630 of 636 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Notch Swing with Minor Drawbacks, April 19, 2005
This review is from: Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Cradle Swing (Baby Product)
My wife and I just retired our Ocean Wonders swing now that our son has outgrown it and I think that we all felt that it was tough to see it go back into the box. We found that a swing is invaluable for a baby for several reasons:
1. The swing really soothed our son and helped him fall asleep and establish a daily nap schedule.
2. Sometimes you need to restrain your little one while you do something frivolous for yourself like, oh I don't know - eat. But if he or she isn't strong enough to sit in a pack n play, then a swing fits the bill well.
3. If the swing has a mobile or some other point of interest attached, then your baby can begin learning to focus on, follow and reach for objects while playing in the swing.
So now that we've established that a swing is mandatory baby gear, how does the Ocean Wonders rate? Very well except for a few minor points.
PROS
* Very sturdy and durable
* Really good activities above and in front of baby keep him/her happy and interested
* Multiple seat settings, both in terms of recline and in terms of the swing direction, i.e. front-to-back vs. side-to-side. This second point is surprisingly rare in swings, but you want to have all options when your feeling out your baby's preferences.
* Good battery life - we went almost two months between changes using it daily
CONS
* LOUD motor - you get used to it after a while as it's almost hypnotic, but when we first turned ours on, I thought that we must have gotten a defective one. After going back to the store and hearing the display (it hadn't had batteries when we initially bought), we realized that that's just how it is. It's comparable volume-wise to an average dishwasher running.
* Baby will have to grow into it. Like so many baby items, this one goes too far on the low end of the recommended age. Smaller babies will be moving too fast even on the slowest settings.
* The sturdiness comes at a cost in terms of size - it takes up a pretty good size footprint. We recouped some space by storing baby items underneath it where there was plenty of clearance space.
All in all, this was a great swing. I suspect that even the cons that I've noted above would apply to many of the other models on the market.
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203 of 208 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best swing on the market!, April 3, 2005
This review is from: Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Cradle Swing (Baby Product)
We received this swing as a gift when we were having our first and now that we are preparing for our second I remember how much I love this swing (and my daughter did too). The side to side (cradle) motion on this swing was a lifesaver as my baby never cared to swing forward and back. I did not like the music and therefore rarely used it but my daughter found the sound of the motor (a swooshing like sound) to be very soothing white noise. I did occasionally turn on the mobile as my daughter grew and she loved that. This is a very sturdy swing, cleans very well, and I liked the adjustable seat.
Buy this swing with confidence, you (and your baby) will not be sorry!
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51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Love/Hate relationship with this swing...think it through..., May 31, 2005
This review is from: Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Cradle Swing (Baby Product)
Please read this review before you purchase or register for this swing. I really wish I would have known more about baby gear when I registered. First of all, this swing was a lifesaver the first 3 months of my son's life. If I had written this review back then, I would haven given it 5 stars.
What really disappoints me, is that my son is a big baby. He is over 20 lbs now at 5 months old. He would love to continue using this swing, but it looks like it's going to fall apart now when he is in it. Going back and looking at the weight limit, it's only good for up to 25 lb babies. So here I have a 5 month old baby, that still needs to be swinging and no swing safe/strong enough to hold him. I recently purchased the Fisher Price Smart Stages 3 in 1 swing (Tightrope print) and love it. It goes up to 40 lbs and I wish I would have started off with it from the beginning. It would have saved us $100. Before you register, think of how long you would like your baby gear to last. I was clueless.
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