Explain Arms Reach Co-Sleeper, please

[bw52]

I'm so confused about this and we even saw one in the store! From reading reviews on it, it seems like it attaches to the bed somehow, but I couldn't even figure out if that was true when I saw it! Does it attach to the bed? And if so, HOW? How it it different than a normal PNP with a bassinet in it?

TIA!

[BelleoftheBallFlagstaff]

It has long strap things that are attached to the co-sleeper. They go under the mattress and have plastic squares on the other end, that prevents them from moving. The plastic goes on the side of the mattress, and is so big it cannot slip between the mattress and boxspring.

http://www.ababy.com/middel/co-sleepers-665.jpg

That link shows the plastic thing in yellow, in the upper right corner. Sorry the explanation isn't better it is hard to describe. I loved our BTW, and used it for 7 months.

[bw52]

Thanks!

So, is the height adjustable so we can align it with the bed?

And when the baby is sleeping is the side of the co-sleeper next to the bed lowered like the picture, so I could reach over and touch my baby? As opposed to having to sit up to reach up and over the side? I hope this makes sense. I'm just trying to understand this.

[gatorsmom]

Thanks!

So, is the height adjustable so we can align it with the bed?

And when the baby is sleeping is the side of the co-sleeper next to the bed lowered like the picture, so I could reach over and touch my baby? As opposed to having to sit up to reach up and over the side? I hope this makes sense. I'm just trying to understand this.

I had one and the height was not adjustable. I remember previous threads about people putting things under the legs of the ARC to give it more height.

As for your last few questions, maybe this will help you picture it. You can set up your ARC like a pnp. If you want to use it as a cosleeper, you put in the "bassinet" feature which brings the bottom of the ARC closer to the top making it very like the pnp with the bassinet feature in, if you can picture that. In order for you to be able to make it more like cosleeping, one of the top rails on the side of the ARC drops down, leaving only a small lip. When the cosleeper straps are under your mattress and the cosleeper is pushed up tight next to the bed, it appears that the cosleeper mattress is really just an extension of your mattress with that small lip in between. To give you another idea, when I laid on my bed with my head flat on the mattress, I could see the babies in the cosleeper and except for that 2 inch lip, it looked almost like I could reach to them and slide them over to me. The lip prevented that.

hth.

[pastrygirl]

The co-sleeper is supposed to be a bit lower than your mattress, so that if the baby does roll over, they bump into a little "wall," maybe so that they don't potentially get stuck in a gap between the co-sleeper and your bed if they were level with each other. I don't remember how much lower, but the previous poster says 2 inches so I guess that's how we did it! :)

[Tondi G]

The AR co sleeper is firm too, and we prefer it. We had issues with trying to use our pack n play with the bassinet feature. Our DS would startle himself awake any time he moved cause the hammock like style would sway back and forth. Our co sleeper was rock solid and worked out SO much better!

[MCsMom]

Love ours, we have the Mini-convertible.
DD moved to crib at 3 1/2 months. I kept the Co-sleeper attached to my bed until she was 5 months old. She slept in it 3 more times.
Now we bring it to Grandma's house JIC she can't sleep in her crib there...

[eggnova]

The Arm's Reach weight limit is much higher than the pnp bassinet, too - 22 lbs compared to 15 for the pnp bassinet. We just retired ours now, at 19 lbs and 8.5 months because DD is too long for the co-sleeper. I loved having her close to me, even recently once she started sleeping thru the night, we didn't dock the co-sleeper to the bed but kept all 4 sides up and let her sleep independently in our room. Ours was the Strattford model, and it did have height adjustable legs, on locking wheels for mobility and security.

[bw52]

So, I just have one more question--I don't know why this is so complicated for me to understand! On the Co-sleeper's site it says if your bed is taller than 24 inches you need to get the leg extension kit. Does that mean to the top of the mattress? Or between the mattress and the box springs, since that is where the straps go? I'm surprised it would be 24 inches to the top, b/c we just have the box springs and the mattress just on the cheapo wheels that came with the bed, but no big bed frame or anything and to the top of our mattress is 26 inches. I'm trying to figure out if we'd need the extension kit.

Also, I can't even find the kit on their website, so I don't know where I'd get that if needed.

[MCsMom]

The extension kit comes with spacers you can stack under the legs of your co-sleeper to raise it to the appropriate height next to your bed. I know you are only supposed to order one kit because raising the co-sleeper above I think 30 inches isn't recommended due to stability issues.
I had to order one because our bed was the same height as yours.
You will find the leg extension kit under Accessories on the website.
Hope that helps!

[MCsMom]

Oops, forgot to say that you measure the distance from the top of mattress to the floor...