This post is based on a real-life facebook query we received:
Dear Rookie Moms,
Our 8-month old baby refuses to sleep in a pack n play and is too little for a regular bed. She is way too active to cosleep with us. The city where my family lives doesn’t seem to have any crib rentals or hotels with full-sized cribs.
Considering putting a mattress or just folded blankets on the floor and using a play yard fence around it to improvise a crib, which doesn’t seem very safe, but not sure what else to do!
Our wonderful readers pertained to the rescue with these suggestions, what do YOU think?
Jane: We use a pop-up kid tent. works even better than a pack and play.
Annika: When my kid was about the same age, I had him sleep on the pack & play mattress on the floor. It’s practically flat so no worries about him falling off of it. It seems odd to me now that he didn’t crawl or roll away, but I don’t recall that happening. We also used this go crib.
Dana: What about your stroller? I’ve done improvised cribs before and somehow my kids would always wind up rolling into an odd corner or escaping.
Aimee: look into the peapod. It’s a pop up tent sleeping thing. Not sure how it would work for an 8m old but worth looking into as it is so small u can pack it in your suitcase.
Lysa: I use a toddler size inflatable bed. It has bumpers so the can’t roll onto the floor.
Shana: We had success with babybjorn’s travel crib. But…I always had to curl up in it to get R to sleep. Thankfully, I’m not that tall, lol!
Whitney: My baby always slept in his automobile seat for the first months. We never had a problem.
Lisa: We use the toddler Aerobed.
Sarah: We’ve put a mattress on the floor before. worked fine for our kids.
Related:
Sleeping in a bucket or a bin on a trip
Sleep ideas for summer travel