On the Road to Comfort- Lourdes Cruz

Hestia has recently started researching our product material design. We already had a good idea on the type of fabric and measurements we were going to use for our blanket, which is fleece. We figured it would be the best since its still pretty warm and its not too bulky. We decided to remove the  heart rate monitor since it would have required some cords, and according to some regulations for baby products, there can be no extensions coming out from a baby products like blankets. But we believe that the straps that will go around the blanket and the baby, and will help prevent suffocation.

When we first began looking at the materials that we wanted to use to build the blanket, we realized that the materials were better to go and get in person, but it was easier to go online and order them. We as a group (Dayanne, Georgia, Nissa, and I) went across the street to Hancock Fabrics to actually feel the fabrics that we were considering. They had many different fabrics, including flannel, fleece,and cotton. After feeling them and looking at samples, we figured that using fleece was the best material since we mentioned in our design proposal that it would be the easiest and least bulky material to work with. So then we had to decide on the color, we chose to do a unisex color, yellow.

We now had to look at the head support part of the design and we decided to make it out of foam. We did not want to purchase too much of it since it is only our prototype so we only purchased an 18 inch by 18 inch block, with a two inch width. We feel very successful with the materials that we have ordered, we spent less than 20$ so we know that we have enough money for our actual design.

We have not yet figured out what materials we would like our straps, but we have decided to take it one step at a time, and we want to construct and look at a tangible object (the blanket and the head support aspect) before we start adding extra things. We are not dropping the idea of using the straps just putting it off to decide to some time.

Hestia is very ecstatic to begin building. Even though we come from different pathways (biomed and engineering) we actually have always been the most excited about actually getting to build a product.