Skip to Content

Graco Glider Elite {Review}

Graco Glider Elite {Review}

Thanks to Graco for a sample to facilitate this review of their Graco Glider Elite

Graco-Glider-Elite

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a baby in  my home, and while I have days where I yearn to add more to our Houseful, I’m not too sure that’s going to happen. HOWEVER, I always have people around me who help satisfy that baby craving so that I don’t scare Mr. Houseful too much. My best friend is currently expecting, and could deliver any day now, and I can’t wait! New baby sniffs and smells just delight me, and why not soak it all up when you can? 

So, how does that equate to me doing a review of baby gear? Easy! Graco sent me a Glider Elite to review, and now I get to gift it to my bestie for my soon to arrive niece. Plus, baby gear is right up there with school supplies for me. There is something about it that I love. School supplies I can keep by the truckload, but baby gear, not so much. 

This Glider is pretty sweet. It took me about thirty minutes to put together, and did require the use of a screwdriver (or a drill – since I’m on a building frenzy) and also comes with pieces that use an allen wrench. I’m not certain if it’s my lack of baby juju around here, but a couple of the illustrations were weird to me, but I got it together. Everything locked into place just right, and we were able to test it with a real live baby! My friend Nicole allowed me to use her daughter Olivia as a model for the glider, and to test its baby soothing technique. Oh, who am I kidding, I just loved being able to hold a little-r person again!

Olivia is nine months old, so she was on the larger side for the glider, but right on par with the weight variations. I was able to adjust the harness to fit her in, and it would have snapped easily had she not been in a cloth diaper (shout out to cloth diapered babies with the big diaper booty!) so there’s something to keep in mind. 

As you can see, the chair is almost papasan like in its structure, allowing for full cuddling of your little one, and no random flips out of the chair because of the great base that is rubberized as well. The chair has a fully connected leg in the back that prevents the chair from tipping backwards as well. It can also be used alone with the assistance of the battery operated controls at the foot of the chair. There are only two options here though, low and high, and that’s it. 

The base of the glider (it’s a two parter) cradles the chair and allows for the chair to be powered by electricity through plug the base directly into an outlet. It attaches through the leg in the base, so it does need to stay stationary and near an outlet, but does give you about three and a half to four feet of movement from whichever outlet you have it plugged into. 

There are six different speeds of rocking from the glider, an option to turn the volume down, up, or off, and to either use music or sounds from nature. You can also set it on a timer so it doesn’t keep going long before your mommy brain informs you that you left it on. 

One of the things that I loved the most was the fact that the base was super wide, and hard to tip. The twizzlers automatically assumed that we were going to have a baby in the house soon, and in their excitement tried to help me move the glider. It didn’t budge easily, and I consider that a win. So, even if big brother or big sister are hovering, it would take them a bit to tip – from my observations. From the way that you are looking at the picture the swing would go top to bottom, and that’s exactly the way that the seat would be settled into the glider. The handles settle into the rectangular openings at the end of the ‘M’ shaped bar. 

2014-07-13 15.16.28

2014-07-13 15.15.13

Olivia seemed to enjoy the gentle rocking back and forth, that is, until she got hungry. She even loved playing with the bird and star that come to attach to the hood of the chair. They are attached with velcro, so you don’t have to worry about the hood being ruined from an eager baby pulling on them. They just pop right off, and can be attached again with one hand – because what mom or dad ever has two when a newborn is around? 

 

Here is the chair sitting in the cradle, and it takes up about as much space as a regular glider. It’s wide, not long, I guess depending on the way that you look at it. Either way, it will definitely come in handy when you need to let your little one sit for a minute while you do things around the house, like, you know, shower – which apparently lots of new moms (no matter how many children you have) can’t seem to do during those first few months of life for their child. It frees your hand from having to rock as well, as your need for batteries if you use the plug option more. 

2014-07-13 14.19.23

What’s your favorite piece of baby gear? I’ll tell you one thing. I’m glad that this didn’t stay in my house long because I *may* have had to find another little Nicholes to fill it soon. 😉 

 

 

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Samantha Vales Schultz

Saturday 15th of August 2015

Samantha Vales Schultz liked this on Facebook.

Caroll

Wednesday 16th of July 2014

I wish they had this when my 17 year old was a baby. I would gladly purchase one if I can have the cute lil' pumpkin who is modeling it :)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.