Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper Bassinet - Natural

I used this product for about 7 months with my second daughter, and I have to say that I liked it so much that I am only sorry that I didn't have it around for my first.

For my first daughter, we slept her in a graco portable crib/playpen with the bassinet insert next to the bed. It was fine, but it was huge - we had to rearrange our room to make it fit next to the bed, and when I got her to nurse at night, I had to get up and get her in and out. Being an anxious first-time mother, I was also constantly sitting up to check on her whenever I awoke to her movements in the night.

The mini cosleeper fit easily right next to my bed and attached tightly and safely to it with the included bedplate and strap (attaches to the cosleeper and runs under the mattress and pulls firmly against the far side with a plastic plate). I could see her while I was lying down, which was great, and when she woke up, I was able to just bring her to me and lay her back down without actually getting out of bed. It was wonderful.

The mini cosleeper has its own special sheets (additional can be purchased) with lots of Velcro to attach the mattress firmly on the underside of the mattress to the frame. This is what is recommended for safety purposes by Arm's Reach. Standard elastic bassinet sheets do fit the mattress as well, and we chose to use these even though it is not recommended by the manufacturer. Height extenders are also available for the legs, so that you can make the product fit a higher mattress.

We got our mini cosleeper mainly because I expected my older daughter to want to come back in our bed, at least temporarily, when the baby was born (I figured, who wants be the only one sleeping alone!). Since it's not safe to cosleep with a baby and an older sibling (the heavily sleeping child can overlay the baby), and big sister was too young to sleep between my husband and the edge of the bed, I thought this would be perfect. Also, I believe heavily in swaddling (see my article on Swaddling Your Breastfed Baby), and I'm not personally wild about cosleeping with a swaddled baby. Ironically, our older daughter never did return to our bed, but the baby slept SO well swaddled in the cosleeper (a 6-8 hour stretch, almost right away), we stuck with it. It was great having her so close with the feeling of being with me in my bed, while still having some space to stretch out and roll around.

The mini cosleeper comes in a range of colors and patterns and range in price from about $130 to $160, although more expensive styles are available. You can get them in the traditional fabric/netting style, or splurge for natural wood slat or other more custom looks. They are even now making a product that converts to a lower crib, rather than having the storage underneath. If that had always been available, I would have never bought a full-sized portable crib, since the playpen function is not important to me. The mini provides more than enough room to sleep until your child is old enough to sleep in a regular bed, or alternately a mat, cot or sleeping bag of some kind.

Additional features and benefits of the mini cosleeper include the easy transition from the lowered side to a regular bassinet (seems tricky to figure out, but easy once you've got it down). It's also easy to disconnect from the bedplate (two squeeze latches) and then you can roll it from room to room since (unlike its full-sized counterparts), it's small enough to fit through standard doorways. It's so much smaller and lighter than the full-size portable cribs, that after years of traveling with those, it was a delight to travel with the mini. They also have pretty good resale value, selling at the time of this article, between $50 and $100 on ebay and Craigslist - neutral colors are a better buy for this purpose than a pink or patterned look.

After using a range of products, and finally coming to the mini cosleeper, I can't recommend this product highly enough.

We bought this 3 years ago for our first born...then used it for our second child..and now bought it as a gift for a friend. It was wonderful to have our children so close while they were <6 months of age. We initially lived in a house with a smallish master bedroom so the mini co-sleeper was perfect. We even brought it on trips with us because it folded up so easily.
The only negative thing I have to even offer is that you should realize ahead of time that you have to scoot down some in order to be able to get out of your bed. Not a big deal to me--but it prevented one of my relatives from ordering it.
Great product that has withstood the test of time!
Highly recommended.

All I can say is I should have purchased the co-sleeper three kids ago. This item wasn't available when I had my first 16 years ago, so we used a bassinet. With my second baby 7 years ago, we assumed the bassinet would work fine, so that is what we used. Well, he only slept 30-90 minutes at a time until 20 months of age, and let me tell you, we spent many restless nights getting up out of bed to get him from his bassinet or being kicked by his little feet! Our third didn't sleep any better, and she ended up in our bed until age three - not a problem for mommy, but daddy is a light sleeper and was also missing his wife:) Finally, when our fourth was born in December of '07, we used a bassinet for about 3 days; I fell asleep one night with her in my arms out of sheer exhaustion and woke up horrified to find her under our heavy down comforter and immediately rushed downstairs to order this co-sleeper. I like all my friends are terrified of SIDS and since new research indicates infants in bed with mom and dad are actually at a higher risk, we couldn't in good concience, let her sleep in our bed like we did with our third. She sleeps so soundly in her little co-sleeper nest. It is just the right size, and she can suck her paci and look at mommy until she drifts off. It is so much better than a bassinet becasue I don't even have to sit up to tuck her paci back in her mouth or pat her to sooth her. She is a bigger baby at 75% for height and weight, and she is showing no signs of outgrowing her co-sleeper. I only wish I had had this with the last two, it would have made my nights much more pleasant!

I have yet to have my baby but when we received the bassinet which comes highly recommended, both wheels were shattered. Not sure how to order replacements so will just go to the local hardware to buy new ones. The mattress pad does seem a bit hard....we will see. Everything else was simple and I love the color.

The mini co-sleeper is sensible if you have limited space and the price is right. I recommend adding another water proof pad atop the one that comes with the crib for extra softness and just in case there is an accident in the middle of the night - remove the top sheet and pad and deal with it in the morning. As a side note, it is a little tricky to find the right size sheets for it, so you may want to order more than one of the co-sleeper sheets at the time of purchase. Finally, my co-sleeper arrived with a broken wheel which is a pain to have replaced.