Baby Hammocks

[Phteven]

Hi Melody, our home is 3 storeys and moving the hammock up and down the stairs wasn't an option so I just left the hammock in the lounge room for day time sleeps and early evening sleeps.

[littlelove]

Yep co-sleeping is the best, although I know what you mean about the 'what you havent got a cot yet' comments, dont worry its like water off a ducks back by the time they get to 'what he's still in your bed'. At every stage co-sleeping has its joys. When they are tiny you get to hear their little snuffles and then as they get bigger their sleep giggles, and then their gorgeous first sleep talking. Not to mention all of the extra overnight cuddles you get. Our little one is 15 months old now and waking up to him every morning is just priceless. We normally wake to him giving either his daddy or I a big noisy, slobby kiss and then he begins touching our faces as he says his new favourite word 'eyes'. How could you not wake with a smile on your face? I am pregnant with our second bub now so early next year there will be 4 in our bed...all the more snuggles!
Best of luck with your birth,
Jacqui

[Evie76]

Daniel goes to sleep in his cot, but at about 3am gives us a little call. I go and get him and we all sleep in the same bed until 6/6:30 or so. It's nice to sleep with my little baby. I told someone I was doing that and boy did I get a frown. I got all these stories about this lady that rolled on her baby and killed it etc............ I felt awful......... but I still do it. It's just a matter of being careful and setting up the environment so that can't happen. Nay sayers........ what a battle for first time mums. Jeez I hate 'em.

[Lucy]

All 3 of mine are hammock babies (Lexie is still in hers at nearly 12 months!). We have moved a few times in the past 4 years, so I have done all sorts of things to make ease of movement of the hammock easy......on rough tiles we used a light rug under the whole frame and dragged the rug (and the hammock) from room to room. Carpeted areas is easy:it just slides. And on wooden floorboards or slate: I made a felt tube and threaded it over the whole base frame tune bit.

We move it all around the house/garden. They sleep in it overnight (for some reason the co-sleeping never worked...)

I have had all the strange looks and odd comments about the hammock. I just grin and say [I]"well, you know, it works for my babies.....they all are champion slepers, so if it aint broke, don't fix it![I]

Or, with an innocent question "Does your baby slef settle without a wimper and sleep 12 hours straight a night in a cot?"

Or "Well, call me a hippy mumma, but I wish someone would pop me in a cosy hammock to bounce myself gently to ssleep in a snug cacoon!"

(As you can tell, I am a HUGE fan of the hammock.......swear by them!)

[{sarah}]

We kept Zander's in the same place day & night, but it was right between the loungeroom & our bedroom so I was close by all the time.

And yep I got the comments too, my MIL asked if I really thought putting her grandson in "that contraption" was a good idea LOL!

[Melody7]

Hi Ladies,
Thanks for your great thoughts. Lucy, did you move your hammock around with the baby in it? Also, we have carpet in the bedrooms and floorboards in the rest of the house (all one level). What would you suggest regarding movement ie. at night the hammock will potentially be in our room (if bubs isn't happy in bed with us) and during the day we'll move the hammock around the house on the floorboards. That sock thing you made sounds interesting, however would I have to take it off if we ventured onto carpet?
Thanks

[Ozziehoffy]

Melody... I too LOVE THE AMBY!! ..lol. My little bubba has been in it since his first day home. He also has slept through the night from around 5/6 weeks and I think the hammock has a lot to do with that. He actually won't sleep in it during the day (after about the first week home actually) as he likes to nap on his belly and has done for a few months. So, he naps on the lounge or in his cot... which yes he has but has only used a handful of time...pmsl... although now I do also use it to pop him in at times when I need to go to the toilet and he lays there playing with toys. We move the hammock out into the lounge at night and then take him back to our room when we go to bed... this is getting harder cos he's getting heavier (so yes we move it with him in there). Hubby just picks it up and very carefully shuffles back with it and then slides it in our room as we also have wood floors but carpet in the bedroom. In the morning after first feed Oskar hops into bed with me and has a nap Oh... when he was little until around 10ish weeks old he would pretty much only sleep in my arms or hug a bub during the day so I just went with that cos he wanted to be close to me.

[Lucy]

Yes, I alwasys move it around the house for most day sleeps when they were younger babies.....not so much these days with Lexie as she is nearly 12 months and can hold out for just one big sleep at lunchtime (when my other two are also having a nap) so I get some rare peace then!

We have always had the hammock in our bedroom next to us when they were newborns..till about 4 months for Olivia (when she started sleeping through the night) and Charlie and Lexie until about 3 months (when they started sleeping through). I guess I liked to hear them breathe through the night and often a nudge of the hammock if they stirred was enough to send them back off to sleep. Or if they weren't pacified with the movement, then I would feed them in bed with me, then pop them back in the hammock.

DH is a smoker, so co-sleeping was something that I wasn't comfortable with sadly, but rooming in with the hammock, for me, was the next best thing. And then when they were consistantly sleeping through the night, then we would set them up in their own room.

For a while in our old house Lexie and Charlie shared a room, so Lexie would have a final BF whislt Charlie was having his stories, but he is fairly noisy and Lexie was going through an alert stage, so I would pop her into the hammock in our study, then shuffle her into Charlie's room in the hammock (with her still in it) as we went to bed later on in the evening....

[August]

I have one of these and floorboards too Melody but my DS has only spend one night in it so I do not know much about moving one around! Having protectors for the bottom sounds like a great idea though littlelove.

[sazzafrazz]

I have been getting ready to order an amby myself and was really pleased to see all these answers as I also have wood floors with carpet bedrooms. We are having a cot given to us for later use but I also like the sound of using it mainly as a safe alone space. I mentioned the hammock to the midwife and she had never heard of them and said I should phone kidsafe so see if they are recomended or not. I have checked out the website and they definately have all the checks and measures so I am quite confident.
My one and only negative it that they are so much more expensive than a bassinette but I guess they are useful for a much longer time and also as a jumper later too! also for the baby that wont sleep in a still bed much cheaper than a rocking mechanism thingy you put on their normal bed.(our friends had to sleep upright in a chair for months with their little boy).
Also, I am thinking of taking it into the hospital to be used right from the start... what will they think?

[Lucy]

but I guess they are useful for a much longer time

This is so true, plus you can use the hammock as a portacot so easily too....all 3 of our babies have been on holdays with the hammock..our hammock has been to teh UK and back, Kakadu, Kangaroo Island, Perth, Melbourne, LOL!

I was going to take mine into the hospital when I was expecting Olivia but for some reason I forgot. I stayed in the hosp for 7 nights with her, in which time she was just in the little hospital bassinet......which worked fine, no problem, & then when we came home she went straight into the hammock

As such, with Charlie and Lexie, I didn't bother with it in the hospital, but they also went into it the moment we got home.....

[Melody7]

We did a trial run with our hammock on the weekend - just to see how easy it was to disassemble and set up at the PIL's house (b4 bubs comes). It was fantastic!!! The locking mechanism is so easy to use and it was super quick. Everything fitted in the bag really easily. We're taking it to the US in January - Lucy, Ambrose (the guy who invented it) said we should pack it in the box and put that on the plane - what did you do? I don't feel that the bag with the frame rolling around in it would keep it very protected by itself.

My only question re using it as a port-a-cot is can the child (when they're a bit older obviously) get out of the hammock by themselves? I don't really want a port-a-cot, however do you found you needed one - even just to keep that baby in a safe space if the environ you're visiting is not baby-friendly?

[Lucy]

I agree re packing it int eh box for lights if you can.we didn;t on our first flight and the bag popped a hole!

That said, I had an old cavas holdall of my uncles (army issue!) that I popped all the poles in for subsequent flights, and that worked a treat.....even to the UK and back via Singapore.......

We do have an additional portacot (my Mum bought it) and we have never used it...............but thats just us.....now that we have 3 little ones, if a place is not baby friendy, we don't go, LOL!

[Baby Hammocks # 2]