How to get LOs to accept the Peapod travel bed?

Our boys are 13 months old and have only ever slept in cribs at nighttime and for naps (save for a handful of overnight trips sleeping in a pack n play). We will be going to the beach in August, and it is a 7 hour drive for us. My MIL has already reserved 2 cribs for the beach house (yay!). However, because the drive is so long we will want to drive part of the way there that Friday evening and stay the night in a hotel. So I recently bought one Peapod travel bed, figuring we can buy a second one if we really like them. I bought it not only for the hotel, but also for naps at the beach (we can hold one while napping, the other can get in the Peapod). As for the Friday night hotel stay they allow 1 crib per room (I think 2 cribs make a fire hazard or something) so one of the babies HAS to sleep in the Peapod. The only problem is I tried to get Brandon to go in the Peapod last weekend...and he was too scared to enter it. I threw in some toys, and even my Blackberry which they love to try and get, but none of those were enough to entice him to enter the little tent Our boys are horrible nappers as it is and always put up a fight unless they are passed out, so having them nap it in this weekend isn't an option. We'll have to get them used to it first. So I'm just wondering if anybody has any suggestions on how to get our boys used to the Peapod? I would crawl it in it myself but I'm too big, LOL. At this point we really only need one boy to be okay with sleeping in it, as the other can sleep in a crib. And maybe Colin will be ok with the tent, we'll find out tomorrow. But just wondering if others have been through this and if they have any suggestions. TIA!

On a side note, the MIL made room reservations at a Courtyard Marriot for the whole family. However, I checked and they didn't have any suites available, and the more I think about it (and read other threads about helpful hotel suggestions) the more I think we are going to HAVE to stay somewhere that has a suite. I don't want to go to bed when the babies do at 8pm, and I don't want to have to crowd into his sister's or parent's room when the boys go to bed. I want to RELAX in our room that night. So I just booked a room at an Embassy Suites. Like I told my husband the fridge and microwave alone will make snacks/meals for the boys (and us) worth it, plus they have the awesome free breakfast in the morning with plenty of options for our picky boys, and most of all we will need that complimentary 2 hour happy hour after riding in the car for 4+ hours with the boys :drinks: :lol:

 

I don't have experience with the Peapod Travel bed, but hope some others will chime in. I was thinking maybe leaving it out in the open for them to explore at their own pace until it starts to seem familiar to them and then adding some of their favorite blankets and toys inside of it?
:woo: for suite! I hope you have a great vacation!

 

Good idea about blankets and fave toys, and especially about keeping it out in the opening. Currently its in the dining room which is gated off from the living room, which is where they spend the majority of their time. I think we're just going to have to plop that sucker in the middle of the living room, eating up any free space, and let them get used to its presence first, then start encouraging them inside it more and more. We just gave them a FP "fun house" toy (I bought 2 months ago from Craigslist) and they are having a ball crawling through it chasing each other. Hopefully with the Peapod staring them in the face, and full of fave toys, they'll grow curious and want to start playing in it soon too!

I am are soooo looking forward to this beach trip! The MIL rented the house so it won't cost us a thing, and we are going to get the entire third floor to ourselves including MBR with private deck, private bath, and extra adjacent bedroom for the boys to stay in! :woohoo: I lurve his family

 

I don't know what to say for the hotel stay, but as for nap time, we had something very similar to the peapod travel bed on our last vacation for the babies to take naps in, and they get so tired from the sun and surf they passed out no problem! They were 9 months old. GL!

 

we have the peapods & anytime i know we're going to be using them, i bring them out a couple of weeks in advance & just leave them set up in the living room area & let the girls play in them (or not) as they want. once they seem comfortable, i try doing naps in the peapods in their bedrooms & then i usually do an overnight as well, just before we leave. it seems to work well for us. the girls are old enough now though that they seem to remember the peapods a bit better & aren't so weirded out by them. enjoy your trip! it sounds like a lot of fun. :good:

 

My boys sleep in cot beds which are big enough to fit the peapod plus inside, once you have taken out the mattress. We put the peapods in their cots for the week before we went on holiday so they got used to being inside, but they were still sleeping in familiar surroundings. Mind you, this was before we had dropped the cots to their lowest level, so I'm not sure how that would work getting them in and out now.
The first night they cried a little, but after that they were fine, and when we were away they slept with no problems - or no more than you would expect for babies in a strange place!

 

Here's what we did for our recent vacation. I left the peapods out for a couple of days for them to just crawl around in with toys. Then we practiced sleeping in them for nap times. I actually put the tents in their cribs :laughing:. I felt like I was putting them in a black hole because we already have black out curtains and then the tents in the crib were really dark. But they took maybe five extra minutes to fall asleep and slept just fine. I did this about every other day for one nap until we left for vacation.

Also, the bottom of the tent (the sleep on portion) is made out of the tent material and it was too loud for my boys to sleep on (and probably hot). So, I made a little alteration. I took the air mattress - which normally goes in the pocket underneath - and wrapped a crib sheet around it and slid it into the tent. So, the boys actually sleep on the air mattress. It fits nice and tight in the tent and is quieter. It's still louder than sleeping in a bed, but much, much better.

Good luck and have a great trip!

Laura

 

For those that put the peapods in the cribs for naptime, did you zip them up?? If we put our boys down for naps while they are drowsy but awake they usually fuss for just a few minutes. And I'm afraid that if we put them in the peapod awake and zipped it up they would really freak out.

laurab, I didn't even realize that air mattress was supposed to go underneath the tent! I first tried to cram it in the sleeping bag, LOL. Though I do seem to recall other TS discussions about peapods from other moms to wrapped a crib sheet over the air mattress, which is what we will do too.

BTW, Mission 1 was accomplished Saturday morning! I put the peapod in the living room floor and threw some toys in, then Colin went in and once Brandon saw his brother in there he couldn't resist. Then they had a big time playing in the tent!

short vid of boys in peapod

Colin is in the plaid shorts and Brandon is in the denim shorts. They were cracking us up! :lol:

Mission 2 will be next weekend when try to get one of them to nap in it. That one may be trickier!

 

I have no advice about the Peapods, but I just wanted to say that the video is hysterical! They're so cute! :wub:

 

That video is really cute.
I had no idea what a peapod looked like. They are cool. I just use 2 pack n plays when we travel.

 

Yep, I zipped them up inside their cribs. I didn't want them trying to crawl out of them and getting hung up somehow. Plus, I don't really want them knowing they can crawl out of them :spiteful: . They were a bit worried the first time, but now they're really used to it. My guys actually napped in them this morning because we were having work done on their bathroom, so I put them in the basement. One of my guys doesn't even move once I put him in there, he just lays on his back until I get him out after naptime - it's pretty funny because he's usually all over the place.

But back to the zipper - I do try to kind of put one finger under the zipper while I go so it's not so loud KWIM? And we don't even use the sleeping bag- seemed like a safety hazard to me.

Glad they're getting used to it! We got ours about 2 months ago, and I think they've already paid for themselves with how much we've used them.

Laura

 

We got 2 to put inside our RV (on top of the queen bed) while camping. I didn't show them to them ahead of time at all...never really thought about it actually! :lol: I think they were so freaked out with their new surroundings that they didn't care what they were in and took comfort in having their peapods next to each other (I left the mesh part facing one another so they could 'talk'). And of course I put their normal blankies, stuffed animals, etc. and their white noise on so it felt like home. I too put a crib sheet around the mattress and did not use the sleeping bags provided.

I have heard however that putting the peapods inside the cribs for a night or two before departing works well... Oh and I don't know but you might not want to act too much like they are a 'toy' because they might not sleep in them as well, just a thought, but who knows. :unknw:

Good luck, i'm sure it will go fine!