New baby on the way

Oceandream A-T

Oceandream A-T

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62
Location
Dorset
Vehicle
T6 Ocean 204
Something positive has come from 2020 and our life has changed recently as my wife is pregnant with our first child. We still want to use the camper as much as we can when the baby gets older and grows so any advice please from forum users who also have babies/toddlers would be brilliant. Sleeping arrangements/ tips and tricks/ does the table work well as a changing table

Car seats is a mine field and we’ve been to the relevant Johnlewis and independent baby shops but looking for advice on people that have used infant car seats good or bad with the Cali.


Any advice would be much appreciated.
2019 Vw Ocean.


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Hi,

Congratulations! The first one is pure magic, the second one pure chaos, hahahahaha

We bought our Coast T6.1 last spring, my eldest was already 18 months then. She slept upstairs for 2 or 3 naps but this was mostly impossible because she was/is absolute fascinated with ‘her’ new van and thus unable to achieve any state of REM sleep. My mother fabricated a ‘fleece prison fence‘ by overdraping the safetynet with a fleece blanket to prevent light from coming in and children from falling down. So far so good. We only took day trips, so no advice on long stays here.

The kitchen table is brilliant for changing diapers, although be it the uttermost expensive diapertable on mother earth. We heat up bottled water in no time on the stove to make her formula and keep a ton of diapers in the back.

We’re hoping we can train our youngest so she can sleep without excitation by taking small trips every week and taking naps upstairs with her.

The car, for daily use, is an absolute dream if you have 1 or 2 kids.

We have a regular maxi cosy pebble for the youngest with foldable wheels you can dump in the trunk: I’ve had multiple agressive encounters with the folding mechanism (https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...-Capsule-side-view_1024x1024.jpg?v=1583120803)

For the eldest we sometimes bring our Yoyo foldable buggy, they can both sit/sleep in the thing (the trunk looks like a warehouse sometimes). They resemble a small back pack once folded, but also cost a fortune. Buy one secondhand.

She sits in a chair that resembles the throne of King of Thrones, I’ll have to check which brand.



Anyhow, enjoy!
 
First off, congratulations! Funny to read that with so much to think about with a first baby on the way, your focus is on baby and Cali ;-) If it's a girl, please do not call her Cali. :D

We found the Cali to be a very convenient vehicle when our kids were babies. You always have a convenient, warm, dry, private place to feed the baby, heat milk, change diapers, carry food, and let him/her take naps. It basically is a babymobile. :)

Sleeping
When they're real small, you can just take the bassinet from the stroler and let your baby sleep in that. Both during night time and during the day. At night sleep in the downstairs bed yourself and put the bassinet on the kitchen counter. Fits great and makes it possible for you to reach it easily in case he/she wakes up during the night.

When the baby gets a bit older you can start to use the space behind the bench as a play pen / place to sleep. When they get even older, but can't (really) walk yet, you could consider bringing a foldable play pen to set up outside when camping. This way they can be/play outside without you having to worry/keep an eye out every second of the day. Makes camping much more enjoyable for the parents.

As soons as our youngest was too big for the bassinet, we let him sleep in the upstairs bed. Worked just fine.
A thick pyama/wearable sleeping bag kept him cosy. Make sure you have a child-saftey net. A night light also helps. Remember to put something over the mattress in case the diaper doesn't do it's job properly.

Child seats
In the beginning, especially when driving alone (one parent instead of two) we found it very useful to have the baby-seat in the front (passenger seat). It's quite a difficult thing to drive safely when you are alone and your newborn is crying in the back. You'll be trying to look at the baby/sooth him/her and that's just unsafe. Just remeber to turn off the airbag for that seat. Also make sure you pick an isofix-connection that can be easily placed and removed in the Cali. Perhaps this is better taken care of in new models, but in our T5.1 it's an incredible hassle to place and remove the isofix seat.

We never used the table to change diapers. To easy to fall off we figured. We used either the bench or the back of the van. Standing under the openend tailgate, the heigth is just right and your child can't escape anywhere.

The best advice we can give goes for the baby in the Cali as much as for the baby in general:

If you as parents are relaxt, you'll have a relaxt baby. Make sure he/she is safe, fed and loved but don't go crazy, then he/she won't either. :)
 
Wow congratulations. I don’t have any experience with babies in a campervan but we did manage camping when my youngest was 18months old and eldest 2.5. And plenty of over night stays with friends and family from when they were tiny.

My advice would be take the least amount of equipment as possible, but plenty of clothes, bibs, muslins and nappies. Cover the mattress with a waterproof fitted sheet. If you are sterilising maybe do this with Milton in the washing up bowl, Or boiling/steaming in a pan. The bench or floor is big enough for nappy changes with a travel changing mat.

The Vanessa window bags are brilliant for storing nappies as well as clothes.

For walks I would definitely recommend a 3 wheeler pushchairs with air tyres. I quickly ditched my rigid phil and teds for a double ‘out about 360’ which I loved so much I bought it a single one as well when I needed it. The luxury of buying second hand pushchairs is you can truly find one that works for you. I am pretty sure a single ‘out n about’ would fit on the parcel shelf with room left to spare. You can also buy wheel covers or pushchair storage bags if you wanted to protect your bedding.

When my youngest was small we used a phil and teds cocoon which also fitted in the out n about. He slept in that with the flap open when visiting friends and family until he would no longer fit. Which meant we didn’t have to worry about taking an additional travel cot and it packed up small.

I used to take a travel baby gym when I was visiting family which I hardly used. They aren’t as stable as the normal full sized ones and a couple of toys and a blanket does the job just fine.

Wishing you the best of luck in your new adventure.
 
Congratulations!!!

I couldn’t think of a better car to have for a baby..

The changing of a nappy either on the floor or on the table will be far easier than in the back of a 3dr Golf Gti that we used to do!!
 
Congratulations. You will all be just fine in your van I'm sure so don't worry.
 
Congrats. Having camped in a family tent with my youngest from when she was just 6 weeks old I can tell you that the luxury of space, easily available hot water for bottles and sterilising and built in sleeping set up will make the Cali the perfect vehicle! On car seats I would recommend all in the Maxi Cosi Isofix range - they are well designed, covers come off easily to wash and they are generally bombproof.
 
Great news! Congrats!
Camping with California and new born (1st night he was 2 weeks old): Best we ever did and do! Great posts here about different aspects of camping with young people
Enjoy reading and happy camping!
 
Congratulations on the news.
You’ll get lots of advice and tips on here for camping with a wee one.
 
Congratulations. We had our second one in May. If this is your first then your experience may be slightly different as you’ll have more space.
1. We bought a bed that sits across the front seats and packs away into its own bag. This meant that we weren’t having to do and co-sleeping. Our oldest (3) and I sleep in the roof as my wife likes the downstairs bed to herself (I take up a lot of space). There are a lot of bunk type beds like this but we got one that keeps him fully contained and he can’t fall out.

2. isofix. I found the isofix points in our ocean a huge pain to get at, especially with seat covers. In our golf it’s really easy to take the seat in and out but it was a battle with the van. In the end we just used belted seats.
 
Congratulations to you both!
Baby changing, just do it on the floor or back seat on a changing mat.
The best seat for us (we have tried lots at double the price)

Joie Baby Stages Group 0+/1/2 Car Seat, Coal​

Bargain!
sleeping arrangements, 1 and 3 year old my wife was down with 1 year old I was up top with 3 year old, they loved it. Just forget the routine whilst in the van.. let them sleep later.
 
A Cali-baby... fantastic. Congratulations! I would have thought Calis and babies go together wonderfully. Our first grandchild is 8 days overdue and we look forward to the blending adventures seen through the eyes of the very young - if we are allowed to!
 
As always such wonderful advice and kindness Thankyou to everyone that has replied ! We can’t wait.


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As a father of four with eight grandchildren my advice, for what it's worth, would be not to pussy foot around the baby too much. Get on with your lives and after a few weeks the baby will usually fit in with your routine. If you want to listen to the radio or do the hoovering then do it, if you want to go away in the van then do it. Yes, stick to your routine of feeding, bathing and bed time as best you can but don't get too concerned if you can't follow it with military precision. If you run your lives too much around the baby the little darling will end up in charge of your routine.

You have everything your baby will need in your Cali, warmth, a bed, a sink, water and a stove and most important of all, loving parents close by.

You won't get everything right, no one ever does, but remain relaxed and enjoy your gorgeous new baby. Unfortunately, they don't stay babies for very long. I'm very envious. :thumb
 
As a father of four with eight grandchildren my advice, for what it's worth, would be not to pussy foot around the baby too much. Get on with your lives and after a few weeks the baby will usually fit in with your routine. If you want to listen to the radio or do the hoovering then do it, if you want to go away in the van then do it. Yes, stick to your routine of feeding, bathing and bed time as best you can but don't get too concerned if you can't follow it with military precision. If you run your lives too much around the baby the little darling will end up in charge of your routine.

You have everything your baby will need in your Cali, warmth, a bed, a sink, water and a stove and most important of all, loving parents close by.

You won't get everything right, no one ever does, but remain relaxed and enjoy your gorgeous new baby. Unfortunately, they don't stay babies for very long. I'm very envious. :thumb
Now that is experience speaking! 100% agree on that advice

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Congratulations and see above.

However if you do get carried away with more children. Just remember when you get to 3 at some point in time you will have to sell the Ocean and get yourself a Beach or alternatively carry them around - which is a big shift change for me who’s enjoyed 15 years of California’s latterly Oceans, the last 8 with to sons!

but I wouldn’t change for my daughter
 
Something positive has come from 2020 and our life has changed recently as my wife is pregnant with our first child. We still want to use the camper as much as we can when the baby gets older and grows so any advice please from forum users who also have babies/toddlers would be brilliant. Sleeping arrangements/ tips and tricks/ does the table work well as a changing table

Car seats is a mine field and we’ve been to the relevant Johnlewis and independent baby shops but looking for advice on people that have used infant car seats good or bad with the Cali.


Any advice would be much appreciated.
2019 Vw Ocean.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Congratulations !
We have just become first time grandparents in our late 40’s. It’s magical. Enjoy it :cheers
 
Hi sorry to use this thread but I’m unable to reply to your advertised springs? Do you still have them?
Thanks
Phil
 
Thanks again everyone, last month was her first trip away to Devon for a few nights as a test. At three months old she did fantastic. Now to planning the next adventure in our Cali.


Two very proud parents !

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