I have always heard nothing but great things about the 4Moms mamaRoo! My great friend swore it was her life saver for her son!
I wasn't planning on purchasing the mamaRoo because I'm frugal. I'm not a cheapo, I spend money on things I think are worth it, but I'm very money conscious (like I steal Joe's change to add to my collection always, that ish adds up & you didn't even know you had $300 in change!) Also since living with my in-laws & settling into our home, I'm trying to simplify my life, AKA less clutter, less things that will only be used for a short bit of time.
However, we received the mamaRoo4 from a family member at our shower & I was so surprised & excited to try it out! Pretty sure we had the mamaRoo set up before the crib! But we aren't actually crazy, I had been introducing the idea of baby to my sweet fur babes by using my old baby doll. I put the doll in her car seat & would put my phone in it's clothes & play crying sounds. So the mamaRoo was perfect to see how the dogs would react to the baby & the swing's movement. It was hilarious, my Bailey was very curious!
We love the mamaRoo! It's not a "life saver" like it was for our friend Nikki, but it really makes things easy for us in it's own unique ways through Nicolina's stages.
At first, she wasn't crazy about it. She wouldn't mind sitting in it to see what was going on or to watch the TV, because she preferred sleeping in her bassinet. If she did fall asleep in it, it wouldn't be for too long though. My parents have a swing we received second hand by Joe's co worker (I have to get the name of it), that she LOVED and would sleep a decent amount of time in for them, so I'm not sure what the difference was for her regarding this stage.
Around 4 months, she started sleeping in it longer and more often! This is what I put her in when I got ready for work in the mornings after she woke up. Since she out grew her bassinet, we use the mamaRoo for her to nap in when we are all downstairs. This made "the transfer" super easy! Oh I know yall know about the "transfer." They fall asleep in your arms and putting them down is equivalent to gambling at the casino! Anyways, putting her down in her mamaRoo made the "tansfer" seamless! Now that she's 6 months and trying to get around EVERYWHERE & holds her own bottles, we have to put her in the mamaRoo for a bottle. It keeps her in one place for me, so I can finish a few dishes or let the dogs out!
I love the simplicity of the mamaRoo, the sleekness & neutral color scheme. I appreciate, that the mobile has removable plush eggs, with different sensory effects. One side of the egg is black and white with the pattern on it for developing newborn eyesight, and the other side are engaging colors for a little bit older. 4moms really did their research on this! At first I couldn't understand why the mobile didn't mechanically move. Now I see that it's when they get older, baby can grab and spin it themselves! I also love that if Nicolina has a blowout, you can just unzip the cover and throw it in the wash!
I don't like how you can't remove the straps to wash as well! Nicolina has had countless blowouts in her mamaRoo and although the fabric seat itself is the most easy (out of her high chair & car seat) to remove and wash, those darn straps will not come off unless I get a screw driver and completely take the swing apart (UM, not happening). This is frustrating, I have to rig water bottles with soapy water to set on the base to let them soak in. My husband, not knowing I set them there, knocked over one once spilling it everywhere! The last blow out we had, I didn't have time to set the soak up. Dad washed the cover and put it back on and the next day I walked into the living room and Nicolina was gnawing away at the straps (like every baby does) but I realized literally "oh shit" I hadn't gotten her last accident out of the straps... EW! Talk about super frustrating. I had a "I'm a horrible mom" moment.
I'm also indifferent about the app you can sync the mamaRoo to. While this is super fun & very convenient (to change the sounds, speeds, and movement of the swing from your phone) I can't help but hope that this doesn't allow other parents to fall asleep completely leaving baby alone in the swing for a long time. Joe and I do have lots of fun with this though, even before Nicolina was here, messing with the dogs (HAHA). This feature is set up via Bluetooth, and it confuses me why they have another feature to play the sound from your phone through the speakers instead of the different calming sounds, but you have to use a cord to hook your phone to the swing to use the feature.... if it has Bluetooth, why can't the sound utilize the Bluetooth? Nicolina LOVES Kenny Chesney, so it would be nice to play him through her swing, not having to physically hook my phone up to it (which we haven't even used).
All in all though, we like our mamaRoo alot! I'll be eager to see if baby #2 (when the time comes) happens to like it more than Nicolina did at first.
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