Where does your toddler sleep when away?

[sbirmantaz]

We are taking a trip to my inlaws house and I am trying to decide if we need to buy another pack n play. We have a 10 month old and a new 2 year old. They still need to be contained when sleeping, but in a few months the 2 yo will move to a toddler bed, then when we travel do you think she would sleep in a pack n play? What do you all do? Thanks!

[Jeanmick]

Hum...that's a tough call. If you're uncomfortable having her sleep w/o being contained and she's not used to it, then I'd go for the additional Pack and Play, especially if she'll be sleeping in a room other than her own. Another option would be to use a bed rail and put the bed she'd be sleeping in against a wall so both sides would be blocked. Unfortunately, that wouldn't completely contain her if you're concerned about her wandering during the night. I saw on the One Step Ahead Website that there's a bed rail for both sides, so if you're interested in that, check it out:

http://www.onestepahead.com/jump.jsp?lGen=detail&itemID=178758&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=178758&change=117

Depending upon where your in-laws live, you might want to consider renting a PNP instead of buying a new one, especially if your DD will be moving to a toddler bed soon. It would be a shame to spend all that money on an extra PNP if you won't really need it after a few months. Here's a website that might help you:

http://www.babysaway.com/

I think they even have bed rails and other miscellaneous items you can rent, if luggage space is at a premium.

HTH!

Edited for spelling

[raynjen]

When my DD was that old, and we were visiting my parents house, we turned the walk in closet in our room into a room for her. The closet has double doors so I opened both doors and put a long baby gate up in the opening. We fixed up a bed for her on the ground. She wasn't happy about it, but I attribute that more to the change of venue rather than her sleeping location.

Recently we purchased the 'aero' bed from One Step Ahead and my daughter loves it and sleeps on it well (she also likes to play on it, but I'm trying to keep that to a minimum). It is like one of those aero beds you see around, but smaller, and with a raised lip around the edge to keep them from rolling out.

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to a wonderful preschooler,
who is almost three, Noelle!

[egoldber]

My DD refused to sleep in the PNP after she was about 18 months. And we travel a lot. So when we travel, she sleeps with us. Sometimes if we get a hotel room with 2 doubles, she will sleep in one of the doubles while we sleep in the other. But usually she wants me to come in to bed with her at some point during the night.

When we travel to my ILs house, they have a foldaway bed that they set up in the room where DH and I sleep. Its tucked in a corner, and about the size of an oversized toddler bed. She slept "OK" there the last time we stayed there, but still ended up squeezing into the double bed with us a few times during the night.

All in all, its just easier for her to sleep with us when we travel. And she does NOT co-sleep at home, but when we travel, she seems to need that extra security.

HTH,

[Mommie2MadLyn]

When we go away Madison usually sleeps with us. We do still use the PNP at times though when we do want to keep her contained, for example if we are staying at someone's house and they are having a party and we might not hear her if she wakes up. But if we know we are going to be in the room with her after she goes to sleep, or if we know we will be able to hear her immediatly, we just skip using the PNP.

[wendmatt]

We just went away for the weekend and took the pnp....hah, what a joke! After hrs of trying to get her to sleep and some crying, she slept in bed with us. I didn't even try the pnp the next night. For her nap I put her on a single bed in the spare room against the wall with the pnp pushed up against it so she didnt roll out.

[lukkykatt]

When DS was 18 months, he climbed out of the PNP and refused to sleep in it. He now sleeps in bed with us, or in a big bed on his own, depending on the accomodations. He has been in a big bed since he was about 20 months old though (due to his climbing).

I would not buy another PNP at this point - do you have a friend who could lend you one?

[Melanie]

"So when we travel, she sleeps with us. Sometimes if we get a hotel room with 2 doubles, she will sleep in one of the doubles while we sleep in the other. But usually she wants me to come in to bed with her at some point during the night."

Ditto. When at relatives' house, he sleeps with one or both of us. If the rooms were big enough to have an additional roll-away or toddler travel bed (like OSA has), that would be preferable, but they aren't. We are not comfortable with him sleeping in another room without us, while away.

I would suggest a toddler travel bed for your toddler and a PNP for the baby. However if the first night goes bad, you could always go out and get another PNP.

[loewymartin]

Ok, logistics question here. When you co-sleep while away (we don't co-sleep, so I really have no idea how this works) do you all go to bed at the same time? I can't imagine Alia falling asleep alone and then us climbing in a few hours later. But wanted to know how other parents handle this so I know. We haven't left the house (to sleep elsewhere!) since Alia moved to a double bed in August. I promised her we would wait a month before traveling, and actually don't have any plans to travel overnight in the near future. But I want to make sure I know my options and have the logistics down correctly!

Thanks -

Michelle - Mom to Alia born 5/16/02

[Roleysmom]

Michelle, we don't co-sleep at home but we do co-sleep when we are not at home since, as others have said, she's had a harder time sleeping in the pnp as she gets older. The three of us slept in the same bed when we stayed at my SILs last week. We brought Roley's lambskin that she sleeps on at home so she would have something familiar. We put it in the middle of the bed and me or DH laid down with her until she feel asleep or was nearly asleep. It took about 15-20 minutes. A couple of times she was very close to sleep and asked where we were going. We said we would come back later and we would all wake up together in the morning. That worked fine. We rarely lay with her at home, but she did seem to need the extra security. She sleeps like a rock so she didn't stir at all when we went to bed a couple of hours later. Since she was in the middle, DH and slept on opposit sides of her.

HTH--

Paula -- mom to Roley Julia, January '02

[egoldber]

We do pretty much exactly as Paula described.