Your baby’s bassinet o The crib not only affects their sleep, it also affects yours. I’m a first-time mom, my little one was born at the end of September, and we’ve been using the Cradlewise smart bassinet consistently for the past month. While it’s not a foolproof method of getting your baby to sleep (is there a foolproof crib?), it has helped reduce the need for intervention. Less intervention means more sleep for both me and my baby, which is why I’m a fan of Cradlewise.
Cradlewise has all the gadgets built in: a baby monitor, a sound machine, and even a bouncing motion to calm baby. The last two are completely customizable from the Cradlewise app. But it’s not just packed with gadgets: the app has artificial intelligence that will use the camera and microphone to track and classify baby’s sleep and react when they are restless.
Cradlewise has worked to help keep my baby asleep, and many times responds to it before I do. During his most recent nap, I watched him through the app as he drifted in and out of trouble, until finally the bounces of the crib soothed him and he fell asleep again. During that time I was able to write this review. I’m sold.
Baby’s first AI
Cradlewise’s AI is designed to learn your baby’s sleep habits so it can respond appropriately. Considering I’m in the middle of newborn haze, anything to help me sleep at this stage will be gladly appreciated. The crib monitor, integrated into the hanging arch of the crib, uses 3D image mapping technology to detect the baby’s sleep state: calm, active or crying. The AI interprets and classifies this information to respond by bouncing the baby, kicking the sound machine, or both. The more the built-in AI is able to understand and predict your baby’s sleep habits, the more you can take a preventative approach to his or her restlessness and movements.
I was hesitant to trust AI with my baby’s sleep, but Cradlewise is designed to respond like a parent would to a baby’s discomfort. He will begin to calm down with a gentle bouncing motion and turn on the sound machine. If your baby is still protesting to sleep, he will respond by increasing the bouncing motion and the volume of the sound. When the crib recognizes that your baby has fallen asleep again, all functions turn off. If these actions cannot calm the baby, it will send an alert through the app.
Photography: Cradlewise
Through the app, you have full control of everything from the intensity of the bouncing motion to the volume of the sound machine. Neither is constant, so your little one is less likely to rely on either of them to fall asleep. I have been using the high sensitivity setting so that the bassinet responds almost instantly to my child’s movements or sounds. When he moves, I wait to see if Cradlewise can calm him back to sleep. About half the time it will. On the downside, sometimes the bassinet increases the bouncing motion too early, from a gentle bounce to a level three or four (level four is the highest bouncing intensity), which is often overly aggressive and even counterproductive. for my baby to fall asleep. When this happens, I lower the intensity myself. Hopefully this is a pattern that the AI will eventually detect and readjust, but so far it hasn’t.