Great bassinet but your baby will outgrow it fast!!

When I was pregnant, I knew that we wanted to have our daughter sleep in our room for the first few months. We didn't have a whole lot of room in our bedroom, so we decided to register for the Kolcraft Easy Reach Ultra Light Vibes Rocking Bassinet.

At my shower, I was very surprised that I actually received the bassinet. The box was very small (I had expected a large box). That, of course, means more assembly required! Being on bed rest, my husband, sister, and brother-in-law had to do all of the assembling. I watched my sister closely as she put this together, because I was concerned about my baby's safety. It took her about 15-20 minutes and required a screwdriver. However, she said that it was pretty easy and she took her time because of the importance of it being put together correctly.

My daughter was born small (5 lbs) and we put her in this bassinet right away. There is a very flimsy mattress with a mattress cover. I put a waterproof mat between the mattress and the sheet, but decided to lay my daughter on a sleep positioner. I'd recommend that because the mattress doesn't seem to be very comfortable.

My favorite part of this bassinet is the music/vibration. My daughter loved the vibration and we used it every night when we put her down. The bassinet takes 4 AA batteries and our batteries had to be replaced after about 2 months of use (we used the music and vibration every day!). It takes a little bit of work to get at the batteries (peel back the fabric covering and use a screwdriver to open the plastic case). The vibration and music turns off after a set amount of time. The manual doesn't tell you how much time, but I'd estimate that it's 10 minutes. I really wish this came with a remote control though! While 10 minutes was usually enough time, I hated to get up to turn it back on.

The bassinet is very pretty and lacy and appropriate for a boy or a girl. It has a canopy with a few attached toys which we always kept down and didn't use. This bassinet, as the name implies, does rock back and forth, or you can put down wheels to transport it. The bassinet does have a generous sized storage basket at the bottom. We used the basket for a little while, but really never felt comfortable with storing anything under a rocking bassinet. There is no additional storage with this bassinet.

We thought that my daughter would be able to use this for a while, since she was so small. However, at 3 months I started noticing that her movements actually rocked the bassinet, so we moved her to her crib. The bassinet's owner's manual states that you should not use this product when the baby is three months old or 15 pounds, whichever comes first.

As for cleaning, it is very simple. The bassinet mattress cover comes off easily. However, if you use a sleep positioner like we did, then you will only need to clean the positioner. The bassinet fabric is machine washable and snaps off fairly easily to clean. However, the material on the canopy cannot be removed.

Overall, while I did love this bassinet, it is disappointing that its useful life is rather short.