Playskool Made for Me MP3 Player

A couple of weeks ago my daughter decided that she needed to be held all of the time. The minute I would try to put her down, whether she was awake or sound asleep, she would wake up and start screaming. This made it impossible for me to get even the most basic tasks done, like eating or peeing. I was so desperate one day to accomplish something that I just put her down and began vacuuming. She immediately calmed down and after 10 minutes went to sleep. The next day I tried the same trick except this time I didn't need to clean my house so I just let the vacuum run while I went through my to do list.

Not wanting to destroy my vacuum or waste electricity I searched for a white noise machine on the internet. That is when I discovered the Playskool Made for Me MP3 Player. It is a portable MP3 player for ages 0+ that can be loaded with your own music or sounds. I ordered one from Toys R' Us and we use it every time we put our daughter down to sleep. The pre-loaded music is OK but the key for us was downloading a 30 minute loop of a rainstorm that makes our daughter fall asleep and stay asleep longer.

Baby Gear Pros: Easy to use, lightweight and portable, great volume control, has settings that allow the music to play for 15 or 30 minutes and then the device will turn off.

Baby Gear Cons: Disappointing that the device is not rechargeable. It requires 4 AAA batteries that only last about 2 hours. We bought rechargeable batteries but it is still a hassle to unscrew the battery compartment and charge the batteries every day.

The device has colored lights that blink when music is playing. You cannot shut off the lights and this can be distracting for a baby trying to fall asleep. We have to cover ours with a cloth.

Playlist software only compatible with PCs.

Update: Our player broke recently. The MP3 unit seems to be the culprit as whenever we put it into the player it stops working but it will cycle through the prerecorded tunes without the unit attached. I reached out to Hasbro and discovered that they are no longer making this product. My guess is there were quality control issues given how quickly this broke for us with only light use.