The birth of quintuplets conceived naturally is rare. Rarer still may be getting multiple babies to all sleep at the same time.
When Evonne and Deon Derrico appeared on TODAY Monday morning with several of their children, all eyes were on those gently rocking infant seats – and the three peacefully sleeping newborns inside them.
“We see three little pods there, which we’re all, by the way, totally obsessed with those contraptions,” said TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie.
The 4moms mamaRoo infant seats were donated to the Las Vegas family from the “Steve Harvey” show, said Deon Derrico. The seats have five different motions and retail at $199.99 and up.
(TODAY.com is owned by NBCUniversal, which also distributes “Steve Harvey.”)
“They honestly seem to be great little babysitters,” said Deon Derrico. “Our babies just love them.”
But while rocking or vibrating seats may be helpful for parents of newborns, sleep experts caution that parents should help their babies learn to fall asleep on their own.
"As I'm concerned, these chairs will be helpful for the mother of quintuplets,” said Vivian Sonnenberg, a California-based sleep consultant. However, she added that such devices are not ideal for helping a baby develop good sleeping habits.
“When a baby is constantly rocked to sleep, they’re really not learning to put themselves to sleep," said Emily Robinson, owner of Medford, N.J.-based Sound-A-Sleep Consulting.
But for new moms who are sleep deprived, “if a few naps happen in a swing or a car seat or a stroller, that’s OK,” she said.
However, Robinson recommends that parents try to put their newborn down for at least one nap in a crib so that they can get the best quality sleep. By the age of three months, most babies will be taking about three naps a day, Robinson said, and that’s a good time to start putting them in their crib when sleepy but still awake so that they can learn to fall asleep on their own.
“You want to make the sleep situation as boring as possible,” Robinson said.