Baby Crib/bassinet

Hi all,


Which baby cot/crib/bassinet are you using, and does it attach to your bed? Which ones do you recommend?


Next month I will be shopping for all of this stuff, so any help would be great!


Cheers

We got a US sized Pali crib with a coconut fiber mattress. It's been great, but the shop where we bought it has closed since.


One thing you should be aware of is that mattresses come in (at least) 4 sizes here in HK. As best as I can remember, from smallest to largest, they are: chinese, european, US, european-cot-bed. I wanted a larger mattress as I wanted to be sure our daughter could fit in it as long as possible as I intended on keeping her in it until she climbed out (!) She's nearly 3 now, hasn't even tried to climb out and still has plenty of room.


The other reason you might want to pay attention to mattress size is for sheet selection. Our daughter was a SARS baby so I ended out ordering a huge amount of stuff online rather than traipsing around baby stores with a face mask. A US mattress made sense for us because I knew the big online baby stores in the US and I was researching with the US centric book "Baby Bargains".


A last note about the mattress. I'm not sure I would have selected coconut fiber, I never heard of it before, but it is a really comfortable mattress--our daughter loves her bed and loves going to bed. One of my friends said it looked "soft" for a newborn...I'm not sure about that, but she was sleeping on her back then anyway and seemed very safe to me. Now it's great though, and awfully fun for her to jump on :-)



No, our crib didn't attach to our bed, that probably would have been good. Our daughter ended out in with us in the early weeks, which was quite nice.

We bought a mothercare crib/cot/bed from AsiaXPat.


We chose it because we wanted something that would last - it is a crib now, but turns into a toddler bed, so we can use it from now until 5 years or so.


For the newborn, we put him in a bassinett from Bumps to Babes (cotton,not moses basket) inside the crib - he sleeps here. When we travel or need him to sleep in another room we just move the very portable bassinett.


There is a great australian brand called Valco which makes a 'cocoon' bassinett - we wanted this but could not find it in HK or an online site that would deliver to HK - so we got the one from B2B instead.


The sheet size thing is important - we liked Mothercare because we could buy the sheets here or order online in the UK. We bought the bassinett fitted sheets the same time we bought the bassinett to be sure they fit.


Good luck!!

Thanks much my thoughts and cri. I will check out b2b. How can you buy from Asiaxpat? was it from the classifieds? How much did you pay?


I was exploring this option - Universal co-sleeper:


http://www.armsreach.com/product_univ.asp


but would have to get my sis to send it over from the US. Cost would be about HK$2000. I went to Chicco and the shop opposite in Lee Gardens and priced their baby cot, they're over 5,000 bucks!!!!

The classifieds in AsiaXPat Baby Stuff section is great - I saw a nice IKEA changing table listed today... (we bought our changing table second hand too)


Someone is selling a co-sleeper cot as well.


We don't want to fall into the 'buy lots of expensive stuff' trap :) It is very easy to do, and very easy in HK to spend a LOT of money without getting much in return.


Have you 100% decided to co-sleep? If not, you might want to get something that is more versatile and can work in your bedroom or the baby's room.

Hi Cri, yes I just saw that and PM'd the seller... I've 100% decided to co-sleep, at least for the first 6 months. The co-sleeper changes into a play pen too...


Yes, I'm trying to get as much 2nd hand stuff as possible. My friend just had a baby boy and has promised me loads of stuff once bubs is born, but I think the big items I'll have to find. Or have a baby shower :D

Co-sleeping is lovely, and especially nice at night for a breast feeding mum. The one thing I would suggest, though, is that your baby learn to take her naps on her own from very early on. That will make the transition to nights on her own much smoother and give you a chance to do some things, or nap alone, while she sleeps. It's not their fault they've loved being cosy with mummy, so wrong to have the transition be difficult (I think anyway).

Agree my thoughts, I plan not to rock bubs to sleep or anything like that. I plan to lay him down when he's away and let him drift off like that. I also plan to have timed feeds and not feed everytime he wakes and cries. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans of men and mice... but anyway that's the plan!


I cant believe I'm 20 weeks now - half way there - time is simply flying!!! whew!


Cheers

You'll see soon enough what works well for you and your little one! And you may well find yourself feeding much much more often than you anticpated when he's (she's?) very little, and waiting until he's a bit bigger, when he can eat more and hold more, to encourage a schedule.


It's such a humbling learning experience, those early days, but so wonderful, and so bonding.