night by 10 weeks and all was great. My suggestion to you would be to purchase the crib, but maybe borrow a bassinet for those few weeks you may use it. Hope that helps. Also there is a book called "Baby Wise" by James Dobson that I recommend! That is how I got my kids to sleep through the night...it works!

Dear G.,

I can't really speak about Bassinets, but I used a mini co-sleeper for my daughter, who is now 6 months. The co-sleeper was extremely easy to set up and you can use it till your child is 20lbs. When my daughter turned 4 mos, I started letting her sleep on the bed with me (cus she is a LIGHT SLEEPER....and I wanted to make sure that she was okay). Otherwise, I would have to get up every 5 minutes to feel her chest. I hope this helps a little.

My son slept in a co-sleeper for the first 4 months. Also, a friend let me borrow their bassinet. He seemed to sleep better in the co-sleeper, but they were both good options. If I had to do it again, I would use a co-sleeper or pack-n-play. Simply because you get more bang for your buck.

I used a Moses Basket for both my childern before the crib. They both loved the basket and it was convient to keep them in the room I was working without the worry of what was happening to them. We also used it when visiting other friends and family. I knew they were safe and could sleep in it anywhere. I loved and used ours until the kids were mobile. Each child was different. My daughter used it for all her baby dolls later. I hope this has been helpful. Hugs, C.

since we adopted our son from out of state and knew we would have a 3 day car trip to get a 1 week old baby home, a friend gave us a moses basket to use. william hated it. We ended up putting a blanket on the floor in the motel room and he slept just fine on it. Once at home he slept in a regular size crib and we used a pack-n-play when traveling. At six weeks old, we spent a week in our camper. There was no room for the pack-n-play and I was afraid to have him sleep in the relatively narrow cab-over bed with us so I cut the end out of a box and set it on the bench seat in the dining area for him to sleep in. Just remember, if you get them started in these smaller beds, there will be a transition period to get them to sleep in a big crib. If they get used to the big crib from the very begining you won't have a transition until they get moved out of the crib and into a "big kid bed".

Dear G.,

What I really wanted was that big, 36' tall hospital bassinet
with the storage compartment and everything on wheels! I bought a bassinet before my baby was born and did not consider how much bending I would be doing and the bassinet I bought was so low and it hurt my back every time I had to bend over and change my baby or pick her up or set her down.
Plus, it did not seem very cozy to me. She slept with me in the bed while I was searched for something portable to put her in where she could have a cozy sleeping place and be next to me. It didn't feel natural or right to me to be far away from my tiny baby. Plus I was exclusively breast-feeding, and being CLOSE is the way to go for optimal sleep.

A friend then gave me a Moses basket which I ended up loving!
I put it in the middle of my bed at night and I could also tote it around the house. I was able to sleep right next to her, but she also had a safe and cozy sleeping nest of her own.

Here's what we did with our daughter Penny:

1) I put the Moses basket next to me in bed. She had a safe place to sleep and it was right next to me. It worked beautifully.

2)When she got older and started moving around so that she could fall or roll out, we set up a crib at the end of our bed (this when she was between 6-7 months old) and put the Moses basket inside the crib.

3) After a week or so, we took the Moses basket out of the crib. I'd put her down to sleep at night in the crib, and she'd go back and forth from our bed and the crib during the night. She migrates between the crib and our bed at night and
she is now 14 months old.

5) She loves to play in the Moses basket. She likes to sit in it, climb in and out of it, and we drag her around the house in it (kind of like a wagon). It is a nice basket for toys, and if she likes dolls, she can use it for her dolly bed.

I am very happy about how this has worked. A nice combo of sleeping with us but also having a baby nest of her own.

L. M
Novato

G.
a few people mentioned co-sleepers, but I didn't see the reasons, so here are mine:
1) it is small, light, and portable - our 'mini' fits right where my night stand is, tight between the bed and the wall; it collapses (though not without some effort) to an easily carried parcel with a (guessing) 7"x7" base. Small!
2) most of the time when Ellie wakes up, all she needs is her paci or a warm hand on her cheek. I can't imagine getting up every time she wakes up; with a co-sleeper, roll over and there s/he is :)

hope this helps

Hi G. - first off, congratulations!

You are correct - bassinets do not have a long shelf life. If you decide to purchase one, read the product information as they have weight/height limitations. Our bassinet could hold up to 13 lbs. So, if you think you are going to have a big baby, the shelf life will be in shorter.

Our son sleep in a bassinet for the first 2 months of his life. He was colicky and wanted to constantly be held or rocked. It was nice to have the bassinet in our room. When he started crying whoever was "on duty" would reach out and rock the bassinet . . no need to get our of bed! Another big plus with the bassinet in your room is if you plan on nursing. I would just pick him up, nurse him in my bed and put him back in his bassinet. I guess you can get a co-sleeper - it attaches to your bed. But the idea of my baby sleeping on something the hung off our bed freaked me out a bit.

Another pro - some experts say that newborns may feel more secure in a bassinet b/c it may be scaring for a tiny newborn to be in crib that will feel massive to him/her.

We definitely wanted our son to be able to sleep in his own room. The great thing about our bassinet was when he eventually started to sleep for longer periods of time, we would wheel him out of our room and into his room.

Other than a short shelf life, the only con was newborns make gurgle sounds when they are sleeping. I am a light sleeper so I had a hard time falling asleep when he was in our room. But our bassinet had wheels, so I had the option of wheeling him back to his room.

Also, bassinets are not cheap. Given it's short shelf life, if you can borrow from a friend, DO!

Good Luck!

Bassinets are nice because you can put them right next to you in your room for the first 3-4 months. You get up so much during the night to feed them so it's really convenient. Plus being new parents, it gives you peace of mind to keep checking on them through the night to make sure their covered etc. I always wanted a moses basket but through two kids I never got one. I would think it would be convenient to have them wherever you are during the day too.