Travel cot or bassinet advice

[lgmum2b]

We'll be going away at Easter for about 4-5 nights and bubs is due around the 20th Feb so will be max 8 weeks old.

I was looking in JL at travel cots yesterday and have come up against the following:

1)I'm quite short and when reaching in on tippy toes fall short of being able to reach the bottom when trying to put a baby in.(We practiced with a fake weighted baby).

2)I know you can get travel cots with the bassinet built in but was advised by the JL lady that these can only be used until bubs is 12 weeks so seems like a waste of money to get a travel cost with this for what would be a single use.

3)Longer term I could buy an additional cot mattress to raise the level of the base but I've just bought her cot matress for her cotbed at home at £245 and don't necessarilly want to shell out for another cheaper one when I spent ages choosing the one for home.

4. Moses Basket - no point as she will only have it for single use on the Easter trip.

So finally my big question:

Why can't she sleep in the pram bassinet for those few nights? It's essentially no different from a moses basket after all.

At 8 weeks I'd expect from everything I've read that she'll still be on 3 or 4 feeds a night which take around half an hour a time so it's not like she will be in there for continous long stretches.

We'll also take her playmat and baby rocker/bouncer away with us so she wouldn't be in the bassinet solidly all day.

What are your thoughts? Advice really appreciated.

Lou

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Hi there,

This thread is quite old and some of the product recommendations are a little of date.

If you're looking for a travel cot that you can use with a newborn, take a look at our round up of the best travel cots.

Our top cot comes with a bassinet for newborns so you don't have to bend down too far to pick them up.

Hope that helps,

MNHQ

I'm not sure why you're concerned about the carrycot , it's exactly the same as a moses basket except has less air circulation (although IMO there's plenty of air because the sides are so low). My DD didn't really like her moses basket because she couldn't see much but I would have put her in it if I needed to. I'd just go with the carrycot, that's if you don't end up co-sleeping!

We got a Graco travel cot as it had a huge bassinet that we were able to use until DS could roll over (I think the max weight was 15lb). We also got a matress for it so that it was more comfortable.

Got a lot of use out of it actually.. DS slept in his own room in a cot for naps, but at night slepts in the travelcot in our room til he was 7 months old. I'm only 5'5" and I didn't find it too bad getting him in and our.

carrycot

mattress

HTH

Hi Saoirse86,
It just says in the pram brochure that babies shouldn't sleep in the pram bassinet overnight.
But to be honest I don't see what the problem would be when like you think it's essentially the same as a moses basket...
Hence looking for reassurance.

Thanks PocketMouse for the suggestions but I'm wanting to avoid the foam matress if went ahead with a full travel cost would need a proper matress with at least a 10cm depth to raise the level to one I can then reach in and out.

Anymore for anymore?

Lou

They probably don't recommend it because of the air circulation only, I'm pretty sure that's why you're not supposed to use cot bumpers too.

Or try ebay maybe for a cheaper moses basket, although you may still want a new mattress.

I have a travel cot with a bassinet and it was fab when DD was young enough for it. Used the bassinet more than 12 weeks though. I actually got it when DD outgrew the moses basket at 11 weeks.

Re a travel cot, it is just that - a travel cot. Buy the cheapest lightest one you can. Graco do one I think. We bought an extremely heavy, large mothercare one for dd1, it was promptly returned!
I bought a great pop up moses basket from Blooming marvellous for dd2 which we put her in at 12 weeks. You could place a moses basket matress in it to make a bit more comfy.

re travel cot - it depends how often you're going to use it. We go to stay with family/friends approx twice a month and I'm glad we went for a big comfortable travel cot as DS sleeps a lot of nights in it.
We didn't bother with a moses basket for DS, he slept in the pram. Was fine for us.

I have a four month old baby and my experience has been that people are conned into buying WAAAAY too much stuff prior to the baby coming. The producers of baby gear try to capitalise on fear and paranoia in order to sell new parents things they don't really need. So save yourself some $$ and the environment by buying less.

My advice would be to use the pram bassinet for a couple of nights, the baby will be absolutely fine. Really, they will.

Have you bought the pram yet? I love the Phil and Teds prams, and they do a fantastic 'cocoon' which sits inside the pram for when baby is tiny. Our wee one slept very happily in her cocoon when we were out and about, and she was fine in it when we went places overnight. You can put a nice cotton blanket over the pad on the bottom if you don't like babies sleeping on synthetic fabrics. That cocoon was brilliant and so portable for the first 10 or so weeks.

Re your problem with lowering kids into cots. Phil and Teds do a fantastic travel cot, which has a zipper down the bottom so that you don't have to bend down to lower your baby in. Check it out.

Good luck.

You need to buy a mattress which is suitable for overnight sleeping. What carrycot is it?

And the reason being is because the normal pram mattress isn't ventilated so increased risk of cot death.

You don't need to buy a mattress which is suitable for overnight sleeping. For goodness sake. Little babies don't sleep for more than three or four hours at a time anyway.

I don't want to be drawn into a mumsnet bun fight but dietcoke's advice is one example of the paranoia and fear I was talking about earlier. Retailers love it and will do anything to cultivate it as much as they can.

Please don't call me paranoid or you will have more than a bun fight.

Maybe the op would be better calling fsids for advice- it really isn't a subject I would be so flippant over.

info why mattress may not be suitable

Please ignore the car safety advice though as it's out if date!

you could co-sleep for a few nights? When I started co-sleeping with DD I put her on a soft towel on top of the duvet - it helped me feel like we had defined her space in the bed (she slept in her own sleeping bag).

I also used a baby hammock for DD, which is actually quite portable & has a door clamp for the odd night elsewhere.

You could go for a pop-up bassinet to save space and weight if you wanted something separate. Samsonite do one like here

We went away over Christmas for 3 nights when he was 7 weeks and he slept in carrycot of pram and our bed combo. was totally fine, and will be using it as necessary when we go on holiday next month.
He sleeps well in there in the day, so in a way it is easier to get him to settle as it is familiar. Get a matress for it if you are worried.
I found that all of these anxieties got much better once the baby was actually born. Spent a fortune on stuff before he was born. Now buy what is needed

I travelled a lot with DS when he was small. I had a moses basket at home as cot would not fit in our bedroom, but whenever we were away during the first 2 or 3 months he slept in the bassinet from our Quinny Buzz. I was able to fit his moses basket mattress into the bassinet. It had a zip-on mozzy net too which was ace whilst camping & at festivals as I didn't have to hover over the cot worrying about insects sinking their fangs into him.

TBH I probably wouldn't bother buying a moses basket if we had another baby. Sides of pram bassinet are low and if you put the hood down I don't see how air circulation can be a problem for a small baby lying on their back. I would recommend buying a new mattress though - you can get them shaped to fit most prams, baskets etc from babymattressesonline.co.uk/ (they do custom or standard sizes, so you could get one for a travel cot too if you wanted)

We did also have a mini travel cot which I bought second hand with a bassinet, which he slept in for a month in Scotland and then at friends' houses etc once he was too big for the (quite small) Quinny bassinet. He had outgrown that by under a year though! If I had thought it through I would have got a full size travel cot with a bassinet level as we are now on a second, bigger travel cot!

Whatever you decide, it's worth checking out second hand, travel cots are usually in near perfect condition as they get used so seldom.

I would be cautious putting a very deep mattress in a travel cot as the sides are so flexible, there is a chance that the baby could get stuck in the gap.

AKMD have you ever used one of those pop up bassinets?

I was lent one and the first thing DD with (about 7 weeks) was grab the sides & shake it ans the entire thing wobbled all around her - it's very flimsy & pretty useless. I actually stunned to see all the good reviews it got on that website you linked to. I decided not to use it at all. Also NO ventilated mattress (barely a mattress actually) or sides there either so I can't see that it would be any improvement on the OP's existing carrycot.

If carrycot is suitable for daytime sleep it will be for night sleep.

We were told to but a seperate moses basket for nighttime as the mattress wasn't thick enough - so I asked, can we not just buy a mattress? Lady in shop scrunched her nose up. We looked at the mattress and it was exactly the same size and thickness as the moses basket ones. We just bought a rocking stand for it as dd liked movement.

Forget about when travelling, we used our iCandy carrycot as dd's basket until 3 months when she went into a cot as she liked to stretch out.

We went away when my lg was 3 weeks old. We put her in the pram carrycot each night but she would not settle at all! My partner and I had to take turns holding her between feeds (not fans of co-sleeping).
I'm currently at my parents staying for a few days and she is now in the travel cot. She's a bit older (11 weeks) but she is settling so well in it. My only problem is that i have put my back out and am in awful pain and bending over to her is awful! 😖 Trying to find a way now of raising the base of the cot but not sure if it's possible.
Not sure what the answer is really but just wanted to share my experience.

Personally, for just a few nights I'd use the carrycot from the pram. Travel cot is handy when they are bigger and rolling about, but a newborn doesn't need all that space. I don't see how its any different to a Moses basket

On the basis the OP will have a 6 year old by now, I imagine she's resolved this particular dilemma.

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