hey ladies, what's your thoughts on this? We will be expecting number 4 in early May and our youngest now will be about 17 1/2 months when he gets here. Neither she nor I am ready for her to be out of the crib. She is currently in our room and she will be moved to here sisters' room. So my question is, should I get another crib or should I use a play yard / bassinet type bed? I know that little ones can stay in these for a few months but I'm not sure. What do you ladies think? How would you approach the situation? I don't have a bassinet or a play yard with one so either way I'll need to get one, I just need some opinions.
Thanks in advance.
Most pack-n-plays go up to 15 lbs with the Bassinet feature, and at least 30 lbs regular. So you can get a lot of use out of the pack-n-play. I do suggest getting one with a full-size Bassinet. If anything, I would stay away from strictly bassinets as they do not last as long weight wise.
My kids are 19 months apart. I did both. I had a playyard with a bassinet in it when my kids were newborns. I kept it next to my bed. We got another crib as well. I knew my older one would never sleep as well if I tried to move him too soon into a toddler or big kid bed. I kept my kids in cribs as long as possible.
I would buy a play yard with a bassinet insert. That will bide you a lot of time!
Having 8 children and not a lot of house we always had two cribs and the baby slept in it until at least 2-3 years old. It saved space for bigger bed until then and was better for a bigger child to sleep in but I did have a porta crib that I used with some until I moved them to the bigger crib in the room with a sister or brother. We didn't have pack 'n plays then but I had a square play pen which is the same only bigger if I needed to take them somewhere ( but not to sleep in ) so actually we used both ideas. I think you'll need a crib in the end but I used a pack 'n play for twin grandsons to sleep in at my house and it worked but if for a long time it's not very padded or comfortable looking. The top for infants seemed to dip in and I, personally, didn't think it very good compared to a plain bassinet or porta crib.
I think the play yard is a good idea to buy your daughter 6 or 7 more months in her crib. And then you can use it as a travel system too. I use a bassinet and love it, but I know a lot of people get a lot of mileage from the play yard.
I would get a pack n play with bassinet on top. My son slept in our room from birth to about 8 months in the pack n play. When he got too big for the bassinet part, we moved that out and he slept in the bottom. We had a regular bassinet, but it only went up to like 15 lbs.
