Dream On Me Folding Crib as primary crib in tiny apartment?

[acj412]

We currently live in a 1 BR in NYC, so space is at a premium. Although a lot of people have said good things about the Graco PNP, we feel we'd like something a little more sturdy. Is the Dream on Me 3 in 1 folding crib good for use as a primary crib? If it is less sturdy/lower quality than your typical full size crib, then we'll bite the bullet if we have to. But, if there's no difference in safety/overall quality, we'd prefer the extra space...

Thanks in advance...

[sntm]

http://www.amazon.com/Bloom-Alma-Urb.../dp/B002R0DR06

The Bloom one I've seen irl and it is very sturdy feeling. Can't speak to the dream one.

[twowhat?]

We used these portable cribs for Grandma's house. I wouldn't use it as a permanent crib unless:

1) you get a denser mattress for it (but mattress cannot be over a certain thickness for safety reasons - height between top of rail and the surface of mattress) - the mattress it comes with (lightweight foam) is a JOKE - you can't even put sheets on it because the the foam isn't dense enough to support the elastic on the sheets and it all bunches up - and

2) Genetically, you don't expect to have large babies or else these will be outgrown in a FLASH.

They are sturdy enough and seem perfectly safe. But that mattress really sucks and since it's a folding crib, they kind of rattle as baby moved around which always kind of scared us in terms of waking up a sleeping baby. We ended up going back to IKEA and buying 2 cribs on clearance for Grandma's house and everyone is happier.

Have you looked at more compact full-sized cribs like the IKEA cribs? Our girls shared a 10 by 10 room and we had 2 IKEA cribs arranged in an L configuration, a changing table, and a chair for nursing crammed in the room. The IKEA cribs with their lower profile and simple design makes a HUGE difference in terms of footprint while still accomodating a standard-sized crib mattress. At one point we rearranged the room so that the cribs were end-on-end against a single wall and that worked really well too.

If you can swing fitting a full-sized crib, that's what I would do. You can save space in other areas (small changing table, or use existing counter for changing; use the sofa for nursing instead of buying another chair, etc, but in terms of a crib - a baby is going to outgrow anything smaller sooner and then you'd be stuck with buying something larger anyway.

eta: I just realized I'm not sure if you're talking about the full-sized folding crib or the portable folding crib. We used the smaller portable ones, just to clarify. If you're thinking of getting the full-sized folding crib, I would definitely recommend getting an IKEA crib (super sturdy) or something similar instead. You don't want to be dealing with folding up a crib whenever you feel like you need extra space because throughout the day you will use the crib multiple times - as a safe place to put baby, as a playpen, for naps, etc. Even in a tiny space I'd rather have a dedicated crib that stays out and unfolded. I'm also assuming you don't have plans to move into a larger space soon and are not just trying to find something to get you by...

I hope that was somewhat helpful