Apparently it's not a good idea to put Baby to sleep in a travel cot day-to-day, which is what we've been doing; it says so in all the baby care books I've read (and that's quite a few), and the Plunket nurse told me it would be like asking a grown-up to sleep in a sofa bed or camp bed night after night.
So we're thinking of getting Baby a proper wooden cot, only it sounds like a good idea to get one which is either American sized cot (so she can use it until she's 4 years old - are they called American sized because American babies are bigger?), or one that converts to a junior bed. But is a wooden cot going to make Baby sleep any better?
Getting a proper cot isn't going to make getting Baby to bed in the first place, any easier - if it would, then I'd be out the door and in the shops right now, despite the cold and rainy weather out there.
What I need is more anecdotal evidence either for or against having one's baby using a travel cot every night (can they get bad backs or something?).
11 comments:
I think there might be safety issues when they get older with the travel cot the possibility of it collapsing if the kid tries to pull up using the sides. And the safety instructions on the one we bought said babies shouldn't sleep in it for more than a couple of nights at a time but I actually don't know why.
Babies are expensive little creatures, aren't they?
And btw happy birthday!
Yes, Happy Birthday!
Maybe they're not supposed to sleep in travel cots cos it builds up unrealistic expectations of adventures - they must constantly be expecting to be taken somewhere exciting.
mtnw: so, have you used your travel cot much for, you know, travel?
editter: I hope she'll travel when she gets older and is able to buy her own travel cot.
Thanks for the birthday greetings...another year older...sigh...
Happy Birthday! I'm going to go buy you a big box of chocolates. But I'll have to eat them for you as I don't know where to send them hahahahaha.
Um, back to the topic, baby cots. For our last baby we bough an expensive wooden american sized cot that had a basinet (sp?) level, cot level and converted to either a small bed or a couch. We still use it today (as a couch in the kids play room - baby is 5 now!) and we've never regretted it. What we did regret was buying a cheap white wooden cot for the first Baby - it barely made it to baby number 2!
As for getting baby to sleep in the cot - we never had any problmes - all of our baby's sleept through the night from very early on - a bit of karmic relief for my wifes terrible pregnacies we think!
No, we haven't actually travelled anywhere since the baby was born. It's very sad but all of our immediate family members actually live in Wellington so we had no pressure to travel to visit them. And every time we thought about going away for a weekend or similar for actual fun and relaxation we just couldn't face the thought of organising all the baby gear to take with us and trying to maintain a routine in different surroundings etc. We did use it for naps at grandparents and aunts when visiting and as a play pen/containment area in the lounge when she got to the rolling phase and beyond. It was quite handy to have somewhere safe to pop her while bringing in shopping or whatever but in retrospect maybe it was money we didn't need to spend...c'est la vie.
We bought a painted white cot from Farmers for about $300 and it worked out fine for us so no buyers remorse about that anyway.
All of my babies slept in a proper cot, we never really did the travel cot thing. If it saves anyone's back, it will be yours, not having to bend right over to pick baby up when she is heavier!
But I can see the sense in what the nurse says.....
I say, sell the travel cot, babies can sleep anywhere and use he cash to fund a proper bed for her.
Just my 2cents....
Amerian babies aren't that large, except for the ones that have stupid parents who think it's normal to feed their kids 2 pizzas, 3 chickens, and 5 bags of potato chips a day. But they jsut end up on trashy talk shows ;)
American sized - hah. Well, everything over here is pretty much supersized. You should see some of the vehicles on suburban streets.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!!
onscreen: you're very lucky on the sleep thing. I reckon postnatal depression is mostly about lack of sleep.
mtnw:Baby spends so little time in her current cot - all her day naps are in the hammock and half the night she is either in her parents' arms or in her parents' bed - that I'm having second thoughts now!
ms mac: very logical and sound advice. I wonder how much we can get for it?
jon: but don't all American parents feed their kids junk food?
flying kiwi: I can imagine. I'll tell you about the boy's present in the next post.
Happy birthday, and my 2 cents worth.
We have both a wooden cot - american sized etc, and a travel cot. We've used the travel cot quite a bit, and I'm glad we got it. However, if we'd had friends we could have borrowed one off, we prob wouldn't have bothered with our own. I know it is early days, but if you're planning on more than 1 child, then I kind of think just buy everything.
Oh, the other good thing about your own portacot is if you have people over for dinner, their babies can use it.
My aunty and uncle used a travel cot for their kids, and it was fine. In fact, I think when they're bigger and standing up a travel cot is safer. Probably just a question of making sure you air the mattress quite frequently, as they don't have very good air circulation. I could never be arsed bending over though, and our first baby took a lot of patting to get to sleep.
What a rant.
Oh, and if it is any consolation, the sleep thing does get easier usually. Nobody mentioned that to me when I was going MENTAL, and I think it would have helped.
thanks for sharing Martha. I really appreciate finding out how other parents have managed. I should probably get a proper cot anyway, since it's not doing my back any favours by using a travel cot without a drop side. And Baby will probably enjoy looking through the bars of a cot rather than feeling like she's in a dark pit...
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