Arm's Reach Universal Co-Sleeper

My favourite – I absolutely loved this Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper because it is quite compact and saves a lot of space especially for my not very spacious bedroom. It provides a lot of convenience to me having my baby so close by so I can always keep her under monitor in the middle of the night. My husband is getting better sleep now as I can quickly reach out to my baby when she starts stirring. There are also lots of compartments for storage which helps to organize a lot of baby essentials. Highly recommended!

Pretty good – It is a great idea and having baby sleep so close has meant I can relax and she is safe. Only issue with the co sleeper is its a travel cot so the mattress folds up which makes it quite lumpy. I emailed the company howeve and they were quick to send out a new mattress. Good on them for customer service but it still is unavoidably lumpy because its a foldable mattress.

Arm's Reach mini -- co sleeping and no worrying about SIDS – We used the Arm's Reach Mini co-sleeper from when our baby was born until ~4 months (8.5kg). I loved it. It was so good having baby next to me all night. I still got up to breastfeed (never got the hang of doing it in bed) but if he only needed soothing then I didn't really have to wake up. I could just look over to check on him. Especially when he was a newborn, we could lie next to him and soothe him, without having to worry about SIDS risk. When we used a normal bassinet in hospital it was so disruptive to my sleep to have to sit up to see him and touch him.

There's a bit of a knack to folding and unfolding it but the lowered side can go up and we used it as a portacot a couple of times while he was still young. It wasn't the cheapest piece of baby equipment but when it came down to it, it was probably only a little over a dollar a night for great sleep!

There is a time limit on it though, you are not supposed to use it as a co-sleeper past five months or when your baby can push up on hands and knees. Our baby was on the larger side, and he ran out of room at four months. I was so sad to move him into his cot -- more for me than for him. Baby is close by you all night, can use as portacot, A bit ugly, the Mini is small for bigger babies, not supposed to use past 5 months, can be hard to make the bed!

Loved it – I have the Original full sized one and it was fabulous. We could have some space in bed, but still co-sleep not have to get up to feed my bub, and best of all lie in bed and watch him sleep. I think I was never tired despite breast feeding several times a night. I loved the look of the natural one. it wasn't easy to take apart though.

Very handy cot for those who like to keep baby close – Since our first child was a few weeks old we have followed the recommendations of Dr Sears (US pediatrician and author of "The Baby Book") about co-sleeping and been pleased with the benefits - more sleep, more bonding, easy breastfeeding. Over the years we've heard more and more research in favour of co-sleeping for safety and bonding, including some recently in Australia.

I only bought this cot for our last child - I wanted to be able to put him down in the cot at night, but have him within arms' reach when he woke, and then pull him over into our bed.

This cot looks like a pretty normal cot but one side is lower than the others and pulled up flush against the adult bed - it is held firmly alongside the adult bed by straps that go under the adult mattress. It makes a neat and safe fit.

When baby is small, the baby mattress is high (just a couple of inches below the adult bed height) and then when baby can pull himself up the baby mattress is lowered, and later it can be lowered further to a playpen height.

The cot is not wooden - it's a sturdy, good-quality plastic covered with a quilted liner (but with vented sides) - you probably need to see a picture. It won't look like a traditional or uber-stylish cot, but it's pleasant and neat and functional.

People are usually surprised to feel the mattress in the cot - it's pretty thin and firm, but babies don't seem worried by it, and it makes the cot technically a portable cot. It comes with a bag. We didn't ever take it anywhere with us, but I imagine it would be a fairly bulky item of luggage. Also it's not a "one-touch" dissembly - I think you could become proficient at dissembling it with practice but you'd need practice.

There are two varieties of Arms Reach Co-sleeper - the Universal or the smaller Mini. We had the Universal and I'm glad we did. I imagine the mini would become too small pretty soon.

It's expensive in Australia, but I sold mine for a reasonable price second hand. (I'm not sure who is selling it in Australia now, because it's now longer sold at bebe online, where we bought ours.)

I feel really undecided whether to give it 4 or 5 stars. I've leaned to 4 stars because my baby ended up not sleeping long periods in the cot after a few months, but that might be unfair because I think he was a very light sleeper and we lost some use and familiarity when we went on a long trip in his early days. Safe, adaptable, good quality, aids breastfeeding, aids co-sleeping, easy to move around. Fairly expensive but sold second hand; thin, firm mattress; needed to follow instructions closely to dissemble.