The Birth of Cradlewise
Our first steps.
It all began at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where Bharath and I were classmates at the Center for Electronics Design and Technology. Who knew that we would go on to be life mates, parents to two beautiful kids, and co-founders of Cradlewise? We had absolutely no idea then that our roles as professionals and parents would overlap in such an interesting fashion one day!
Let’s go back to when we were expecting our first bundle of joy. Like all first-time parents, Bharath and I felt that no amount of preparation was sufficient. We were so anxious to welcome our little one into the family and into a home that was all ready for her. When finally our daughter arrived, our joy knew no bounds. Holding her in our arms for the first time was probably the most precious moment of our lives.
As eager new parents we were completely hands-on, taking on every task with enthusiasm. Bharath did his best to juggle work with being an attentive dad while I played novice mum too the best of my ability. It seemed as if our life and household had turned upside down and we soon realised that having a baby is a start-up experience in itself! Things slowly started settling however and we developed a routine, only to discover that our daughter’s sleep pattern started getting quite unsettled. She didn’t seem to be sleeping comfortably or long enough and obviously she wasn’t very happy as a result. We were spending a good portion of time putting her to sleep, and we became quite frazzled in turn. It seemed that neither the baby nor her parents were getting much sleep.
That’s when we started looking out for a cradle, little realising that it wasn’t as easy as popping into a baby store and buying one that caught the eye. All the cradles that were available in the market had firm flat beds, so that when the cradle rocked, the baby rolled from side to side. We had to place bolsters along the sides of the cradle to prevent this, and while the little one seemed snug enough to our unpractised eyes, obviously she wasn’t completely comfortable. Some hasty research revealed the benefits of hammock-based cradles; the hammock shape literally cradles the baby, making her feel warm and cosy, just like she would in her mother’s lap or arms.
We couldn’t find many options in the hammock category; the few that were available had flimsy, unstable stands that had us shuddering anxiously. Finally, we got down to making it ourselves. We were engineers after all. All it required to build a basic swing was an old cotton sari belonging to my mother, some springs, a few linkages and a metal rod! And Papa and Mama’s home-engineered product got accepted by our fussy client! She began to sleep long and well again, leaving her exhausted parents some extra time to catch up on work and much needed sleep.
That was our first baby step to starting Cradlewise though we didn’t know it then. As time went by, we began to feel the need for more features and soon added a motor to the makeshift cradle that would swing it automatically. We learnt that babies and music are a good combination so we added music playback. When our daughter was around five months old, she started wiggling around in her cradle and we decided we had to be able to monitor her. The cradle matured every week and every month, evolving to suit our growing daughter’s needs. She just loved the music-playing cradle that gently rocked her to sleep — in fact, she slept in it till she turned nearly two! Needless to say, her happy parents loved it too!
The transition from an organic need to building a home-grown version for our baby to actually making a suitable commercial product was so natural. Cradlewise was born out of our own need to ensure our baby was able to sleep safely and snugly. We are now committed to building a cradle that combines the cosiness of a traditional hammock with the smartness of modern day technology. Our aim is to ensure that babies enjoy the long hours that they spend in the cradle, so do the parents get some much needed sleep!
