Now that I’ve been a mom for nearly a year (CRAZY!) I wanted to start sharing more breakdowns of some of our favorite baby products. One thing we couldn’t have gotten through the last year without is a good travel crib, or pack and play as they’re most commonly known as. There are so many out there now and I’ve had a few friends ask for recommendations on which to purchase.
We were lucky enough to be given three. Might seem a bit excessive but we’ve used all of them a good amount. Both of our sets of parents live about 20 minutes away. Mine already had a travel crib so we gave one to Jeff’s parents. It’s so helpful when we go over to their house or if Crosby sleeps over.
We’ve had another one set up in our living room since about the time Crosby started crawling. This is a huge life saver to me throughout the day. If I need to clean bottles, get lunch together or go to the bathroom I plop her in there and know she’s in a safe place. I am trying to take advantage of this as much as possible before she starts climbing out. She’s walking now so I know it’s only a matter of time.
Our last travel crib is kept in the guest room closet and we bring it with us when we travel or if we go over to a friend’s house at night. Again, it’s super helpful to have a safe place to put Crosby if we need a free hand.
Now that I’ve explained that I’ll get into the models we have.
- Lotus Travel Crib & Portable Playyard from Guava Family. This is the one we have in our living room. I love that there’s a side zipper you can unzip so baby can crawl in and out, but then you can zip it up to secure them in the space. This one was also great when we traveled and she was a newborn. The mattress raised up and it became a travel bassinet. Learn more about Guava Family here.
- 4moms Breeze Go. This one is the easiest to use. It’s pretty light and opens and closes in one simple step. That’s something that can be really handy if you’re assembling it while holding baby.
- Baby Bjorn Travel Crib. We travel with this one the most because it’s the most compact. It’s not quite as easy to assemble as the 4moms but it’s really light and fits nicely in hotel rooms… or hotel bathrooms 🙂
Obviously you don’t need three travel cribs. One is plenty, I just wanted to share how we use ours. My favorite? The Lotus because of the side zipper and ability to be used as a travel bassinet as well.
I hope this was helpful if you’re shopping for a pack and play. Let me know if there’s one you love!
PS – you can check out my baby registry guide if you’re looking for guidance on what to register for.