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Yeah, that's a tough one. Because I hardly ever used the pack n play. But I know lots of moms who couldn't live without it. A lot of people use it travel (staying over parents homes for example), as a temporary playpen for when you have to step away from your LO for a second, as a bassinett, as a 2nd crib for napping if you have a 2 story house and don't want to go up and down the stairs all the time. ummm. That's all I can think of right now.

Those were all reasons that I thought would make it useful for me to buy one but I used it maaaaybe 3 or 4 times? So it wasn't really worth it for me.

We used our pack n play a TON. We had a big one that had a bassinet attachment and changing table. He slept in our room in the bassinet for the first month, and we used the changing table which was awesome. I still used it every now and then for naps but he was mostly in the crib after a month old. Then we used one downstairs-- I'm one of the lucky moms whose baby would actually be happy inside the pack n play as a playpen. That was great for before he was big enough for a jumperoo and I had to go to the bathroom. We use it for traveling and we have a spare that we keep in our guest room for guests with babies.

We used our pnp for the first 3.5 months of LO's life - she slept in the bassinet part of it in our room. Since then she's been in her crib but now that she likes to play alone, I'm going to try have her play in it instead of on the floor like she does now.

We only used ours as a diaper changing station or the first 4 or 5 months. Baby Y slept in the FP rock n play until about 11 weeks, when we transitioned him to his crib. Loved it. Now we use a Bjorn travel crib for traveling. It is pricey but is actually lightweight and simple to use, and pack n plays are definitely not. It is one of the few things I would not buy again if I had a do-over.

I registered for the.smaller one you linked to, the travel lite crib. My son was very big for his age, but by 5 weeks of age his armspan was as wide as the crib was and I worried about him outgrowing it since we would be using it for a while when we travel to my parents. I ended up exchanging it for a base model full size pack n play. It cost $30 less, wasnt much heavier at all and packed up was only marginally bigger. Unless you are really tight for space or need to move it between rooms often, I would definitely go with a full size pack n play.

We're going to be keeping ours downstairs in the family room. We'll use it for changes while we're down there and for nap time if I am too lazy to take her back upstairs. We are not planning on using it as a portable thing because it is SO dang heavy.