Baby Mods for a Westy

[madspaniard]

[GWTWTLW]

[CQ]

Off Topic actress that played Punky Brewster name was Soliel, and is a pretty name.
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82 Westy 'Betsy'
72 Bus 'Bertha' -Sold
Learning about 2.0L AFC Everyday.

[GWTWTLW]

I know a Soleil as well. I think it's a great name!
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89 Syncro Westy - GW 2.5, now with a double knob job
@gwtwtlw

[1621]

Aswah, again congratulations!

As for the baby mods, one of our favorites has been the Gary Lee cot that hangs above the front seat. It's well built, and will carry lots of weight, i.e. he/she could use it for the next decade. Gives Soliel (or Beaumont) a place to nap while mom and dad make up the bed, shuffle stuff around, cook, or whatever. When the cot is outgrown, it also makes for a great place to store things out of the way - above and below.

*a trick for making it safer is to swivel the seats to face inboard so the headrests create 'backstops' at the ends. Three kids and nary an injury... involving the cot, that is.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/frontbed/frontbed.htm
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'85 Westy

[GWTWTLW]

CAUTION: Having a cot may lead to more kids though!
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89 Syncro Westy - GW 2.5, now with a double knob job
@gwtwtlw

[mikey9]

What we call the "Parcel Shelf Bed" (PCB) over the pond.

Prob the best mod we ever did for the baby. Sleep heads forward - feet under the baby bed - if he/she wakes in the night - reach up - unhook the lobster net and cuddle/bring in with you.

If you put baby down early (or for a nap in the day) you still have the front and rear seats and use of the kitchen (something you lose with a hammock across the front)....

If like us - you enjoy a whisky and a view late at night after the little one is down - then you have the best seats in the house still available - for relaxing in.

During travel - the bed becomes storage for the baby carrier and other baby detritus you are about to be introduced to

Our two year old is still in the PCB (with the other up in the HITOP - sleeping acrossways).

Anyway - enjoy - we only got our van when the first was 6 months old and we wouldn't swap it for anything.

[DAIZEE]

THAT's the shelf I was talking about. Thanks for resurrecting the pics. To me this seems ideal for the first step.
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'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[bitingspider]

Our new stuff for our now 3 year old consisted of:
Exterior tent to hold things like the car seat when we were camped.

This little fold up table was awesome:

We used a cat heater for winter camping, daytime use with adults inside only. Down bags keep us all really warm at night.

Baby monitor was useful to bring along for summer nights outdoors- we just used an inverter and a rechargeable listener.

12V fan and mist-er for hot travel days- beware of overheating babies, they get really cranky!

Extra wipes and extra diapers, towels, extra layer of bedding... you can never have enough. Though with girls you don't have to worry too much about the arc o' pee.

We liked to bring a little wagon. Also brought an ergo and eventually a backpack carrier (they take up quite a bit of space though).

We like to have exterior lie down space so we have a 6x8 blue tarp with a nice comfy rug on top (easy to sweep is good).

If your wife decides to pump the extra voltage of car batteries greatly simplify the task (gets the motor going real strong)- in fact we used a compressor/battery in the house. But you probably want ice to get that milk as cold as possible. Bad milk is gross gross gross.

Think I'm getting off topic here...

Congrats! Our little one has soleil in her name too!

[carterzest]

ASWAH and Lisa. Camille is just about grown out of her pack and play and we just got her big girl bedroom furniture just in time. You get a jogger stroller, 2 other strollers, Bassonett, and a van load of other various useful child things. Keep in touch. Hope to see you up here soon. My favorite trick is just clicking the back seat up and making it into a child bed. worked great for camille on recent camping trips. DISCLAIMER: Never fold the rear bench from a bed to a seat with a baby in back...we had a heartwrenching scare when Camille rolled over as I was folding the seat down from a bed to a seat.....she rolled over midway through the transition and I desperately tried to stop the locking action....and once it locked, the only way to get her out was to lock the seat and lift up the cushion My heart sunk and thank god that she only experienced minor scrapes but wow, I almost crushed my baby girl on her first camping trip. I did have a lot of soft stuff under the seat that was crammed in there and that is what made it tight, but, who does not have a lot of stuff under the seat when travelling with kids???

PM me or call me buddy!
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Happiness=Portland, Oregon in the rearview mirror!

[aswah]

wow! go camping for a few days and look at the responses! thanks! I love the bed idea from Scotland! Carterzest PM your numbers... or digits as we say in the hood...
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WIT WA DA DA (Peace and Unity)

Aswah, Lisa, Beaumont and Loose Lucy Too!

1989 Westy
2013 Jetta Sportswagon TDI

[skippy1369]

First of all.....Congratulations……
Things we have done to make camping with a little one easier….
We got from Walmart or so the interlocking rubber floor mats, and put these over the wood floor in the main area to give him someplace to crawl on. Also a tarp or blanket for outside is good. We also tried all kinds of different methods to set up a crib area, and ended up finding that out large baby gate (its wood frame with plastic netting) is just the right size to put across the front of the top bed (bottom by the bed, top on the metal bars that hold up the pop top). With a little fiddling around with this, you can get it to really lock into position, so I feel that there is no chance of our son being able to fall out. Before he was crawling, we would also put a small inflatable pool with a sheet covering it as his bed. He seemed to like the “nest” like feeling of that. We also take a pack and play with us sometimes, as it can sit under the awning during the day and serve as a changing station, but also makes for a real easy nap location in the van. Some type of inflatable tub is a good idea too, cause they can get really messy while camping. Background noise is great to have, we have a sleep machine for anyplace that has power, and an ipod with classical music and small speakers for the times that there isn’t. a portable high chair will strap to a camp chair just fine. There is a pic or two here. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=415084
I will try to get some pics of the setup we have now, as ive been refining it since those pics were taken.
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Hunter, 82 Westy
Past:
01 Aprilia Futura
98 Ducati 750 SS
89 BMW S7
65 Jeep CJ5

[aswah]

thanks great suggestions!!!
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WIT WA DA DA (Peace and Unity)

Aswah, Lisa, Beaumont and Loose Lucy Too!

1989 Westy
2013 Jetta Sportswagon TDI

[akyrie]

Aswah,

I just got back from camping with my two kids(girl 5 yrs old and boy 5 months) My five month old son isn't supposed to be moving as quickly as he is, and one time he practically jumped out of the van, onto his head when he landed. he wasn't harmed to much, but I was thinking that a fence system for the sliding door when it is open would be cool and easy to make. I was thinking that some kind of netting would work. I haven't figured out the details yet, but it's one idea. They are quick aren't they? Congratulations!