Thinking about using bassinette for sleeping in early days?

While we haven't actually used our Chameleon as a stroller yet, we are already in love with it and our baby is only 17 days old. This review is for anyone considering using it as a bassinette first in the early days in their bedroom.

One of the reasons we selected a Bugaboo stroller was because we didn't want to be a 3 stroller household trying to meet our various needs. We took this one step further in deciding not to get a bassinet either that would only be used for a short while and then end up in storage. Using the Bugaboo bassinette has worked out great, but has some drawbacks too.


HOW WE USE IT AND WHY WE LOVE IT:
- We got the Charcoal base fabric and Orange tailored fabric which is a very sharp combination!
- The mattress in the bassinette is high quality and perfect for full-time use for sleeping
- We tightly wrapped a thin waterproof pad and a piece of fabric over the mattress. Then, we wrapped a quilted waterproof pad over the middle section just to catch spit-up and any diaper blowouts since this would be easier to swap out in the middle of the night, etc. than changing the "sheet". This has worked out well and it is all tucked in very tightly around the bottom of the mattress so there is no loose bedding.
- The bassinette isn't supposed to tilt and doesn't allow you to tilt it and click it into place, but it will tilt a bit toward the feet if you push the buttons and tilt it. It will stay in place like this when stationary and we use this a fair amount to help prevent some spit-ups and our son seems to like being tilted a bit. We love this "feature".
- Since the bassinette is on wheels, it is very convenient in several ways:
- space-wise - We didn't have to worry about finding a place for it. I just wheel it up in the tight space between the wall and bed, climb into bed, and pull it up closer once in bed. Then, I just push it out of the way when I get out of bed.
- Portability - If my husband or I are sleeping and the other is awake, we will wheel him out of our bedroom into another room if he is sleeping to help ensure the other person a restful sleep uninterrupted by little noises and squawks. This has been really great for us. I will also sometimes leave our son on my husband’s side of the bed for him to address any little fussiness in between feedings when I am too exhausted and need to rest. Since I am nursing, this is a great way my husband can help out and he doesn't necessarily have to get out of bed either due to the following benefit...
- Jigglability - If our son is a little fussy, we can just reach our hand out and wheel him back and forth a bit. The suspension system on the Chameleon also makes it really easy to jiggle, which he really likes too.
- We also disconnect the bassinette from the stroller and bring it down to our living room if we have visitors. This allows them to see him without bringing them up to our bedroom or interrupting his sleep. We also used it this way in the first week when we weren't ready to have him out of our sight up in our room when we were awake and he was sleeping. We leave the stroller frame upstairs and just set the bassinette on the floor in the living room.

DRAWBACKS:
- We don't plan to take it outside for as long as our son is sleeping in it because we are not comfortable with taking his "bed" outside especially with pollen season approaching.
- You can buy adapters to plug in a Graco or Peg Perego infant seat and we loved this idea so that we could still use the stroller in the early days even with the previous drawback. However, we didn't like the Graco seats and the 2006 PP seat doesn't work with the adapters.

SUMMARY:
While we would love to be using the stroller as a stroller outside right now, we made the decision to leave his "bed" inside until he transfers to the crib. Additionally, we would have loved to have been able to use an infant seat with the stroller base, and you could if you used a Graco seat or a pre-2006 Peg Perego seat but we didn't like either of these 2 options. We are very happy with using it as a bassinette though and feel confident that we will also love it as a stroller. We don't regret choosing to use it as a bassinette full time until he transfers to the crib.