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Aquarium Cradle Swing
February 10, 2005
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We, or more acurately, my mother, bought Hayes the Fisher Price Aquarium Cradle Swing. Many of our friends have tagged these swings as “a life saver” for the ability to rock baby to sleep. We settled on the Fisher Price model over the others because of its ability to swing both left to right and forward to back, depending on how you twist the top. One of things I was intially scared of was the quickness of the rocking. It seemed more akin to those paint shaking things at Home Depot than to how Jen or I would rock Hayes. Despite these misgivings, it was the best overall package, so it’s the one that we went home with.
Does it work? Somewhat. The fast swinging that we were worried about is indeed a problem. This, despite the fact that there are 6 different speeds. At first I thought maybe the speed at the far end was the slowest, since the first seemed so speedy. Then I realized that Fisher Price must have started with Warp speed and finished off at 6 with Plaid. (Sorry about the Spaceball’s reference.) When we don’t turn it on and hand swing it instead, it placates him for a bit, though. I assume that as Hayes gets bigger and heavier, the speeds will be slower. At least that’s what I remember about high school physics. With all those speeds I would have expected at least one that would work with out no-so-light newborn/infant. Not so.
Hayes does like the music it makes. I dig the ocean sound, since it reminds me of a circa 1990 Sharper Image sleep soother. The fish at the top rotate and the aquarium lights, which keeps Hayes occupied without crying for about 15 minutes. That part’s great. He also likes sleeping in it and has done so for over an hour. That part’s super great. Finally, it’s got a no-fail anti-kitty feature, unlike the vibrating chair. The Cat tried all means to get himself into the chair, but left feeling disenfranchised. If kitties can feel disenfranchised. I dunno. Anyway, so far as a swing we’re not impressed. It works great for the other things, but the Warp speed swinging is a real downer. The worst part is despite the rapid swinging, it doesn’t even mix paints well. I guess I’ll have to go back to Home Depot for that.
steve says:
February 11th, 2005 at 12:21 am
These things are lifesavers, but for us had the following lifecycle:
Month 1 – Use a bit as a pacifier for the baby.
Month 2 – Use a bit more as a pacifier for the parents.
Month 6 – Baby gets tired of it and screams at the top of her lungs when installed into it.
Month 7 – Child refuses to be installed in said unit and contorts her body into all types of impliable shapes in order to keep herself from being installed into said unit.
Month 8 – Unit sits in the corner.
Month 9 – Unit sits in the corner.
Month 10 – Unit sits in the corner, while wife considers discounted sale of basically new unit.
Month 11 – Unit relocated to building trash compactor room.
Enjoy it while you can, though, it’s definitely a great gift.
Scott, Tanya, Colby and Bryce Grove says:
February 11th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
Hey Eric, we have the same swing and it works like a charm for our boys. To compensate for the warp speed when they were lightweights we put a 2 pound ankle weight in the seat with them and it slowed the swing down. Try that out it should work. –Tanya
mrscrumley says:
February 11th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Yeah, the heavier the object, the slower it will go. We don’t have that particular model, but the swing we got for our son also seemed to be a bust. He was ok in it for the first 2 months, then he would cry within 10 minutes of being in it. The bouncer seat, now that is what Fuller really got into. And now that he is 4 months old, he is so into his exersaucer, he hangs out there 75% of his wake time.
paulconrad says:
February 11th, 2005 at 9:29 pm
Uhhm, we put Pearl in the papasan swing last night and let it rock her all night on the lowest setting. Is that bad? 8 days old? We felt bad. But it worked.
moderndaydad says:
February 11th, 2005 at 10:26 pm
We have the same swing – and for us it worked great. Eventually we used it pretty much exclusively for naps which it was great for. To slow it down while your boy is still a super featherweight, hang a blanket over him and let it drape down and touch the floor. The drag should do the trick. Believe me, before you know it you’ll be jacking it up to the highest setting and wondering if it’s moving enough.
John says:
February 14th, 2005 at 9:11 am
It was magical for us from when our daughter was about two months old until she was five or six months old. She really really loved it – sleeping multiple hours at a time in it on many occasions.
Jennifer says:
February 15th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
I have this swing. My sister used it with her daughter…it was the only thing that would keep her happy. However, with us it just didn’t do the trick. We paid $90 for this thing and used it all of 3 times in nine months. She’s to big for it now. I’m gonna keep it around in case we have a second kid (not anytime soon I assure you) From what I hear it all depends on the kid anyways. It was voted the swing of the year for 2004 by a few parent magazines.
start-up dad says:
June 13th, 2005 at 9:09 pm
and now for something completely different
Kaden likes…
…
- standing
- napping in the Cradle Swing (the tackiest, most tricked out, hugest monstrosity of a battery-powered blessing you could ever get – great review here)
- and of course, being sung to (especially high tones, and espec…
Tina says:
August 3rd, 2005 at 1:43 pm
I have the papasan. My daughter just love it she take her nap in it.like now she also like to play in her exersaucer and the other great thing out ther is the Jumperoo she goes to town in it.Laredo is 6months old now but she been in the saucer and Jumperoo when she turned 4 months and she been in her swing at 4weeks old.
But I should have bought stocks in batterys.;)