A playpen, travel cot, pack and play, call it what you will, is, in my opinion, one of the most popular baby items on the market. I feel this is particularly the case within the Muscat parenting community. As soon as someone posts a playpen on a selling page, it is gone within an instant. Perhaps this is because of our subconscious paranoia of tiled floors, or because a lot of mothers are with their little ones on their own for most of the day here, or simply because I live here I notice it more. When CB learnt how to roll over at around 4 months, I realised it was no longer safe to leave her unattended on the bed (in hindsight it probably was never safe with her being such a wriggler).

This is when I started The Hunt for the Perfect Playpen.

Before I begin my story, I would just like to play the role of advocate for all parents who use playpens. [I would hope] we use them in the interest of safety for our children, and try to create a fun environment within which they can enjoy playing with their toys. When we are able to, we join them inside and play together, and when we are not able to and have to attend to other important things (such as preparing food for them), we are able to leave them in a secure and comfortable setting.

When CB was a few days old, we started with a Childcare Matisse 4 in 1 Portacot, that we had ordered online from Baby Bunting, an Australia-based company. This included a nappy changing counter, and two levels inside the cot. For the first few months we kept the upper level as a bassinet and once every so often CB would take a cat nap in there. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, we have always co-slept and have never really been successful with cot sleeping. Although she rarely spent time in there in those early days, when she did, the mobile hanging toys encouraged her motor skills to develop as she tried to reach for them. Later, when CB learnt to sit up, we removed the bassinet feature and secured the base to the bottom. From then onwards the “cot” became a storage facility for a growing collection of toys and somewhere we could leave CB to entertain herself. She soon grasped the idea of cruising and enjoyed regular walks around the short perimeter. The nappy changing counter was what was most useful and I believe this has really saved me from [further] back pain that would have been caused from bending over to reach CB at a lower height. I know this contradicts with my prior spiel in another post about how I prefer to change her at a floor level, but that only applies in an outside setting. It also came with a belt but I would never leave her unattended on the changing counter, even with this on. The nappy organiser hanging at the side has also helped to keep me sane and all the bits and bobs together. Please note this particular product does not include wheels, which other models do, and this would have made it easier to transfer it from room to room. It now resides in our bedroom all of the time, so that’s not really an issue anymore.

Flash forward a few months, I soon realised we needed to add another type of playpen to the mix. One which was more spacious for starters, and one within which I could join CB myself. I wanted to be able to join her so that we could play together and I could feed her to sleep (no judgement please), and leave her sleeping without fear of her falling off the bed. Most of the playpens on the market, such as our Childcare Matisse Portacot, have weight limits. This meant I could not enter these, and so these were vetoed as they did not meet my specifications. I considered bed guards at one point, but we could not possibly cover all the sides of our bed, so this was impractical. The next option was to invest in gates and playmats. I was not really keen on wooden or metal gates because of the thought of CB bumping into them and potentially hurting herself. Plastic seemed to be the only other option, but I still felt if I googled for long enough I could find something to suit our needs better. And hey presto, I did!

Just when I was at my wits end, I managed to come across [what seemed at the time] the perfect playpen. The TikkTokk Pokano Fabric Hexagonal Playpen met all our needs; it is mostly made of a fabric mesh material and it is very roomy, with ample space for CB and I, as well as all of her toys. I ordered this from Nanny Annie, another Australian company, but it was available to order at the time on many other websites. Before ordering, I had read some really positive product reviews for it on the website of a UK home retail company, Argos. Unfortunately it does not seem to be available anymore on either of these websites, but you are able to order it on Amazon.

This is how my pre-baby self probably would have expected our playpen to look like:

This is reality:

Here’s a quick review from our experience:

Pros

• As already mentioned, this is a very spacious playpen allowing enough room for both play and play-partners. There is also a smaller option of a square version.
• It is lightweight, compact once disassembled and comes in a convenient carry bag, making it very travel-friendly. Weighing only 7kg, we were able to check in this item on our return journey from Sydney to Muscat.
• It is made of plastic fittings and soft fabric mesh panels, so there is less worry if your child bumps into the sides.
• It is easy to assemble and disassemble and at first appears to be a two-person job but after some practise I managed to even do put it together on my own.
• It comes with a thick padded mat for the base, and for extra protection we have added two layers of playmats underneath, purchased from local gift markets.
• It has a bright and colourful design.

Cons

• Unfortunately due to the design of the fittings and thickness of the mat, it is wipe-down only and not machine-washable.
• The panels are slightly shorter in height compared to most other playpens.

If you are unable to purchase something from another country as we did, it might be worth considering these other options:

• The Golden Dragon Mart in Barka contains a playground supplies shop which stocks plastic gates. You can also pick up other useful child safety products such as foam for furniture edges here. This store is located at the far end of the mall.
• There are a selection of playpens available to order online from Mumzworld, an online company that caters for Middle Eastern countries.
• You can always look out for a preloved playpen from another mumma on a selling page.
• It may also be worth browsing through baby shops in Muscat – personally I have not searched all of these but you may be lucky enough to find something to suit your needs – such stores include (but are not limited to) Db Babies, Mothercare, Babyshop and Mamas and Papas.

So after purchasing this playpen and setting it up in our living room, it enriched all of our lives. That may sound far-fetched, but it really did. CB enjoyed playing in a fun space where she could keep all her toys together, with me at times, and we were able to leave her safely playing and sleeping in there too.

And then the unexpected happened.

One afternoon, before DH [Dear Husband] came home from work, I left CB in her TikkTokk playpen and sat down on the sofa next to the playpen to do some work on my laptop. She was busy playing with her toys so all seemed fine for the moment.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, came the sound of a scuffle and a soft thud, and CB waddled out, bearing a striking resemblance to Boss Baby, in front of me. I was so confused in that moment as to what had just happened. Had I not just left her in her playpen??

What had happened was that she had learnt how to climb out. I put her in again to see it for myself and within a second she climbed out again. Hiking one leg up on a panel edge, she pushed her body weight to the top and came down feet first on the outer side. I should have seen it coming, since in the days leading up to this episode she had shown attempts by putting her leg up on the edges, but I had never thought she could actually do it. She was also very proficient at breaking loose from her car seat, highchair and pushchair harnesses by then. Whenever I recollect this memory, I always think how blessed we are that she landed “ninja style” on her feet and had not hurt herself.

At first we thought it was due to the TikkTokk playpen having short panels, but within days she had mastered climbing out of the Matisse playpen too, which has higher panels.

After a quick internet search, I diagnosed the problem: we have a Houdini Baby.

When searching for solutions, I came across the product Crib Pants invented by dad Jeffrey Frese – I personally think this is an ingenious idea but sadly this venture did not receive enough funding to go ahead.

What we have settled on for now is dressing CB in a baby sleep sack/sleep bag when we place her in her playpens. I gathered this idea from advice on forums from other parents in a similar situation. This essentially prevents CB from being able to put her leg up to a height that would allow her to climb over. She can still move freely otherwise, and is able to walk around.

So far it seems to do the trick and she seems to be content and feel cosy wearing it. However, I am still very cautious about leaving her unattended, as knowing her it may not be long before she figures out how to come out of it.

It has been difficult to find sleep sacks suitable for the warm weather here in Muscat (unless you like your AC on full blast) as most we have come across are made of thick padded and fleece-type materials. In the end we found two made of a thin cotton material, one we bought from Mothercare (usual price 12 OMR, although luckily we managed to find it on sale) and the other from Carters (8 OMR). We also made sure to buy these of a length which allows her to stand and walk comfortably – this turned out to be a smaller size than her age group.

Of course, as CB grows up she is becoming more independent and is becoming accustomed to walking around our apartment freely. Still, it’s nice for her to have a space dedicated to her toys and play time.

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Moral of my story
A playpen can bring much joy to your lives as well as peace of mind…
but beware if you have a Houdini Baby!