Hi, the tiny bundle of joy that caused us to move from TT to caravan earlier this year is now a crawling, cruising monster. Until now she's slept in a moses/wooden crib firmly attached to a sofa/bunk, but shes now able to climb out I'd love some suggestions for sleeping arangement for the next year or so (until she'll be ok with just a bedguard).
A traditional travel cot is too big for our van and the layout of the sofa/bunks along the side of the van doesn't really lend itself to "boxing in" as end bunks would. Any suggestions other than one of us having to share the double with her would be great!
Could you not "rig up" a runner similar to the side of a cot to close off the bottom bunk.(With the top bunk acting as the roof) Ok it would look like she's in a cage but until she learns to stay put this might do the trick.Not sure about the open end maybe a flap on a detachable piano type hinge.
Just a suggestion. might be totally impracticable.
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Ah sorry was going to suggest sleeping with as that's what I have done with ours but tbh this worked better in the tt where we were zipped into the sleeping compartment. Could you rig up an inner Remy type arrangement on a bunk so that the mattress was incorporated like with a tt sleeping area?
now 8 years but our grandchild has been caravanning from 6 months old.we used a bed rail from mothercare (£30) ,a hardboard sheet under the cushion to stop the rail arms going through.you can also buy a net to go over the bed.some sort of alarm near the door in case she gets out.
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Will be watching this thread with interest! Our girl will be 14 months old when we take our first caravan holiday at Easter, so we're also considering her sleeping options!
we used to use a travel cot, the downside was once the cot was up you couldn't move about at all, no The youngest is a little older we use a travel cot side from argos, Have you thought about a baby sleep bag to restrict their movement a little??
Is the concern to do with her falling off the bunk or getting in bed with you? If it's falling off the bunk, put her the mattress on the floor and she won't fall anywhere. If it's getting out of bed and joining you it's a choice of putting up with an extra body in your bed at 3.30am or with a screaming child caged in her own bed waking the rest of the site!
hi, our youngest daughetr was one when we bought our caravan last year. we have a bailey ranger 560 6 berth with fixed bunks. We ummed and arred about how to fix her in, in the end we got a long pink bedguard from kiddcare and fixed it to the bottom bunk. We also made blackout curtains and those things combined luckily keep her in! She seemed to think the whole thing was very funny and a massive adventure! what she'll be like this year tho who knows!
good luck.
fiona
Grandson has slept in a travel cot between the front benches but at 3 this summer he will be on one side of these. we have a fixed bed van - which we may change to different layout as he loves the van.
Grandaughter has one of the Samsonite things but she hates it with a passion!
Our Bailey Ranger has the common 4 berth layout of a end bathroom, side dinette which converts into bunk beds and the front dinette that converts into the double bed. What we have done is the following for our 1 yr old:
1) Removed the fold out top bunk as we don't need this at the moment and it saves on some weight
2) Cut 2 small pieces of thin board that fits over the wooden slates on the two single seats...........this gives you a firm solid base on each seat with a gap in the middle which the table top fits into.
3) We then looked for a travel cot that fitted this space and found the Hauck "dream & play" was perfect. You just need to go for the one without wheels as these are less stable and also slightly wider. As this is a long travel cot / play pen it will suit him until he is up to 3 years old.
We then leave the cot up when on site to save keep putting it up / down. It does mean we loose the side dinette but as we eat in the awning its not really an issue for us. Once he gets to 2-3 yrs old then we will then look at upgrading to a van with fixed bunks.
Quote: Originally posted by campin queen on 10/1/2012Hi, the tiny bundle of joy that caused us to move from TT to caravan earlier this year is now a crawling, cruising monster. Until now she's slept in a moses/wooden crib firmly attached to a sofa/bunk, but shes now able to climb out I'd love some suggestions for sleeping arangement for the next year or so (until she'll be ok with just a bedguard).
A traditional travel cot is too big for our van and the layout of the sofa/bunks along the side of the van doesn't really lend itself to "boxing in" as end bunks would. Any suggestions other than one of us having to share the double with her would be great!
Thanks!
We used a bedguard(that we also used at home) from about 6 months on the side dinette. We had a dogs mattress/matt(no dog sleeping on it. we didn't even have a dog then) on the floor just as a precaution without any problems
Another tip is to use one of the builders trugs as a baby bath.It also doubles up as toddler pool and washing up bowl(it flexes under site taps) We also used to use it in the van's washroom and fill it using the shower head. You can even take it to the site showers so she could have a bath.
she still uses it now at 4 but we use a bigger trug!
Many thanks for all the suggestions, with true baby brain I went to bed after posting and then completely forgot about it until now!
I will be reading thru again to give some of them more thought as I know we can't be the only ones! It's really about stopping her climbing/falling. I don't mind her joining us in bed - tho it's only a 4ft double so a tight fit anyway and she actually sleeps much better alone.
At the moment she keeps turning herself 90 and 180 degree's in the cot, as well as starting at one end and ending up at the other and standing/cruising/trampolining round it, hence worried about just using a bed guard without anything to enclose her. She does sleep in gro-bag type sleeping bags and this doesn't stop her!
Her daddy isn't the most agile of blokes (and has been known to sleepwalk) so putting her directly on the floor, blocking the loo entrance, is a no-no, tho would probably be ideal. I am think some kind of sleeping pod arrangment might work with the bedrail tho - and we have some old tent inners that we could maybe rig something up with - thanks very much for that one!
(we also use a trug for baths since she got too big for the sink :)
If you go onto the C.A.K. tanks website they have a type of cargo net to do exactly what you say stop them falling out. They call them bunk safety nets see link below..
BSN1558 BUNK SAFETY NET 1500 x 580mm
BSN1858 BUNK SAFETY NET 1800 x 580mm
We have the exact same net as above! its brill we have twin lounge and Harry(now 15mths) sleeps on the top bunk as the other kids are too big for them ! We have has it since last easter but it wasnt cheap abt £65.00. oh and it tucks away when we collapse the bunk but we have had to attach clips to the roof of the van which stay put, not sure if yours are fixed bunks or not? u cd attach to bottom bunk and clips to the top to save damage to the van.
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Topic: Sleeping place for Baby?
