Not only was she diagnosed with colic at around two months of age, but she continued to have difficulty being separated from us - especially when it came to me. This began to have a severe impact not only on my life as far as personal time goes, but emotionally and physically - I was drained. More than once a week, I would be so frustrated with the situation that I cried; often pouring my heart out to my husband even though he couldn't fix the situation.
I needed help in a bad way. Anything I did, if it involved setting my daughter down, she cried. We tried just about everything that was suggested to us to solve the problem, but in the end, we just had to ride it out and wait for our daughter to out-grow the colic.
Naps were one of the hardest struggles during this time period. In order for her to take a nap, someone had to be holding her, or she had to think someone was holding her. This was never easy, and we tried all sorts of things to trick her into thinking we were close by when she napped - the longer she slept, the better. This was our sanity time, and it was usually the only time I got during the day to get anything done!
Even after she outgrew the colic, naps remained our greatest struggle. Unfortunately she also outgrew most of our methods to get her to sleep... I couldn't nap with her on the bed and then quietly sneak away after she learned to roll and crawl... I couldn't stick her into the snug little baby swing so that she thought I was holding her after she surpassed the weight rating... I couldn't even put her in the baby sling across my chest anymore because she no longer fit!
Thankfully, sometime around her eighth month I had gotten an email from someone over at Elli & Nooli asking me if I'd heard about their Recordable Pal. I hadn't heard of it before, and I explained to them about our colic situation, and how discouraged we had been lately with our daughter's sleep issues. They were so kind and understanding of our problems, and offered to send us their Recordable Pal in exchange for our review on it. Please know that although they were good enough to send us this item for free, by no means does that have any influence on my opinion of their product. (For more on my disclosure policy, please see the tab at the top of this page marked 'Let me disclose to you'.)
I was so excited when I received the package in the mail. It came much faster than I had expected it to, and my husband and I opened the box on the way home from the post office. We were immediately impressed by the soft, cuddly appearance of the Recordable Pal and the sweet stitching around the eyes and nose reminded me of the homemade toys my great-grandmother used to make. I was pleased at how easy it was to use; the instructions were so simple and the buttons were very straight-forward. Plus it came with the batteries already in it!
On the right, there was a button to record my voice, or a song, or whatever I thought my baby would enjoy hearing. On the left, there was a button to play the sound I'd recorded. At the bottom, two little feet indicated the symbols for volume up or volume down. After pushing play, the directions indicated that the recording would play for half an hour in a loop before automatically shutting off. All I had to do was record my 20 seconds, the Recordable Pal would play that sound track in a loop, and (if all went as planned) the sound of my voice would allow my little sweetie to feel secure while she was sleeping!
It seemed perfect. I planned to record myself singing 'Jesus Loves Me', the same song I had sung to my son when he was younger to soothe him, but there just wasn't enough recording time for me to sing it all the way through. I had to think for a while about lullabies that were short enough to sing in 20 seconds, and finally chose 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. It was short and sweet, and the melody was calm enough for a sleeping baby to listen to.
The results were amazing. I laid my baby down for her nap as usual after her feeding, and immediately clicked the button to play the song. She stirred for a few moments - getting ready to fuss - and then calmed. I held my breath as she tilted her head and then sighed in sleep.
Then I went into the hall and cried. I was so overjoyed at the thought of having a moment, a minute, maybe even an hour to myself. Unless you have lived through the colic experience, you just can't imagine the relief that accompanies a successful nap.After using it for a while, I've found that my daughter often wakes up when the 30-minute auto shut-off kicks in, but I usually sneak in to manually restart the recording time before it can turn off, thus giving me another half hour on my 'nap-timer'. I love the fact that I can hang the Recordable Pal wherever I want using the convenient tie-straps, and I adore knowing my daughter will be able to keep this as a loveable stuffy as she gets older. I even wish I had one of these for myself as a child - my mother used to sing the Rubber Duckie song to me when I was little, and a keepsake of her singing it to me would be something I could cherish forever.
My final recommendation? Although I would have liked a longer recording time, there is no end to the amount of gratefulness I have for this product. If you want your child to have a solid nap (especially if you have a colicky baby), this is a wonderful and charming device to let your little one know that you are nearby. I love this item so much that I'm putting it on my 'must-have' list of recommendations - out of everything we've received for the baby so far, this has been used more than anything else.
This product is a wonderful idea, has been a true sanity-saver for our family, and my extreme thanks goes out to the people at Elli & Nooli for sending us the Recordable Pal.
If you want to find out about the Recordable Pal for yourself, you can check out Elli & Nooli on their website at www.elliandnooli.com. Or, you can connect with them through social media on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Looking to purchase one now? Head over to their Amazon page here and you can buy one today!
Want a demo? Check out the short video below of me getting ready to test the Recordable Pal on YouTube.
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