My Little Man in Motion

I’ve spent the last 7 weeks on the move.  Literally.  Rocking, strolling, bouncing, driving, you name it, I’ve done it all in efforts to keep my newborn happy.  And if I stop?  Well the minute that happens, his eyes fly wide open and my peaceful, sleeping baby begins to fuss.  Let him fuss too long and that fussing will turn into crying.  If I don’t get it under control fast, we quickly progress to a full blown meltdown.  He’s not a bad baby, he just wants to move.  All. The. Time…or else.

For weeks, I’ve eaten one handed so I can rock the carseat, I’ve placed orders for deli meats at the grocery store only to have to make laps around the grocery store while they actually cut the meat, and I’ve circled my neighborhood in the car because I’m not quite ready to end the phone call I’m on, but can’t keep the car still in the driveway too long.  Before having Everett, I always questioned those commercials on tv where the parents are driving their newborns around the block to calm them, and now I’m one of those parents.

By week number 3 of this insanity, I was exhausted.  Ex-haust-ed.  Between the sleep deprivation of a newborn and tending to the normal energy level of my toddler and preschooler, I just couldn’t bounce, rock, or stroll anymore.  As much as I wanted to keep my baby happy, I just couldn’t do it 24/7.  I needed help.

So I busted out the bouncy seat.  I was positive that Everett and the bouncy seat would be best friends.  I took it out of storage, washed the cover, and struggled to put the cover back on, only to I put him in it and have him hate it.  Wait.  Hate isn’t a strong enough word.  He loathes that bouncy seat.  If Everett knew how to get a restraining order, he would get one against that bouncy seat.  It’s that bad.  It was then that I learned that he wants movement, not vibration.  I thought they were the same, but alas, they are not.  At least not to him, and that’s who really matters in this whole equation.

So I went looking for an alternative and knew I had found a winner when I found the mamaRoo.  I actually first learned about the mamaRoo a few weeks before Everett was born.  I read all about how it had settings like car ride, ocean, rock-a-bye, kangaroo, and tree swing.  I read how it had built in nature sounds, and how if your baby isn’t a fan of nature sounds, you can attach your iPod and stream anything that you want.  Yep, iPod.  Crazy, huh?  I read about how it came in 6 different fabrics and had detachable toy balls designed to stimulate babies.  I read it all and it sounded great.

But it wasn’t until 3 weeks after he was born that I decided that I needed to try the mamaRoo.  Because after 3 weeks of sleep deprivation, I could only see one word – car ride.  Oh my God, yes!  Get me one of those.  Now.

Finally, there was a way to get the car into the house without structural damage.  You don’t even want to know how many times in those 3 weeks I thought about ways that I could bring the car ride he loved (and slept through so well) inside the house.  Yes, that would solve all my problems.  Well, most of them…

And sure enough, it was love at first sight…um..move?  Well you get what I’m going for here.  It was like magic.  Turns out the car ride feature is really accurate.  So accurate that I’d venture to say Everett can’t tell the difference.  And if he can, he’s not letting on, because he sleeps the exact same way he does in the car.  He’ll sleep for hours in his mamaRoo.  The 5 speed settings allow me to put him on one of the faster speeds (which he prefers) and slow him down after he settles into his sleep.  And I don’t need to worry about it running out of power while he’s in it, because the mamaRoo plugs in.  No more batteries.  Can I tell you how much I hate baby equipment that runs on a ton of batteries?  Those batteries always seem to die on me when I need them the most.

Of course, now that we’ve been using the mamaRoo for a few weeks we’ve tried some of the other features – turns out, Everett is also a huge fan of the kangaroo and tree swing settings.  And because of a little diaper “incident” we had last week, I’m a big fan of the removable seat cover.  Especially because – unlike that impossible bouncy seat – this cover easily unzips to be cleaned and can be zipped right back on.  No stretching, no struggling.And since it comes with not only an adjustable lap belt, but also an adjustable seat that allows babies to either lay down or be propped up, I think we’re going to be using this well past the newborn phase.

So while I still bounce, rock, and stroll through my days to keep Everett happy – and I still find myself doing laps around the grocery store after dropping an order at the deli and driving around my neighborhood on a regular basis – I love that I have an ally at my home that goes by the name of mamaRoo.

Do you (or did you) have a child that loves motion?  How do you handle it?  What worked for you?

Disclosure:  A very special thank you to 4moms for sending me a mamaRoo to try out.  I owe you guys my sanity – seriously.