A Sleeping Baby is the new Happy Hour

alexandradavis02
Sep 20, 2017
3 min read

One question we've gotten asked often is "How does Ruby sleep when you're on the road?" Today I'd like to answer that! As you probably know, we have The Toaster, our Four Wheel Pop Up Camper that sits on the back of the truck. The camper has a king size bed that slides out, and underneath that is a couch that doubles as a twin bed. That couch is Ruby's spot! When we started our adventuring with Ruby back in April of 2017, she was only 14 months old or so, and couldn't sleep on a twin bed. She'd roll off, she'd get up and "play play" ... you know. Toddler stuff. So... we needed to "contain" her. I set Brock on that research, because he is the BEST researcher... I've never met a person who can surf the web, trying to find info, like he can. His best idea, after a few weeks of researching? A foldable, fabric dog kennel. Umm, no.

I'm a pretty laid back mom. Seriously. Both Mimi and Nanee have said that they expected me to be more uptight, have more rules, and have no flexibility. And I have a few rules that we live by, and I enforce pretty strictly, BUT I am pretty chill about most stuff. Except letting my sweet baby girl sleep in a dog crate. Not happening.

After 10 minutes of goggling, I found the Kid Co Pea Pod (and Pea Pod Plus) baby/toddler tents. Hubby... did you ignore this? Anyway... this is what I decided was a superior choice to the dog kennel. We toyed around briefly with the idea of a pack and play, but those are heavy and take up a lot of space. This was foldable, and is pretty easy to wash and keep clean. Brock installed it with some velcro in the camper, so it has its own little spot, out of the way, but easy to access.

My next concern was how to prevent Ruby from rolling the whole tent off of the couch/twin bed. Because those of you who have ever had a toddler know that they could and would do this. Brock installed clips to the tent and to the couch so that the tent could be attached, and Ruby would be secure.

Finally, Brock worried how Ruby would do the first few nights (she did terrible, to be honest) so he put the tent in her crib at home, and she slept in there a night or two, to "get used to it." Unfortunately, on our first few trips, she wasn't used to any of it, and generally had a 20-45 minute scream session (on average...some nights it was longer). But now, through continued perseverance, traveling, and a stuffed toy bunny from Aunties (Bun Bun), she does GREAT in it. We were on the road for 11 nights last month, and she only cried the first night, for about 30 minutes. SUCCESS. My hope is that she does OK in it next spring, when we start camping again! We have 1-2 more trips planned for this fall, and then will probably use the tent if we travel somewhere without a crib or pack and play (i.e.: FL Keys in January... if the hurricanes can stop!).

Overall, the tent is AWESOME. It has held up to over 25 nights on the road, and some nights have involved lots of movement on Ruby's part (you know: pushing it, wiggling around, etc). My kid isn't gentle with it, and it is still in great shape. We have also used it on the floor of a bedroom, on top of some blankets, when no crib or pack and play is available, and it worked great. I definitely recommend this product, for camping and travel needs.