In the next two posts, I will be sharing about the list of things which we bought/will be buying in preparation for Baby C’s nursery.
Baby Cot – Sweet Dreams from Palette Box
All along, we had no doubts about the type of bed we wanted for Baby C. While a handful of friends have tried other options such as a bassinet or a bumper bed for their babies, Sunshine and myself both prefer having a baby cot instead. One of the most common reasons I hear from my friends who chose to have a bassinet was space constraints in their master bedroom as they wanted their babies to sleep with them for easier night feedings. As we planned for Baby C to sleep in her own room right from the start, space constraints was not an issue for us.
Reasons for choosing a cot:
1) Adequate support for spine development
We wanted Baby C to have a proper bed from young as her spine would still be developing. We felt that a bassinet or a bumper bed might be too soft to provide adequate support for her spine development.
2) Lasting investment
We wanted something which can preferably last for a few years, when Baby C becomes a toddler. A convertible cot would allow Baby C sleep in it while she grows older. A bassinet would not be able to offer this.
3) More convenience
While a bumper bed would still allow a toddler to use, I feel that it is too huge for a baby. A baby cot on the other hand, is much compact and more portable than a bumper bed. This makes cleaning the room (floor) easier.
5) Last but not least, with a bumper bed, the baby will be on the floor and I would imagine that this makes changing the baby more tedious as one would have to put everything (diaper, wet wipes, barrier cream etc) on the floor before being able to change the baby.
Criteria for our cot:
1) Fixed cot sides
After deciding that we want a cot, I started browsing at the many types of baby cots available at baby fairs (since this was the easiest way) and asking my friends on the type of cots they bought. Instagram also recommended Hatchery to me in my feed. It was at Hatchery that I realised that cots with drop-down sides are banned in the United States due to safety reasons. While I do not understand how drop-down sides could pose a safety risk, this point etched itself in my mind. It was only when I raised this to Sunshine that I realised that unlike many other parents (to-be) who prefer a cot with drop-down sides, Sunshine actually had done his research and wanted one with fixed cot sides due to safety reasons as well. In addition, two of my friends who bought cots with drop-down sides mentioned that while they did use the function initially, they soon just kept the cot sides up for convenience’s sake and did not adjust their cot sides after a while. This is especially so when their babies started to turn. Hence, we were sourcing for a cot with fixed sides.
2) Must not be too expensive
The second criteria for our cot was that it must not be too expensive. While “expensive” is subjective, based on the range of the cot prices I saw at baby fairs, friends’ purchases as well as at shops selling maternity and baby items (such as Mothercare, Kiddy Palace etc), a cot usually costs about $300+to $500+. Therefore, I kind of set this as a benchmark and would prefer to buy a cot at this price range. Hence, while Hatchery does offer a wide range of very pretty baby cots with only fixed cot sides, their prices were out of our budget. We were almost resigned to buying a cot which my friend bought at $499 (with drop-down sides) when I saw Palette Box’s advertisement on Super Mom! It had fixed cot sides and were within our budget. Hehe.
3) Preferably convertible to toddler’s bed
As mentioned above, I would prefer to buy a cot which can be used for years until Baby C becomes a toddler. Palette Box’s Sweet Dreams which already fits two of my criteria above, also has this function which allows the baby cot to be converted to a toddler’s bed as well!
Besides meeting all the criteria we listed above, Palette Box’s Sweet Dreams offer King Koil mattresses, something which no other cots offer. We were attracted by this and went to their showroom near Ikea Tampines to touch and feel their cots for ourselves. It was at their showroom where Sunshine was sold and decided that he wanted no other cots besides this as he said the cot was quite sturdy (knowing him, another reason was that he was lazy to find other options). It was also when we were there that he decided to buy the cheapest King Koil mattress bundled together with the cot. Again, unlike other parents (to-be) who were sold by the idea of foam (being soft for their babies) and latex (being a cooler material) mattress, Sunshine prefers a spring mattress as he mentioned that a spring mattress is better. I do not understand why a spring mattress was priced at a lower price as compared to a foam and a foam+latex mattress if it was indeed superior to the latter two. I was also worried that the spring mattress would be too hard and impede proper spine development but Sunshine felt that the mattress was not too hard to negatively affect Baby C’s spine development. I had no views on this and hence, we decided on their Orthoguard 1 mattress. In addition, they offered the option of choosing an anti-mosquito or aloe vera fabric for their mattress. While both of us think this is likely a gimmick, we unanimously chose the aloe vera fabric as it sounds less chemically-treated than anti-mosquito.
Buying the Cot
After Sunshine had decided on the cot (and mattress), it was my turn to do my research. Haha. I monitored and compared the prices of the cot and mattress on various online platforms (even the staff at Palette Box recommended us to buy their cots online for more discount instead of directly from their store) such as Lazada, Qoo10 and Super Mom. Eventually, even with the recent pre-CNY 20% discount on Super Mom, we found that the prices were still most attractive at Lazada after including the shipping costs and other credit card promotions. Hence, we ordered via Lazada on a Sunday and our item came the following Saturday!
Baby C’s Cot
Sunshine promptly assembled Baby C’s cot after it was delivered. Assembly was easy and in no time, Baby C’s cot is ready! We were both very pleased with the cot as the quality was exactly what we saw in Palette Box’s showroom and the cot just looked very pretty. Haha. It was then Sunshine pointed out that there was a “new product” smell on the cot. Luckily, we had bought it earlier and hence, we could “air” it now, about 2 months before Baby C’s estimated arrival.