Reddit reviews Summer 6-Panel PlaySafe Playard (Styles and Colors May Vary)

You could put something like THIS around it. Not aesthetically pleasing but functional with the ability to put it away when not needed.

My sister uses a play yard to fence off her living room. It can be connected to fully enclose an area, or spread out to block a wide doorway. If you straighten it out fully it loses a lot of the stability, but if you zig-zag it, it should be fairly secure.

This super long gate also has pretty good reviews.

Serious babyproofing. I suggest making one room a toddler zone. Make as much of the room as possible toddler-proof. Forget style. Remove the crap/change around the stuff that you don't absolutely need. This room may very well be your main living area/living room because you spend most of your time there. Wall mount your TV up high. Get rid of the low shelving units with DVDs, books, magazines, video games, etc. on it. Don't bother with a big coffee table, get side tray tables for your couch. Then, get one (or multiple) of these paneled play-yard thingies and block OUT the parts of the room that you don't want your daughter to have access to. Don't want her to be able to get by the computer desk? Put it outside of the gate. Put the couch inside of the gate, but the side tray table outside of the gate. Put your Christmas tree outside of the gate. Keep the toddler away from the fire place! Is it the prettiest way of doing things? No, but it does keep the toddler safe, and keep you from constantly telling him/her to stop doing X or pulling her down/off Y or stopping her from pushing the button on Z.

We let our dogs around the baby (as much as is reasonable) whenever we are in the room and able to watch them. It has taken several months of training (the baby) but now they all coexist together pretty well. Our one old dog has snipped at him a few times warning him, and the cats have done the same. That is nature. They don't have words or thumbs or middle fingers to say fuck you, so they show teeth or use a growl to communicate. It's crazy to me that instead of training the animal/baby people just jump to re-homing or putting down a pet. Obviously in some cases it's the best option but it seems like a lot of people jump the gun on that. For us, the main thing at first was teaching the baby about 'gentle' vs 'not nice' and teaching him how to pet an animal. We are still working on not pulling tails but he has stopped scratching and hitting them and has a general idea of how to behave around them (like not bothering them while sleeping, not going into their crates, etc). If you can hang in there a few more months, you'll get to the 'language bomb' and the baby will understand and be able to communicate so much better. I think 10 months was probably right when we started with the gentle petting and vocabulary. Something else that will help is taking them on walks together. Showing the dog that the baby is part of the pack (and someone that outranks him) is really important. I feel for you mama. I hated my dogs the entire first year, and am just now getting back to really being affectionate to them again. You have a lot of shit on your plate right now! go easy on yourself and with time it'll all work out. this thing was also a lifesaver for when we couldn't supervise the kid/dog in our tiny house.

We used to use a gate similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Surround-6-Panel-PlaySafe/dp/B000G1YW98/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1495427529&sr=8-2&keywords=playard+gate

We actually organized it into a rectangle and placed it around the TV stand. It looked decent, had great airflow, and most importantly kept the kids/Xbox safe.

We use Amazon mom for diapers. Two of the biggest boxes a month so $55/month.

I HIGHLY suggest getting a variety of brands of diapers to see what works for you. My twins did well in Luvs and Pampers but leaked like crazy with Huggies but my cousin's daughter worked best with Huggies. It varies.

Formula: Like the other poster said, it was about $250/month. We used Sam's Club brand. I sat there and looked at the backs of packages- Similac, Enfamil, Sam's Club, Parent's Choice (Walmart), and Up&Up (Target) all had the EXACT same percentages and amounts of all the same nutrients and the EXACT same list of ingredients in the same order. Now, what gets you is the percentages of the ingredients that aren't the vitamins/minerals etc. Similac made my girls very constipated and Gerber made their poo smell AWFUL. Enfamil was my favorite because the powder was less clumpy but unless I had the formula checks that made it the same price as the off-brands, I wouldn't get it. We stuck with Sam's Club brand for the most part until our membership expired and when we did the math we would break even on it when we could just buy it at Walmart or Target. If you know someone with a Costco or Sam's Club membership, you could give them the money and ask them to buy it but buying a membership simply for formula isn't worth it in terms of what you save. Don't stock up on any specific brand but getting a small container of a variety of brands wouldn't hurt.

I never used shopping cart covers. It was too much of a hassle to deal with.

Baby jail like this was invaluable. I used it up until a few months ago (and my twins are 3). Get the 8 panel! You'll want the extra space.

Bouncy seats. Buy them used.

Buy everything besides crib mattress and car seats used.

They have those ones that click together to make a sort of custom shaped/sized playpen or gate. You could get three pieces so it goes along the side of the railing and into the door of that room.

I’ll try to get a pic of what I’m talking about cuz i no explain gud 😞

like this

or this

Do you have any kid consignment stores in your area? Mine constantly has those large yard gate enclosures for 35-75. You should try Craigslist too I've seen alot of them there. I know $150 is alot but I would shop around I've seen them for around $90 and so many stores price match now. There's a good resale value too so you could always make at least 50% back when you were done with it so long as it remains in good condition.

Edit: here's one at amazon for $63
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000G1YW98/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1376323722&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

We got something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Regalo-192-Inch-Super-Wide-White/dp/B003VNKLIY/ref=sr_1_6_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1502910571&sr=8-6&keywords=baby+pen

Or you can combine a few of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-Surround-6-Panel-PlaySafe/dp/B000G1YW98/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1502910571&sr=8-4&keywords=baby+pen

We put it over a foam mat and our son was happy. Eventually set him to free range once he really got moving.

Good luck.

Foam Mat:
https://www.amazon.com/ProSource-Puzzle-Alphabet-Numbers-Tiles/dp/B00DQEKHUA/ref=sr_1_4_s_it?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1502910700&sr=1-4&keywords=baby+foam+mat

The foam mat now is being used for the slide we opted to keep inside for the occasional heart attack er. i mean fun...

We just set up a playyard (we have this one: http://amzn.to/1puKehA) With foam tile puzzle pieces from target. Just set it up last week for our 6 month old and he LOVES it!

I have a 2 year old son that likes to climb everything...And I also have a nice fireplace with shelves on each side of it, and a big tv on top of the fireplace mantle. So, I have one of these taken apart so it's one long piece, instead of a circle. It's basically a fence lol. Each end is bolted to a wall using zip ties to attach it to the eye bolts. Voila, no toddler climbing my fireplace!

I LOVE NYX because they have a big variety of quality stuff for awesome prices. I have some of their eyeliners and a couple of lipsticks and I really do love them. Thanks for hosting!

We are considering getting our Christmas tree this coming weekend, but wondered if I could crowdsource some advice: how do y'all keep your toddlers from destroying your tree? Play gate a la this? https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-6-Panel-PlaySafe-Playard/dp/B000G1YW98/ref=sr_1_5_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1511362426&sr=8-5&keywords=play+gate