DH and I are debating about whether or not the purchase of a portacto would be useful.

DH thinks it'd be handy to sleep them in the portacot during the day so I can have them in the living area or in our bedroom if I want to rest.

It would be handy if we ever go out and need to sleep the babies but we only want to buy one so the dilemma is how long can two babies sleep in one portacot for?

The plan for sleeping arrangements generally is for the babies to initially sleep in one cot in their own room and then into separate cots when necessary.

I feel as tho there wouldn't be enough room to sleep the two babies in one portacot for long and therefore we wouldn't get a whole lot of use out of it. We certainly don't want to buy two of them. I am reluctant to even buy one but am interested to hear whether or not others found them particularly useful - or not???

[center]ME 31 ~ DH 35
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I bought a fairly large portacot. I never used it at home (had a playpen though). But we got out and about a lot, and Matthew and Erin slept together in it for about 10 months (about the same amount of time they happily shared a cot for at home - so it will depend on whether they share a cot or not too).

I hope that helps a little.

Jo2+2<BR>Rachel - born still 21/11/00 (23 weeks)<BR>Matthew & Erin 7/11/01<P><BR>

I used a large portacot often when my girls were babies. I sometimes used it when one wouldn't settle well or something like that.

BUT I mostly used one when we went on trips to see family. All my family live 3 hours away, so we used them every time. I don't know what we would have done without it! At first they were in the same cot & then had their own. They used a portacot until they went into beds at 19 months old.

If you don't visit family & friends much, then I don't know if it would be worth getting one? For ease of letting the girls sleep somewhere other than their beds, I used a reclining highchair (very great invention) or a rocker.

I think they are handy to have, but it really depends on what you are doing. If your babies are going to share a room it may be also handy for times when one is teething, unwell etc & you don't want both of them in the one room. Having said that, when mine were babies they never seemed to wake the other if one woke crying in the night.

HTH & I haven't confused you.

Belinda

We had our two in a portacot (with bassinet attachment) in our room for the first 6 weeks. Then moved them to their own beds. At 6 weeks they were starting to roll into each other while sleeping so thus moving them.

We have two porta-cots purely for the fact that we do go out to friends and family and need cots for bubs to sleep in. So, it would probably depend on how much you are going to be getting out and about.

We have also used it alot when they are sick. If one is sick and unsettled during the night we will set up the porta-cot in the lounge (near our room) so we can resettle during the night and not wake the other.

hi ladies

i am wondering what brand your large portacot was? i have been looking for one and can only seem to find one standard size.

thanks
lindy

At Babyco they had really cool ones that were a square shape and you could fit 2 babies in them. They were a port-a-cot/playpen so quite a bit bigger and I think you could get a bassinette attachment.

We bought a port-a-cot from K-mart with a Bassinette thing and were getting one off my SIL but no she tells us hers is broken! I will buy a second small one later and they can share the one we have for a while as the bassinette bit is huge!

Cat & Nath
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Defintaely. We used it for their day sleeps as a playpen and it did a lot of travelling around Australia. We got the standard size and it was 2nd hand.

Hi there,
we currently use the portacot w/bassinet in the lounge for day sleeps so the twins can get used to day and night sleeps also when im tired and hubby is home i can have a nice peaceful sleep in the room without hearing them in the lounge...i think its great, my 2 are 12wks and so far it is big enough for them to roll around and not kick each other...hth

[color=Teal]We borrowed one portacot and bought one, and we have gotten a lot of use out of them, especially when visiting friends etc, but also when we've gone on trips. Our boys are 2 and we've only just stopped using them.

We bought one but rarely used it !!! it was to small for both to sleep and we didnt want to spend the money on another one .. I would suggest to buy 1 and try and borrow the other as no_idea suggested.