Soother or no soother, that is the question.

For a while now, lots of moms have told me to get a crib soother, that their kids love it and they love it for like 2 years.  These suckers are $46 each, and of course since I have two babies I need to get two.  I splurged and bought them, because hey...if everyone keeps saying how great they are I want my babies to have them, too. 

I take the things out of their boxes yesterday and attach them to the crib.  You push one button and lights, bubbles, and little fish and frogs move.  It also plays soft lullaby music.  Great, right?  Well, Anna LOVES it.  I just push the little button and it plays for 6 minutes (the lights, bubbles, music, etc., but longer for fewer options) then shuts off, you just need to push the button again.  However, Anna couldn't figure out how to turn it on again.  These babies are smart, but they don't have the motor skills yet to be able to get their hand to that little button consistently.  So Anna decides to scream and cry when it shuts off before she's ready for it to shut off.  She slaps her tiny little hand at the thing and continues to scream and cry.  She finally fell asleep after some intervention. 

This morning I hear little noises coming from the monitor at 6 a.m.  Sure enough, she has woken up and noticed this new toy of hers (she usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8ish).  She's feeling around on the "soother", trying to figure out how to make all the pretty little things move and flash.  No luck.  So what does she do?  She screams and cries, of course.  She's in need of a pacifier intervention, and a little help to turn it on (mistake you say? maybe, but I wanted a few more minutes of sleep).  Viola!  She's happy...until that little tiny hand of hers slaps around and hits the dang button to turn it off!  Why couldn't she do that to turn it on??  Geez... She's crying again, and I'm just kind of watching her slap at the "soother".  Then I see Charles (who was downstairs) go in, pat her, give her the pacifier, and move her further away from the toy.  Ohhhh, nooooooo!!  Yep, more crying occurs.  I yell for him to turn it on.  He does, and she's happy....for 6 minutes when it then shut off.  Fun times!  It's time to get up.

It's then naptime and she falls asleep immediately (she had fallen asleep in the jumper because she was so tired from being up since 6 am).  But what do you know...I hear little noises on the monitor again.  There she is, staring at that little "soother", trying to figure out how to turn it on...again.  I watch her, laughing (I can really laugh now b/c Emilie is in the other room in a pack n play), as she's flailing her little arm in the air, hitting all the wrong places on the "soother".  But then, she hits the button!  Yes!  It's amazing how frustrated I get watching her struggle.  I wonder how frustrated SHE is...  Anyways, it didn't last long b/c she hit the stupid button, on accident, and turns it off.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! 

"Soother"?  Don't think so.  Here's a picture of her in action.  Notice there are no lights shining from this "soother", aka the "reason I've been up since 6 am", "the thing that makes my baby cry when she was perfectly happy before it came along", and "the reason my baby won't sleep".  No lights = no button has been pushed, or a button has been pushed twice. 

Here's a picture of Anna tyring to play with her "soother".