This was a gift for our son from his grandma who had seen how comfortable and useful this was with my niece so thought it would be a good present and with lots of us and grandma did know best in this instance. A friend also went out and bought one for her son after he had road tested it at our house and enjoyed using it

Who is it for- This nest is designed for use from birth to 12 months

Where from and how much- this is an Early learning toy and from their website the price is currently £37.50 though I am sure an ebay search would get you one cheaper

What it is- There are three main sections that go together to make the cosy the nest.
1) the mat this has five petals in different colours there is Velcro circles on both sides to either attach it to the semi-circle bits or to attach toys to it.
2) The first semicircle has velcro for the mat two tags at either end to attach to the other semi circle
3) The second semi circle has the donkey head on which is a head rest for your little one as they gain head control this is very sot and comfortable for them to lean against and my son loved it as his own little chair. Though the head has crinkle feel ears my son never played with this section on the nest

Included are several toys a rattling sheep, a cow with a bell, a chirping chick and a mirror though my son loved the animal toys and would also use them to explore with his mouth as well as his hands he showed no interest in the mirror and looking at this. I think this is because its too small really as he enjoyed using other mirrors.

The material that it is made from is lovely and soft and gentle and more important washable! for the inevtiable sick up that babies seem to do

For use at first with a baby you would use the to semi circles (that you insert inflatables into) to make it come together in a circle with the mat over these. At times as he got bigger and heavier the mat would start to slip down as he sat and laid in it. So I would have to tuck two of the petals under the donkey head to give it greater strength and reduce the slipping. As he got older I took to putting the mat in a slightly different way so that it mat went towards the bottom of the circle and under the head rather than the way the picture show the baby laying in it.

The second stage I felt we got the most use out of. The two semi circles stack on top of one another and you have the mat underneath these. Once my son had good head control and was trying to sit up we would prop him up in the nest and he could play with his toys in it. It is important to lean this against something we used a wall as it isn't sturdy enough to stand alone in the middle of the room. At the very beginning because I am probably over cautious we sometimes would put cushions at the end or in fount of him to give it greater comfort in case he slipped and fell. My son loved this as his own little seat

Value for money- We did use this everyday and for this reason I will say it is value for money and it did I am sure help him sit unaided quicker. But the toys included in it though nice are not enough to keep a little one (Or mine at least) entertained and we would give him soft books rattles etc to play with in it as well

One other word of caution if you have cats like mine they loved trying to sleep in it to so we would hide this in his room out of the way to stop them f=doing this when we weren't around