I bought this for my 7 month old and so far she loves it. It was easy to install on the crib, has good sound quality with two volumes and the image is amazing very bright, clear and vivid colors. My daughter is mesmerized by it whenever it's on. The nightlight is so-so, it's located on the top and because the soother goes on the top of the crib it doesn't light up very much. The remote works well. There are two images per story that alternate, the music is sung by a woman who has a nice, soft voice so it's not annoying. Once the song of the story is over the music is relaxing along with the images.
The box says 20min of music but I think that's when you select the "music only" option. I have both music and the projector on and it only plays for 10min. I haven't tried the music only option yet. This is $39.99 at Buy Buy Baby and I was able to use a 20% off coupon so I think it's a great deal!
**** Update ****
It's now April 2012 and she still loves this projector. The batteries have only needed to be changed one time so far. She's just now getting to the point where she can reach up and turn it on herself and turn the pages. We're very happy with this purchase.
I bought this for my 14 month old daughter and she loves it. The music and projections are charming and not at all annoying like some baby toys. The remote control is a nice extra. I'm kicking myself for not buying this sooner because I could have been getting more sleep!
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I bought this crib soother after my pediatrician insisted I stop nursing my nine month old back to sleep after she woke up throughout the night. She claimed that continuing this practice would only lead my daughter's body into thinking she needed to eat in the middle of the night, and she would continue to wake up throughout the night unless I stopped. Now, in the past I had tried the old "go in and comfort her, pat her back a little and she'll go back to sleep" method, but this only infuriated her since she very well knew I was capable of picking her up, and not knowing what else to do, my doctor told me a crib soother with a remote control might be a good solution. She was SO right.
The first night with the crib soother, my daughter woke up twice. The first time, I remotely turned on the soother, she calmed down a bit but started crying again. It played for it's standard 12 minutes, and she was still whining a bit by the end, so I turned it on again, and she fell back asleep. The second time she woke up, I again turned it on remotely, and she went right back to sleep. For about a week, she continued to wake up once or twice a night, but this product put her right back to sleep each time! After a week of use, my little girl stopped waking up in the middle of the night, making me one thrilled (and rested!) mama! She now absolutely loves this "toy" (we've had it for a month) and will usually turn it on herself (another great aspect) before she goes down for a nap.
My only little qualm is that the remote has been a bit finicky at times. For instance, if I don't use it for 24 hours, sometimes it seems to shut off. Obviously, there's an easy fix for it though use it more often! I now turn on the soother using the button on the product when I put my daughter to bed at night, and then use the remote to turn it off for a split second and then back on for the full 12 minutes.
Overall, I am very satisfied with this product and it's price point. (I really didn't want to fork over that $100 for another model!) I'd recommend it to for those who need to stay out of view when they comfort their babies back to sleep and for any caregiver who wants a little bit more shut eye may you have the same success I did!
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I bought this for my 7 month old who has the hardest time falling asleep and staying asleep. I was desperate and literally bought everything I could find that would promote soothing music and help a baby sleep. Well, although this is adorable, it didn't work for this baby!! It kept her occupied for a few minutes and then nothing. She liked to flip the pages of the book, which I thought was great, but when she is crying, she just doesn't care. Nothing appeases her.
Pros
Great music that plays quite a while, about 20 mins at least. Makes ME fall asleep!
Cute story book, easy to flip, soft pages
Projector is great as well. Beautiful, colorful images
Cons
Only complaint, which is MAJOR, is that if your infant is able to stand, like mine is, then your baby can easily peer into the projector's lights -which is BLINDING. My husband went to look over at the top and he saw stars, literally. He couldn't see for a good few minutes because the projector was that strong. Now imagine what this can do to a small infant's developing eyes?! I once caught my baby looking over and ran in there to shut it off. I can't believe this oversight on the manufacturer's part. Because of this, the projection is useless. I do not use it.
I am keeping this because I use it only for the music now and I think it would be great for future babies who can't stand yet. If they are just lying down in the crib, it would be great to stare up at the images.
Bottom line, it's a probably nice soother for younger infants under the age of 5-6 months. Once your baby is standing, I do not consider this safe unless you just want it for music....but then what's the point of buying a projection soother?
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OUR EXPERIENCE:
All the parenting/sleep guides I've read suggest that parents institute a soothing nighttime ritual to signal to your baby that it's time to get sleepy, like taking a bath or reading a book. That's all well and good, but my 3-month old likes to eat books (none of which hold her attention), and she can't take a bath every night lest her skin dry out. So what to do for a nighttime routine that will actually engage my baby and help her get in that "mindset" of bedtime?
I am one of those lucky parents for whom this toy works, in impressive and miraculous fashion. We turn the lights down, put this sucker on, and load her up with an enormous bottle (of breastmilk! Breastfed babies really CAN sleep through the night!). She steadily watches the pictures change as she chows down, in similar fashion as a moviegoer eating popcorn while staring hypnotically at the movie screen. Sometimes she passes out before she's even had more than a few ounces. Other times, even when she's had enough and doesn't want any more to drink, we just lay her in her crib and she watches the pictures on the ceiling in rapt and silent fascination, and drifts off to sleep. If it finishes the cycle and turns off before she falls asleep, she will squawk in protest. No problem we just stick one hand through the door, press the remote, and hang it back on her doorknob. She always passes out the second cycle. We are fortunate this doesn't "overstimulate" her or get her excited, but at this point she's seen it so many times it would have stopped being novel anyway.
I think that this toy helped my baby flex her "self-soothing" muscles by helping her learn to relax not from crying herself out or from pure tiredness, but a more positive sensation of relaxation that we are fortunate enough for her to have been open to experience. I have seen her thrash awake on the baby monitor, and go back to sleep sometimes quickly, other times after staring into the dark for a bit. And perhaps it's all pure luck, but I think this soother is aptly named in that certainly helps with helping her to relax, and helps reinforce this habit nightly.
DETAILS ABOUT THE TOY ITSELF:
There are two pictures for each "story" that are alternately broadcast onto the ceiling. You cannot turn/adjust the projection within the toy, which broadcasts only in one direction (you have to move the toy around on the crib to adjust its orientation). The most colorful photos come with the songs "rockabye baby" (changes from a baby in a hammock to two red birds in a nest) and "hey diddle diddle" (shows cows jumping over a moon, a dish and a spoon). The other two are more boring, with fewer colors and details "hickory dickory dock" (shows just two versions of a mouse running up a clock) and "twinkle twinkle little star" (yellow star against a blue sky, except the second picture also shows red swirls too. Still boring).
A woman's voice gently sings one verse of each song, then she hums the next verse, and then it transitions to an instrumental version, before changing to the same series of soothing instrumental music, such as Pachebel's Canon in D. There are two volume settings. A nightlight can illuminate the bears at the top, if you like we never use this, and it's very dim. The bottom button starts the music and stops it as well. You can also restart a new musical cycle by flipping the page of the book to another song, which starts up from its beginning.
We have a particularly thick crib edge, so we couldn't use the strap at the back because it didn't reach far enough. We had to jury-rig it to hang with our Cloud b Sound Machine Soother, Sleep Sheep velcro strap, which held it in place good and tight instead. The batteries have lasted about two months of nightly use and sometimes during naptime on the weekends. It's portable, and goes to the grandparents' with her for babysitting when necessary. We have also been able to travel with her, with this toy still giving her the same bed-time routine.
CONS:
Another reviewer mentioned that when her baby was old enough to stand, she was worried that it would look into the projector light, which would indeed be blinding (I've done it by accident and I was seeing twinkly, twinkly stars for awhile). I will have to move it to the higher edge of the crib if that ever happens, which would mess with the orientation of the pictures being shown sideways, but oh well. Another downside is that the remote will also turn on/off other Fisher Price toys such as our mobile (Fisher-Price Luv U Zoo Snuggle Cub Soother Mobile), which she likes to stare at in the daytime. This resulted in a creepy cacophony of two childrens' toys playing simultaneously and discordantly not at all relaxing for anyone.
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I originally wanted to make a diaper cake for a baby shower I was hosting, but when I saw these online and read the reviews about the quality of them, I knew I could never make something that would look as nice. When I received it in the mail, I was not disappointed. The flowers are more "peach" than "yellow", but that was fine by me. The entire cake comes wrapped in tulle, which I left on for the display.
