Amby Nest

we bought an amby nest before the birth of our son. The intention was that he would sleep in it following recommendation from friends. We did use it during the day, & everyone agreed that an adult version would be great. But we ended up buying a moses basket for the nighttimes. I never really felt comfortable with the product. I was never 100% convinced that the baby would not roll, even when he was really small. Also, increasingly, as the baby increased, we discussed how his head appeared to be lower than his body .... no matter how we adjusted the ties & velcro bits. We stopped using it entirely around 4 months when we started putting the baby down for naps in his nursery cot.

It has to be said the product looks great & got a lot of admiring comments from friends and family.

However it also has to be said that we bought the product new in the UK & I found dealing with the <small> company that has the UK rights frustrating due to payment problems & poor customer service.

Overall I wouldn't buy it again, but I would probably use it again for naps if we had another baby.

We discovered the natures nest at 6 weeks when after 2 weeks of baby waking himself every 20mins when he threw his arms out and hit the sides of his Moses basket, i started the search for a new bed. We had a cotbed which was in the nursery (too big for our room), and at 6 weeks i wasn't ready to move our little chap out of our room.
The Best Bits:
1) Literally hugs the baby. Really natural cradling position, no pressure. Gives your arms a rest if you have a colicy baby.
2) Gently raises head, really great for refluxy babies and when little ones have a cold.
3) Any jerks or moro movements transformed into gentle bounce or rock to lull them back to sleep. Longer sleep for baby longer sleep for mummy.
4) Will last long enough to take them into their cotbed.
5) Feels really safe, easily fits by bedside (check dimensions of metal frame)
Only downsides
1) Initially a fiddle to get them in and out, just like anything takes practice. I think to begin with the awkwardness to position is sensed by baby so takes them a while to get used to it. It took about 5 days to get confident putting them in and taking them out, our little one had it cracked within the week.
2) Expensive to buy new, we bought ours from a lovely family via ebay. The parts in contact with the baby all go in the washing machine so i felt happy to risk it and ours was fab. Cost us just £65.
3) Wont last us the year, we are stopping using this now at 6 months our little chap is quite big 95th C length and Weight, but he is wanting to wriggle more and have more space. We have been using the cot in nursery for last 2 months for naps so easy transition.
Summary:
We love ours. If you have a fussy, refluxy, colicy baby this is excellent. By no means a miracle cure but every little helps, as they say. Wish we had it from day 1 with our little chap and will definitely use it from birth for the next one. Buy from ebay for better value.

I was given one of these when my baby was only a couple of weeks old. It is excellent as when the baby is put in it they feel like they are being cuddled. I can easily bounce my son back to sleep if he stirs. The only criticism I have is that as he is now much bigger when he wakes he has slid down and his legs are squashed, which doesn't help his slight positional talipies. At four months I may soon purchase a cot for him to sleep in which if I had purchased the nature nest after only four months use it would not have been good value for money.

Bought this after my second child was born as he was fussy and didn't sleep well during the day. He has never been a good day napper, but slept through the night from about 12 weeks onwards with no problems. I love the position that the cot holds baby in, with no pressure on their back or head (no flat heads here), and the fact that you can bounce baby gently back to sleep if they wake during the night. My third baby also slept in it and totally loved it, each child used it until they were about 1 and then went straight to a bed with their brothers. Big upsides for me: No hard bars for baby to climb around and knock themselves on/get feet stuck in/climb out of and conk their head on the floor. Natural positioning of back and soft on their head avoiding flat head when newborn and it automatically snuggles up to baby a bit like being held. Less bulky than a cot to fit next to the bed. Built-in bouncing and rocking. I love it, love it, love it!

We haven't used this half as much as we thought we would. Bought it while pregnant as a result of glowing reviews, but actually DD slept perfectly in Moses basket and initially screamed whenever we tried her in the hammock.

She is a bit better with it now and i tend to use it for daytime naps, although even then i think she is happier in her cot. We moved her from Moses basket to cot without using the hammock as I didn't really want to get her into something that moved when she slept as then she'd go to something stable again.

It is also quite bulky and i disagree with the people that say it would be a convennient travel cot - the hammock itself is light but the frame is metal and quite large, If you have a small bedroom, you may have problems fitting it beside a double bed.

I would say don't buy it until you see what kind of baby you have. May help bad sleepers get to sleep, but you may not need it at all.

my DD (7mo) is a terrible sleeper, despite being in an Amby Hammock from day one. she wakes and stirs constantly throughout the night, and doesn't seem to be able to rock herself back to sleep like the testimonials suggest. I thought this product would be the answer to my prayers for a baby who slept through from 3 months... maybe she would have been a worse sleeper in a normal cot, although i struggle to imagine how!

She likes the hammock, and it looks comfy, but it's not the miracle solution it is positioned as. also, it's very difficult to get the baby in and out if you have a bad back because you have to lean right over holding the child out in front of you. lastly, when she was newborn, her head seemed to lie lower than her body, so we ended up weighting the end of the hammock with a book under the mattress

As others have said, this is an excellent product and I would certainly recommend it. We got one recently for my sister's newborns and as there wasn't a handy man in sight we were greatly relieved that it was really easy to set up - even I could manage it:) The rocking motion seemed to help soothe the babies and as others have said, it's great to rock them back to sleep if they wake up at night - just give it a gentle flick! It's not small, so do think about the size of your nursery, but on the other hand as it's bigger than a Moses basket you can basically skip that stage and just move on to a bigger cot when they're ready (seems to be around age 1 but we haven't got there yet) -plus it's very stylish and they look ludicrously cute in them. It can also be used as a travel cot as it comes with a carry case and isn't too heavy.

Excellent product, as others have said, great for getting baby to sleep. Very highly recommended to all mums. DD slept in it from birth and slept through from around 7 weeks. We have the nest next to our bed, if she stirs in the night dh sticks his foot out the bed and gives it a gentle rock, hey presto, baby is off to sleep again. She also very good at rocking herself to sleep now she is a little bigger. We've used it as a travel cot, which has been great and easy, but it is a bit bulky so could only use it when we have traveled by car. In all its fabulousness there is one downside I feel...and that is that baby gets very used to the idea of sleep and motion and being in a cosy nest and now DD is 7 months and going to nursery soon, we are going to have to go through the process of getting her used to sleeping in a cot (for day naps)- so far she finds this very difficult!
Bought ours on ebay virtually unused for £80. Still in good nick and with a new mattress it would be in very good condition for resale/ reuse. We've ordered the bouncer for Christmas!

Best Investment EVER
Recommend this to anyone expecting, I rant on about it so much, I bore myself!
Took us a while to get the hang of placing DD2 in it, but she pretty much co-slept with us for the first four weeks. When newborn the baby's head is the heaviest thing and it was almost tilting whenever we put her in it. Posted a question on MN and tried again, after that it worked and worked and continues to work. My DD sleeps like a dream. From four weeks all through the night. Not saying this will happen for you, she may have inherited her dad's genes ...
Bought mine off ebay, about £65, and expect I'll sell mine when I'm through with it.
Purchased a new mattress and sling so I have a spare.
Very very useful as a travel cot. Can put it up and take down in seconds. Means no transition when sleeping somewhere else, hotels or friends as it's just same bed in different place.
Wish they made them in adult sizes!

Would highly recommend this. DS2 sleeps very peacefully in it. Whenever I wake in the night I can see the hammock swaying gently as he breathes, keeping him rocking and relaxed. A lovely product giving baby the natural comfort of being rocked all night. Wish I'd had one for DS1.

dd sleeps much better in the Amby than in moses basket, it's great for getting her off to sleep by swinging and / or bouncing, so glad saw the reviews on here and bought one

I did not like this cot. It was not straightforward to make it hang straight, getting baby in and out in the night was a bit awkward and I was also told that it's not good for the baby that it can't move around freely as it can in a flat cot. The midwife asked us not to use it for the first month or so because she didn't think it looked right for a newborn.

We decided to use this mainly as a daybed and bought a Stokke Mini for the night.

They say you can use the Amby cot until the baby is about one years old. We stopped using this as a daybed when our baby was about 7 months. I came in one day and she had managed to turn herself on her tummy, and was trying to get out of the cot, but got stuck halfway out. Luckily she was screaming but it looked quite scary.

thought this was an ideal answer to our lo rapidly outgrowing his moses basket. with the added bonus of being able to use it as a travel cot. much bigger than expected. we couldn't get the lo to settle in it at all. it's now residing under our spare bed. a very expensive waste of money for us.

Read about the Amby on MN and decided to go for it- quite expensive for DH and I (we had been using a free second-hand moses basket) so it was our Christmas present to each other! Well worth it and I would recommend it to anyone. What is especially good about it is the ease with which it is dismantled and moved around- perfect travel cot. Brilliant- many hours of blissful sleep attributed to the Amby!

Pretty amazing! DD slept in it until nearly 11 months (but she is huge). She slept well and from about 5 months bouced herself to sleep. I put her in it for naps in the day and she learnt really good sleep assoiations. I suppose I will never know if she is a good sleeper becasue of the nest but I wouldn't dare risk it. Perfect!

Fab, had real problems getting my first born to sleep without being attached to my boob so not wanting to get into this habit again I did a bit of research and decided to go for an Amby nest. My 5 month old loves it and goes off to sleep quite the thing without booby. I find bouncing works better than swinging. Well worth the money I think and I see that they hold their value well on the second hand market. Why does no one do a bouncing cot?

This is the one item I'd recommend to any new mum. My son has slept through the night in this hammock since week 10. He's now 7 months old and smiles from ear to ear every night he's put in it. I hope he'll fit it for many months yet! Easy to dismantle and therefore perfect to travel with.

I think the Amby is great. My son has always slept well in it. He's now 11.5mths and still in it. The best thing is that you can use it as a travel cot so if you go visiting / on holidays then your little one will still sleep well as they are in their normal bed. It is quite narrow so you can have it next to your bed before you move your little one into their own room. It's very versatile and easy to put up.

This is the best bed for little ones. No need for moses basket, and last much longer.
My little girl slept in it from day one. Its wonderful, if the baby starts to stir in the night the nest starts to slowly bounce baby back to sleep. I dont want to give this up.
It also can be taken apart quickly and used as a travel bed, so take it away with you too.