Hellobee Boards

We had a PNP with tons of options and we never used any of it! I recommend a basic model.

We had the 4 moms playard with the bassinet attachment on top. It was nice for naps and stuff. But I didn't think it was totally necessary.
Even the actual playard we didn't use much until he was older and he slept in it on trips. We never used it at home. For a while we used it as a blockade, but rarely actually put him in it. At least it's easy to fold and store and then set up again. I'm keeping it for that reason.
Rock n Play though... Life changing. Mad we waited till 5 weeks! Can use it for naps, entertaining, feeding (bottles), some use it for night time sleep. Relatively inexpensive and folds nicely. It's our favorite baby product yet.

ETA: I still wouldn't get a playard/pnp just for travel. If you want to register for something for travel sleep, get the Guava Family Lotus Travel crib. Amazeballs. We still use it at nearly 2 years old. You could also use it for a playard at home if you had to.

I also had a Mamaroo and my son hated it. I've heard they are hit or miss. It's an expensive miss! So I personally will never get one again (I sold ours).

We bought a Babyhome Air bassinet and use it in the living room for day time naps. At night, he sleeps in his crib upstairs. The bassinet came with a changer attachment, but we just used our standalone changing pad, Keekaroo.

We bought a Babybjorn bouncer with toy attachment. The bouncer only sways if baby does. He didn't like it at all until he was about 7 weeks old. Now, I can place him in it for a little while and get other things done. Your baby may like something like that much earlier than mine did.

You don't need a whole lot in the very beginning, but anticipating what you need & buying it ealry to take advantage of registry completion discounts is tempting. I suggest get what you think you'll need and don't fret if it isn't opened and used for a little while.

ETA: I purposely skipped the Rock n Play because it was just too convenient. Stuff I read mentioned issues with flat head and on HB there were tons of "how to transition babe from RNP (incline) to crib (flat)."

@Goldengirl: so at night for the first 3 weeks we had a halo Bassinest. Expensive but it's a dream. I only didn't recommend it because for us it was so short lived. At 3 weeks I couldn't take all the grunting and noises anymore (they even make noise when they are sleeping, when you're supposed to be sleeping, and I was always waking up) so we tried to put him in his crib. He took to it right away and never looked back! I was a tiny bit nervous for him to leave our room, but we're in an apt so it's not like he was that far away. And my ped had no issue with it. So we went with it.

As far as night sleep in the rnp, generally they say not to...but tons of people do it. And I have friends whose Pediatricians DID say it was ok during newborn days because they aren't doing full 12 hour stretches in it. They are waking every 2,3,4 hours. They said not to use it anymore if they start doing longer than 4 hour stretches or past 4 months when they could start rolling. But that wasn't my ped and it's purely anecdotal.

@SweetiePie: @Goldengirl: we haf a Halo bassinet too and I did not have success with it at all. Agree that it's small and would have a short span of use no matter what.

@SweetiePie: did you have a c-section too? I had no strength after mine to get any benefit out of the Halo.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I did. I agree that for being marketed towards c-section moms, it's still not great. It's still really hard/painful to swivel and push the side down. Good ideas but not ideal. I imagine it'll keep improving since I had the first generation.

@Goldengirl: @SweetiePie: I agree that the PnP is very bulky and heavy for travel- it would make no sense to fly with it since you would pay more to check it rounds trip than to buy a cheap one at your destination. BUT the nicer ones are so much more expensive that for me it worked out cheaper to actually just buy a basic one at my destination and donate it after.

I think the PNP with bassinet is great if you are wanting a transitional sleep item that will also have long term use.

I'm a fan of trying them in their crib first. With all my kids we put a twin bed in their room for us to sleep in and started them almost from the get go in the crib. If there are too many sleep issues, then you can go run to the store and get whatever you think might help. You can always set up the crib in your room as well, we just like having a spare bed so one of us is getting uninterrupted sleep and we can switch off.

As far as naps, I like a swing if they are refusing the crib. The bouncer/vibration seat never really did the trick for my girls, but every baby is different and you won't know until you try things what will work best. For #3 we got a combo 4 in 1 chair thing so it swings both directions, vibrates and it can be taken off and manually rocked in other locations around the house. Since she isn't here, not sure if I'd recommend it.

For LO, we had a Rock n Play, a Pack n Play, a swing, and a small rocker (similar to a bouncer). She used the RnP for night sleep and the swing for naps until we attempted to transition her to the crib at around 3 months. Up until that point, I thought those two items were magical but honestly the transition was horrific (two months of the worst sleep ever, finally needed to sleep train). LO1 hated the rocker and we never really tried her in the PnP until she was older (we use it for travel).

This time around, I am going to attempt to have LO2 get used to sleeping on his back earlier so I think we are going to set up the PnP in our room (or possibly pick up a bassinet). I'm also considering getting something like the Tiny Love rocker-napper because it can get very close to flat. We no longer have the Rock n Play, the swing, or the old rocker and I am going to do my best to get by without replacing them.

@Goldengirl: no, I never used the napper and we used the changing table a handful of times between 3 kids.

@Goldengirl: so I think what we have established here is, every baby is different.

My thinking in general is if you have lots of people wanting to buy you stuff, or what you think you might need on a registry, but only remove tags/ wash the things you plan to start with. Then if you need something right away (like, baby will. Not. Sleep. On a flat surface and you are desperate for a rock and play) pull it out and you are set. Otherwise have them saved for later on Amazon and you can get them in two days or send your husband or someone to target that day if necessary!

@Goldengirl: You have gotten lots of great advice. I just wanted to add that you should give a lot of thought to the layout of your house and how you use it. Our living areas are downstairs, with the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. We have a (hand-me-down) PNP in the dining room, and at 7 months, LO still naps sometimes in the infant insert piece - it's been invaluable to have a place to set a sleeping baby without always having to take her upstairs. If we lived in a rancher, I don't know that the PNP would get any use. When LO was a few months old, I found that a lightweight bouncer was terrific, because I could carry it in one hand from room to room and floor to floor while holding the baby in the other hand. That way I didn't need to have tons of different pieces of equipment just to have a place to put her down in each room.

FWIW, I registered for a RNP after seeing it highly recommended all over the internet. It's still in the box.

@Goldengirl: we started off with the graco Eli pack n play but it felt huge, cumbersome, and wouldn't fit through our doorways. We returned it for a travel lite crib with stages, which has been great so far--we keep it next to our bed.

In terms of swings, we have three loaners from friends: a graco swing, a cheap bouncy seat that I keep in the kitchen, and a rock n play that stays at my parents. I don't like to have her spend too much time in them though, so they mostly serve as "plop seats" or the occasional nap.

Just keep receipts & packaging!

We had:

- Rock n' Play
- Pack n' Play with changing table, newborn napper & bassinet attachments
- Fisher Price Snugabunny bouncer
- Fisher Price Cradle n' Swing

LO slept in the RnP for the first 2.5 months. It was awesome! But it was hard to transition to the crib.

The PnP & attachments was nice to have downstairs for diaper changes or to have a place to set her. She never really slept in it until she was bigger and we used it as a travel crib. Around 6-9 months she would use it as a playpen for short periods and that was nice.

The bouncer got some use as a container but she never loved it. She was a colicky baby though so she wasn't happy in one place for a long time.

The SWING. Oh, the swing! We didn't have one for the first several weeks and then we finally borrowed one to see how she liked it. She loved it and it SAVED us for naps! I wish we'd had it from the start.