Graco Sweetpeace Newborn Soothing Center - Review

There are really only a few products that we have purchased for the little girl that are absolute life-savers. One of which is the Graco Sweetpeace Newborn Soothing Center.

We did run into some issues out-of-the-box for this product, mainly the motor that runs the swing motion was annoyingly loud and not really, umm, soothing at all. We made a call to Graco and they informed us that they were phasing in a new motor system and some of the products in the stores had the noisy motor.

They shipped out a new motor to us and it runs fairly smoothly now. It is a little louder than I had expected in general, but after reviewing several competing models in store, they are all loud, seems to come with the territory.

The motor aside, this “soothing center” is a great product. It has 6 levels of swing motion, a vibrating function in the included seat and a great selection of music on an above average built-in speaker system. The bonus feature of the music system is an auxiliary input and tray to hold an ipod.

Another bonus feature is that the included seat is removable and your Graco SnugRide Infant Car Seat will snap right into the Soothing Center. This is great for transferring your baby from the backseat to the Soothing Center without waking!

Weekly Link Roundup: 9/26/2008

Decision 2008: Daycare Providers

What kind of factors go into your decision making process for picking a daycare provider? We have two options in front of us, both of which we are comfortable with, but differ in price and location.

We live in Boston and there is a provider just south of us that we are very comfortable with. The issue with this option is that we only have one car and we both work in Boston, MA (well I work close by in Cambridge). So I would commute out of the city just to come back in for work. If we want to split the drop-off and pick-up, we will need two cars. We could drop her off, leave the car at the train station and commute via train to work. And reverse that to pick her up (thus splitting the responsibility). Downside there is we can’t get to her in a hurry if we need to, nor can we pop in to say “Hi!”.

Another option is to use a great provider in Downtown Boston that is on the way to work if I rearrange my commute slightly.  More importantly my wife could walk up (or cab it) during the day to say “Hi!” or in the case that little girl is throwing a nutty and needs her momma. Issue with this option is that it is (about) $800/month more expensive than option 1.

We are comfortable with both providers in terms of comfort level. So it boils down to:

• Convenience of drop-off/pick-up.
• Closeness to get there in emergency or for a mid-day pick-me-up (baby smiles are good for you).
• Cost.