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SportyBaby · 01-02-2011, 04:30 PM

Hi YTers,

Sport is my first baby so I am a little uncertain about some things and would appreciate any advice!

We live in a Manhattan studio apartment and since Sport's first day with us he has had his little playpen where we keep his bed, food/water, lots of toys and pee pads (which he does still use to pee on although he mostly prefers to go outside now and he hasn't pooped on the pads for months). He will be one year old on Jan. 21.

The playpen is an x-pen configured as a rectangle behind our couch. It is large enough that he has plenty of room in there to run around.

Until about a month ago, we would leave him in the playpen when he was home alone. We then gradually started experimenting with short periods of free roam in the apartment. He now always gets free roam when we leave him on his own. (He spends about 3 hours alone each morning, his daddy comes home for 30 minutes at lunch and they play and cuddle, and then Sport has another ~3 hours before daddy gets home from work. He is doing great with the free roam. Zero accidents, chewing issues or the like. Of course our home is also puppy-proofed! He mostly naps all morning and afternoon.)

So, while he now does spend some limited time in his playpen (snoozing, eating, peeing, or just grabbing toys to play with on the living room rug), we really aren't using it at all to keep him penned up and he doesn't really hang out in there any more like he did when he was a tiny baby. My question is, should I just fold it up and move it down to our basement storage (leaving his bed, food, pad etc in place but just not with the pen around them)? Or does it give him a feeling of security to go in there and have his own space? I don't want to unwittingly create a situation where he feels less secure for any reason.

We are basically used to living with the pen at this point, so there isn't an acute need to move it out. But, we always assumed that at some point Sport would no longer need it, and it does limit access to certain things we need (like one particular lightswitch and some storage in an IKEA cabinet). As I mentioned, we live in a small NYC apartment so every square foot is precious!

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and experiences!

01-02-2011, 04:30 PM	#1
SportyBaby Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New York NY Posts: 29	Sport's playpen -- should it stay? Hi YTers, Sport is my first baby so I am a little uncertain about some things and would appreciate any advice! We live in a Manhattan studio apartment and since Sport's first day with us he has had his little playpen where we keep his bed, food/water, lots of toys and pee pads (which he does still use to pee on although he mostly prefers to go outside now and he hasn't pooped on the pads for months). He will be one year old on Jan. 21. The playpen is an x-pen configured as a rectangle behind our couch. It is large enough that he has plenty of room in there to run around. Until about a month ago, we would leave him in the playpen when he was home alone. We then gradually started experimenting with short periods of free roam in the apartment. He now always gets free roam when we leave him on his own. (He spends about 3 hours alone each morning, his daddy comes home for 30 minutes at lunch and they play and cuddle, and then Sport has another ~3 hours before daddy gets home from work. He is doing great with the free roam. Zero accidents, chewing issues or the like. Of course our home is also puppy-proofed! He mostly naps all morning and afternoon.) So, while he now does spend some limited time in his playpen (snoozing, eating, peeing, or just grabbing toys to play with on the living room rug), we really aren't using it at all to keep him penned up and he doesn't really hang out in there any more like he did when he was a tiny baby. My question is, should I just fold it up and move it down to our basement storage (leaving his bed, food, pad etc in place but just not with the pen around them)? Or does it give him a feeling of security to go in there and have his own space? I don't want to unwittingly create a situation where he feels less secure for any reason. We are basically used to living with the pen at this point, so there isn't an acute need to move it out. But, we always assumed that at some point Sport would no longer need it, and it does limit access to certain things we need (like one particular lightswitch and some storage in an IKEA cabinet). As I mentioned, we live in a small NYC apartment so every square foot is precious! Thanks in advance for your thoughts and experiences!