infant travel in bedroom and family room

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Apr 21, 2013
Messages
8
Hi. We will be traveling cross country this summer with our 2 kids, ages 8 months and 7 years. We have a bedroom for part of the trip and a family room for part of the trip. We do not cosleep with the baby at home. We are trying to figure out where we will have him sleep. It is my understanding that a standard pack n play is too big to use in any of the sleepers. A standard pack n play is 29x40. The travel lite pack n play, which is smaller, is 23.2x33.5. Would the travel lite fit in the bedroom or family room? Also, any other tips for traveling with infant is greatly appreciated. We are so excited about this trip. Thank you for your input.
 
so ... if you don't "co-sleep" with the infant, where is the 7 year old sleeping when in the Bedroom - is that a "co-sleep" ??

As for the crib, in the Family Bedroom, there should be room available by not folding the lower short bed down.

In the Bedroom, you are out of luck ... there just is no space -- you may need to break that "co-sleep" rule.
 
Thanks for your reply. Glad to hear that in the family room there is room for the travel pack n play. We keep checking for a cancellation for the family room on that leg of our trip that it was sold out and we had to get the bedroom instead.

In the bedroom our 7 year old daughter will be sleeping on the bottom bed with me and my husband in the top bunk. If she wants to she can curl up in the chair to sleep. I was hoping that the travel lite pack n play would fit in the bedroom next to the chair, but if not I was thinking either the baby sleep on the bed next to me on the wall side with 7 year old sleeping below baby or let baby sleep in his infant carseat bucket. If room is too tight in the bottom bunk for the 3 of us to be safe I guess he will have to sleep in his carseat. Just trying to figure out how best to do this. I really appreciate your reply. :)
 
ok so I didn't get logged back in-so here's me logged in-


Thanks for your reply. Glad to hear that in the family room there is room for the travel pack n play. We keep checking for a cancellation for the family room on that leg of our trip that it was sold out and we had to get the bedroom instead.

In the bedroom our 7 year old daughter will be sleeping on the bottom bed with me and my husband in the top bunk. If she wants to she can curl up in the chair to sleep. I was hoping that the travel lite pack n play would fit in the bedroom next to the chair, but if not I was thinking either the baby sleep on the bed next to me on the wall side with 7 year old sleeping below baby or let baby sleep in his infant carseat bucket. If room is too tight in the bottom bunk for the 3 of us to be safe I guess he will have to sleep in his carseat. Just trying to figure out how best to do this. I really appreciate your reply. :)
 
If room is too tight in the bottom bunk for the 3 of us to be safe I guess he will have to sleep in his carseat. Just trying to figure out how best to do this. I really appreciate your reply. :)
I don't think having the little baby sleep in the carseat is a good idea. I hope you realize there are no seatbelts on the train and no place to secure the car seat, so the car seat with the baby in it will be just sitting there by itself and in case the train experiences a jolt (it is not uncommon for trains to suddenly sway/jolt sometimes when crossing over switches and changing tracks) and in that case the baby and the carseat both might tumble, I am sure you do not want that to happen.

If I were to suggest, I'd just say you, your elder kid and the little baby should all be fine on the lower bunk of the sleeper bedroom.
 
Two adults on the upper bunk will not work. Hence, be advise your "no co sleep" plan is likely in for failure.

As for the floor space next to the chair in the Bedroom ... yes, that will work - however, you will not be able to open the bathroom door.

I have not measured, but you might squeeze the thing between the lower bed and the chair .. maybe.

BTW, why the 'no co sleep' ... I understand for home, but the train is very cozy, so why not.
 
The bedroom width is 6'6", but the bottom bed takes up 3'4" of that. That does not include the chair, which takes up space too so the pack n play lite may not fit. Also remember there will be a ladder set up too. If it was me, I would put the children in the bottom bed with me. You can also ask when you board to see if any Family Bedrooms are available.
 
Thank you everyone for your input. We are now planning on both kids sleeping on bottom bunk with me.
 
Is the baby still in an infant carrier? If so, there should be a problem letting him sleep in that, especially if you put it on the floor clipped into its base (our 9 mo just moved out of her carrier, but she's a little on the tall side).

Depending on your size, you and your husband can share the lower, and your daughter can sleep in the upper. Our son (now 10, but his first train trip was when he was 6) has always slept up top without issues. The upper bunks have safety nets that hook to the ceiling, so there's no real concern about him coming out accidentally.
 
You may want to consider two roomettes instead of a bedroom or family room. You could

have one parent and one child in each roomette and have four regular beds. We have

traveled with a couple who both prefer lower beds and they take the two roomettes.

There would not be space for any playpens. Good Luck.
 
You may want to consider two roomettes instead of a bedroom or family room. You couldhave one parent and one child in each roomette and have four regular beds. We have

traveled with a couple who both prefer lower beds and they take the two roomettes.

There would not be space for any playpens. Good Luck.
My only issue with this is, an 8 month old on the bottom bunk while you are asleep on the upper bunk? I would not thing that you would put your little 8 month old on the upper bunk. Regular bunk beds have laws written on them to keep young children off them, not sure whether Amtrak has a rule, but I would not want something to happen. the net that is there does not go from end to end, children roll all around during the night, I would hate to think of the child falling from the top bunk. I would also hate for the 8 month old to roll off the bottom bunk while you are in the top bunk unable to reach them before they fell.

edited to add - What if you did not put the bottom bed flat? the couch is rather long and unless you are really tall, could you and your 7 year old sleep on there at each end, thus leaving room for the portable bed?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Even without the bed down, I don't think that there would be room for a pack and play.

With two roomettes, we were going to let the baby sleep in her carseat on the floor between the two seats (in the daytime config) and Mom (or I) was going to sleep on the upper.
 
If you son will sleep in the car seat on trips, I would say just use that. We did it with a 6 week old and just had her sleep in the car seat on the floor, the train sways and such so much that he is unlikely to wake up. We brought some stuff to secure the seat to the train, but it wound up being a fairly tight fit anyway between the folding seat and the bathroom door. Realistically, if the train moves drastic enough that the kid would come out of the seat or the seat would tumble, you are likely to have other, bigger issues anyway and laying him in the bed isn't going to address that.

I think you might have a hard time getting the the three of you into the bottom bed comfortably anyway, but is is probably possible if you don't think your 8 month old will sleep in the seat through the night.
 
Thanks everyone for all the replies. I am new here and didn't expect so much input. We will have the infant carseat and base with us anyway because we need it at our destination. We will bring the travel lite pack n play just in case. We will just have to see what works when we travel. I am thinking that the kids and I will share the bottom bunk when in the bedroom or leave the bottom as a sofa and use the travel lite. I read somewhere when doing research that someone successfully left the bottom as a sofa and had room for the travel lite with access to the bathroom. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everyone's help.
 
First, in the family room, if you have the attendant make up the lower child bed, I suspect that it may well be possible to put the pack n play partially on that child's bed and partially on the adult bed at the feet area. A tall adult might have to curl up a bit because of that, but otherwise I think that this will work. There most certainly is no room on the floor for the pack n play, even when the beds aren't down.<br /><br />Now to the Bedroom, again depending on how tall you are, you might be able to set the pack n play at the foot of the bed if you can for lack of a better word, sleep short. Another alternative is to have your attendant lower the lower bed's seats only to the halfway point. This would leave you with more floor space. It would not be possible for you to share that "half" bed however with your daughter, she'd either have to go to the not so comfortable chair, sleep on the floor, or share the upper bunk.<br /><br />As for the ladder to the upper bunk, it's not permenantly affixed to the bed, so you can move it around as needed although moving it might mean that your husband is sort of trapped in the upper bunk until you put it back in place. Or he'll have to half jump down from the upper if he needs to get down for some reason.
 
The only problem with going to two roomettes is that I personally would not leave the infant flying solo in a bed, even with a parent in the room. Are you doing the Bedroom segment on Viewliner or Superliner equipment? If it is a Viewliner I can see about having one of my contacts do some measuring the next time they work...
 
Also check the handicap room as it gets closer to departure. If no disabled persons need it I understand they can open it up to anyone. That would give you room for your pack n play thing.
 
Please post the trains that your traveling. Viewliner sleeper are on single level trains, and at last check the extra seat could be fold up and tuck under the seats. That would give you a nice space.

However I like the two roomettes idea, with a child seat for night time. Two roomette might be cheaper than the bedroom.

Welcome to AU
 
Since she's talking about having a family bedroom on one leg and checking to see if one comes available on the other, so its a safe bef she's on Superliner trains.

Thanks for your reply. Glad to hear that in the family room there is room for the travel pack n play. We keep checking for a cancellation for the family room on that leg of our trip that it was sold out and we had to get the bedroom instead.
 
We have a bedroom on the Crescent and Sunset Limited. We have a family bedroom on the City of New Orleans and the Southwest Chief. We have been checking for a cancellation of a family bedroom on the Sunset Limited.

Getting 2 roomettes will not help as the baby would not be sleeping on a bed by himself.

I really appreciate all of your input. Thanks!
 
Wow, that's an excellent connection of trains - now I'm wildly curious where you're going to/from!

The thought behind 2 roomettes is that the baby can sleep in his infant carrier on the floor between the two seats. If you can get two rooms across the hall from one another, that's a pretty nice setup.
 
Atlanta to New Orleans via Crescent, New Orleans to Chicago via City of New Orleans, Chicago to LA via Southwest Chief. Staying in California for a little over a week and then LA to New Orleans via Sunset Limited and New Orleans to Atlanta via Crescent.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top