Anyone in a crib at home, but use an inflatable bed while on travel?

[lmwbasye]

Okay, I do not know what is wrong with me, but I'm having some serious anxiety over this. DS is almost 27 months and happily in his crib at home (has never attempted to climb out and still in sleep sack so don't know if he could). We plan to keep him there until he does climb out.

Well, he is seriously getting really big for the PNP. The poor thing is so squished in there, he practically has designs on his face from it being smashed up against the netting. We ordered the kids Aerobed while it was on sale. We travel a lot and DH thinks we should be using that instead.

I'm a bit worried that he won't sleep in the Aerobed (he is SUCH a good sleeper now) and more worried that he'll now want to crawl out of his crib.

Anyone BTDT?

TIA!

[sarahsthreads]

We put DD in an inflatable bed before the holidays (she was 25 months at the time) while we were visiting the ILs, and...I hate to tell you this, but we're taking down the crib this week. We got back and she wanted to sleep in the "big-girl bed" for a few nights, so we found a good deal on a used toddler bed, brought it home and set it up. And then for the next 2-3 weeks she went back to sleeping in her crib full-time.

But when I mentioned to DH (in front of DD) that we should probably take down the new toddler bed and try again in a few months, DD started insisting on sleeping in her big-girl bed again. It's been a week now since she last slept in her crib. I, too, was planning to keep DD in her crib until she climbed out or started complaining that her school friends didn't have to sleep in cribs, why did she? ;)

Actually, I don't know exactly how it happened - maybe it's just her personality - but from the beginning of the whole bed-sleeping experiment we've stressed that the rule is that she must stay in bed. And she does. She stays in there until either DH or I goes in to get her. (This took a couple nights of repeatedly putting her back in bed and repeating the rule, and stressing that if she did get out one more time she would have to sleep in her crib.)

I was worried about losing my good sleeper, too, since DD would talk herself to sleep in her crib within an hour or so of us leaving her room, sleep all night, and play with her dolls in the morning while I took a quick shower and dressed. But it seems to be working out OK, and my DD is so incredibly proud of the fact that she's now a "big girl, mommy!" that it makes me happy that we did accidentally switch her. She literally tells *everyone* she sees that she sleeps in a big girl bed now.

Good luck!
Sarah :)

[o_mom]

We tried this and it was not pretty :-) I spent two nights up al night with him getting out everytime he woke up the littlest bit. Now that he is in a toddler bed it goes a little better.

Not sure what to tell you. We have an XL PNP that my Mom got 9 years ago. We used that until he was out of the crib (3 yrs, 2 months), but I don't think they sell them anymore.

One thing to try would be a small kid's tent. That did work for DS1 when we tried it - he was still contained, but more room than the PNP. We put him in it with a sleeping bag., but you could put the Aerobed in one.

[madelinesmom]

We have this one, I believe it is an aero bed even though it has One Step ahead on it, the air pump says Aero.

http://www.onestepahead.com/product/117/486761/117.html

Madeline started using this at around 18 or so months at the IL's b/c SIL's new baby needed the PNP. She has always done really well in it. We did not buy the blanket and pillow. I keep a flat sheet in the bag to use as a cover for the mattress. I have looked at the aero bed version and I believe when I looked it was more expensive than the one from One Step Ahead.

She actually loves it so much even if she has the opportunity to sleep with me on a trip she wants the "big girl bed"...

Jane
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[linsei]

Laura,

We did ok this summer when ds was the same age as your ds is now. I wanted to get a kids aerobed, but at the time, they were sold out everywhere online. We bought a Thomas type inflatable bed and placed it between the 2 beds in the hotel room. The beds surrounding it kind of made sides, but he could still put and arm, leg, or half his body off the inflatable and under one of the beds a little.

The first night with the inflatable bed, ds was a little confused - but he was tired so he just went with it! We did not have any issues with him waking in the middle of the night and wandering around the room. As a bonus, he was happy to come home to his crib. He climbed out a couple of times around 18 mos and didn't try anymore (until this past New Year's Day-what an annoying way to ring in the new year!)

I was worried that he wouldn't sleep in the travel bed, but we wore him out (Disney) so he pretty much went right to sleep, as long as someone was in the bed next to him.

GL and have a great trip!

Linda

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[tarahsolazy]

We did exactly this over the summer, DS was around 28 months, I think. He did great, and we even used a normal twin Aerobed without the raised sides. He stays in there remarkably well. We kept him in the crib at home for several more months, and electively transitioned to a twin bed painlessly.

Good luck!

[rupptopia]

We are doing this right now actually! DS is way too big (39 inches at least!) for the PNP so we bought the kid's Aerobed for him for travel. Like your DS, he is almost 28 months and doesn't try to climb out of his crib yet. My DS is a good sleeper too.

He has done really well with it. He has used it probably 4 or 5 different times. He recently slept in it for a week at my folks house while I was in London. I only know of one time he has gotten out of it - but this was at naptime & he was pretty wound up. He saw me, laughed and ran back to bed!

After the most recent trip, he said he wanted to sleep in the Aerobed but I just told him no, you sleep in the crib at home. I put it out of sight in the closet and haven't heard about it since. I don't think using it has pushed forward the time that he will have a big boy bed.

So it can be done! Good luck!