Baby in a Cali

[jonesey]

Hi all,

To those of you who have very young children, I'd be interested in where/how they sleep in the Cali. We're going to take away our 9 month old for the first time soon and I'm weighing up options for where we all sleep.

Options?:
1. Baby sleeps upstairs
Allows us to use downstairs while baby is asleep but I'm not sure how safe this is, I haven't tried out the net yet. Maybe I could get small cot up there? Not sure on temperature/air quality either, would take a thermometer of course.
2. Baby sleeps downstairs in a cot
Maybe safer but may still need a cot and the Cali would be out of bounds from early evening unless we shift baby downstairs when we go to bed upstairs. Sounds faffy thought.
3. Baby sleeps downstairs on the parcel shelf
I saw this on the forum and thought it was a great idea (was it Stu?) - make the area behind the rear seat into a cot by having a matress and bedding on the parcel shelf and baby can't escape. Same inconvenience as (2) maybe but not as obstrusive.

Any other thoughts or experiences would be appreciated!

Chris

 

[KernowLad]

Hi all,

To those of you who have very young children, I'd be interested in where/how they sleep in the Cali. We're going to take away our 9 month old for the first time soon and I'm weighing up options for where we all sleep.

Options?:
1. Baby sleeps upstairs
Allows us to use downstairs while baby is asleep but I'm not sure how safe this is, I haven't tried out the net yet. Maybe I could get small cot up there? Not sure on temperature/air quality either, would take a thermometer of course.
2. Baby sleeps downstairs in a cot
Maybe safer but may still need a cot and the Cali would be out of bounds from early evening unless we shift baby downstairs when we go to bed upstairs. Sounds faffy thought.
3. Baby sleeps downstairs on the parcel shelf
I saw this on the forum and thought it was a great idea (was it Stu?) - make the area behind the rear seat into a cot by having a matress and bedding on the parcel shelf and baby can't escape. Same inconvenience as (2) maybe but not as obstrusive.

Any other thoughts or experiences would be appreciated!

Chris

We took our 18 month old to Mull last year with our 3 year old boy (at the time). We'd already done around a dozen nights from when the baby girl was very young.

Both slept upstairs with the net up. Nights were tricky at first but we found leaving the bendy light on (pointing upstairs) helped keep her settled. We put her in a baby Vango Nitestar.

The problem with them being downstairs is that you struggle to know what to do once they've gone to bed! With them up the top, you get them to sleep (we found story CDs helped), then have a glass or two, read, talk quietly, whatever.

We use a small pop up tent to stash the baby seat and other bits - there's not much room inside to store stuff once you're in camping mode!

 

[jonesey]

Thanks, good to hear it's possible!
Love the sleeping bag, that's going on my list of stuff to buy for sure.

 

[Stu]

Yep, it was us. :mrgreen:

Karl, our 2 Yr old has only ever slept in the back and he loves it. We sleep upstairs and keep downstairs set up as a lounge area. No great inconvenience as we only really store bedding above the shelf which is always rigged before he goes to bed so all clear.

We have the Inka waterproof cover on the rear mattress then we add a cot mattress cover (i posted a link here recently) on top of that and then his sheet over that. He has a single quilt folded for his bedding.

 

[Blakey]

This is a really interesting thread for us. We have a 1 year old and when we last camped (September last year) it was a real struggle.

We had her sleeping in the back - on the parcel shelf - which we found worked really great. However we found we really needed an awning to stick all the junk that inevitably comes with a baby. I would love to be able to manage with a pop up tent (we have a small one) instead.

The issue is things like feeding: where do you feed little ones? We would usually use the awning (our 1 year old makes a LOT of mess at feeding time). But if it's really cold this is pretty unpleasant.

Do you guys feed your little ones inside the van? If so, what ways do you use to make this work?

Good advice about how to cope with babies and the Cali might mean the difference between us selling or keeping ours...

Cheers!
Blakey

 

[MKRW]

We have a 1 year old, 7 and 10 year olds. Anyone managed to sleep 5 in the Van?

We do have an awning buy just thinking about a quick 1 night stop over is it possible?

 

[Stu]

We normally all eat in the van or outside if it's not cold.

We have a very small deck chair that was bought for Karl, I think from the Range, and also a small table that's about a foot high which came from Towsure. He loves having his own table.

 

[KernowLad]

We usually eat in the van BUT I wouldn't even consider it without a full set of seat covers (VW OEM)! We have the rear mattress one from Inka too.

Yes there is mess but it's manageable.

A carpet/mat in the living area seems to help keep the floor clean and cosy.

As mentioned we did a week in Mull, sometimes in foul conditions and we were fine.

And if proof is needed that kids love a Cali, here it is...

 

[jonesey]

 

[Stu]

I found a pic of the small deck chair. When folded it fits perfectly in one of the Cali seats stored in the tail gate.

 

[MrsShambly]

We had a Concord Lima travel high chair for our son when he was smaller. It's a great bit of kit because it can be used on the bench seat or on the ground outside, has a removable tray and folds flat

(Sorry, don't know how to post a pic!!).

Eleanor

 

[dannosail]

We've just been camping with our 6month old. Blanket on the parcel shelf for warmth and there's no risk of her rolling anywhere. When she's older I think we'll use the roof bed.

As for eating we used a Bumbo which has a table, not sure what the solution will be when she gets a littl bit more boisterous.

 

[McMeefia]

Parcel shelf for us too!
Would have worried too much about temperature / falling out if he was up top as a baby/toddler.
He's moved upstairs now age 3, with his sister age 5.

We have memory foam topper mattresses for both beds which are a nightmare to clean if they get soiled, ie bed wetting, so we protect them with Hippy Chick mattress protectors which are really soft and not like traditional plastic sheets.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hippy-Chick-Mat ... k+mattress

 

[dannosail]

just a quick one how big do the babies need to be before you can use a mini vango.?

 

[sebking]

You can get a bunk that fits between the two front doors too.

 

[KernowLad]

just a quick one how big do the babies need to be before you can use a mini vango.?

The (baby) sleeping bag?

Our started aged 11 months old - they are quite little.