safety gate idea on babies room sounds like a FANTASTIC idea! We have a playpen and a portcot, portacot has never been used a play area though and I cant imagine any of my kids ever being happy in there as its so confined! Playpen was great, we have a big hexagonal veebee playpen with a big soft mat that goes underneath it, pefect for tiled areas or even outdoors! The downside is it takes up a LOT of space but it is great at keeping thme in one spot and they stayed in there fairly happily untill DD aged about 18 months at the time learnt to lift up the side of it and crawl under :S