Fisher-Price My Little Snugakitty Deluxe Rock N Play Sleeper review
The Fisher-Price My Little Snugakitty Deluxe Rock N Play Sleeper is possibly the best accessory we’ve had in the baby game period. A single D battery powers the thing for weeks as gentle vibrations convince bored baby that you’re actually doing something such as walking or driving.
Updated 1.29.16 (see bottom)
The angle the sleeper is at seems to help with digestion, and cleaning everything (with the exception of the left and right buckle straps,) is a breeze.
Before we had Aerin, Maggie my 30pound toddler decided this was her chair. It held up with no issues. Held up fine yesterday as well as I came into the room to find a 2 & 1/2 year old lounging in it watching some garbage tv.
Assembly should be easy but it’s not. They could simply mark which tube goes where using a piece of tape and say “look for the one tube that has tape on it, it goes to the one other tube that has tape on it” and you’d be set, but they tell you if it doesn’t seem to fit to try a different combo. Meh. I got it assembled.
Once assembled you can rock your baby using a toe, or place on a hardwood or flat surface and the thing will sort of rock on its own (I’m assuming baby is the responsible rocking party here as the battery operation only seems to shake it a bit).
The unit has straps to prevent a mobile baby from mobilizing, and a little toy on the strap for an infant to play with. I can’t really speak to how cool the toy is as my one month old doesn’t particularly care for it, my two and a half year old could care slightly less, and it’s not quite my thing. I’m sure it rocks some baby’s worlds though.
My only complaint about this is that after a month of use it starts sounding like it’s falling apart when you move it. The vibrations seem to have loosened up the connecting poles you put in. I think some wax paper will fix it. I’ll try and report back. It’s not terrible in use, but it does creek some.
While we’ve gotten Aerin to sleep in other things, she’s never been particularly comfy. I’m not particularly fond of using this as a full time baby bed, and this is not intended as a bassinet replacement, but it seems to do the trick better than having a ticked off sleepless infant all the time.
It also folds pretty easily if you’re wanting to take it anywhere or traverse the stairs.
The angle of the thing tends to help with gas as babies aren’t designed to be laying on their backs face up (designed to be face down,) however due to SIDS risk we’ve increased gassiness tenfold by following the ABCs. Unfortunately the Fisher-Price My Little Snugakitty Deluxe Rock N Play Sleeper might also cause transition difficulties when moving to a crib later on. Or not, who knows?
So it’s one of those situations where you may be screwed if you do, or screwed if you don’t. Maggie, who was raised in a crib and a bassinette tended to have all the issues people are complaining about when transitioning to a bigger bed the entire time she was a baby. So I’m not sure you’re going to really have problems occur, you’ll just realize they’re there when you try and remove this from the equation.
What we’ve noticed in month #1 of using it has been that compared to Maggie’s first month, this has been relatively easy. Whether that’s because we now know a lot more, or that there have been less complications with Aerin, I’m not sure. I wish we’d had this for Maggie though.
The Fisher-Price My Little Snugakitty Deluxe Rock N Play Sleeper is available from Amazon for $55.76 and it’s worth it. No, really, it is.
Update 11.9.15 (a warning)
While the upper kitty portion appeared to be dry and smell clean, evidently sweat from Sweaty Betty was going through the fabric and collecting on the plastic interior sheet. These sweat beads would form, and slide down to the rump area, and pool.
Considering the child turned 10 weeks old this weekend and I believe I last cleaned the kitten fabric was when she was nine weeks, we’re going to put the timeframe for what happened next at about a week to two weeks.
The pooled sweat (potentially some urine, but i didn’t smell and there were streaks from the head area down,) heated for a few hours a day to 90+ degrees by baby’s bottom, became a bacterial farm to some random airborn mold or mildew and it decided that this was a nice enough home for it.
Although washing the cover did take care of it, some of the fabric at the base near the cup required harsh chemical cleaning to remove the growth.
Total amount of liquid on the back and in the base was probably about an ounce. My guess is if it had been urine the PH balance would have killed the bacteria.
I think the thing could be solved with a drain hole in the bottom, but I’ll investigate. For now though just pop cover off and check it occasionally as that can be done in a few seconds.
Update 1.29.16 (and poof)
Late November the thing started eating batteries. I thought that I’d just gotten some cheap ones from Amazon, but no. It was going through a battery a day.
It completely gave up sometime in December. The motor fused as far as I can tell. Oh well. The thing worked for four months and died. Luckily the soothing vibrations were not particularly required for my baby.
