Living situation layout help!!

[kikimezz]

My dh and I live in a small 2 bedroom co-op. My 2 year old son's crib is and always has been in our bedroom. We did this originally for a few reasons (1) he was a preemie and we wanted to keep a close eye on him (2) our spare room, which hubby's dresser and closet is in, so he uses gets ready in there in the mornings (3) its become a nice accessory to have an open room for my 2 year old and I to play, my exercise bike is there, etc (4) there is NO climate control in that room, it has no wall slot for an air conditioner (its super hot in there in the summer and we cant pput in a window a/c (rules), so its hot in the summer and freezing in the winter since its a corner unit (5) we have a cat and her litter box is in there (we have hardly and storage space or "open space", I dont want her box in the kitchen or living room, the bathroom has no room for it, so we leave it there. Now we have baby #2 on the way and financially we cannot afford a house right now at all unfortunatley. So... what to do with baby #2? Granted we'll be putting him in a bassinet for a while, but we cant keep him in our bedroom since Zach our 2 yr old needs sleep and we dont want to disturb him. So do we just keep baby #2 in the living room for the time being? Any advice? I need help!

 

[quantumleap]

Hmmm...

We too have always enjoyed an "extra" room, but gave it up when our newest babe arrived. Sort of. We worked hard to transition dd to her own room in the early months of my prpegnancy. She's not truly in there, because she joins us in bed sometime between 12 and 4, but she begins the night in there. DS is in bed with us. DD is the crappiest sleeper ever, so we have been pleasantly surprised (shocked!) that we can have the four of us in bed together with only very, very rare instances where one child disturbs the other. As in, it has probably only happened about 4 times since DS was born four months ago. So you may be able to get away with your current set up for a good while yet.

However, if it was me, I'd sell the exercise bike, downscale clothing so that you can fit everything in your room, and figure out an alternative for the litter box (a total pain, I know). I'd set up your spare room for sleeping. Can you arrange to have the room ventilated? Could you use a fan to direct air into there? A space heater for winter? Can you downsize your living room so that you can use it for some of the same things you're currently using the spare room for? You're probably going to need/want seperate spaces at least for bedtime routines. I'm very much against having one parent with one child in one room and the other set in another room, but for the first month or so, my DP spent 80% of his nights sleeping with dd in her room. It was really the best thing we could do to ensure that everyone was getting as much sleep as possible.

I really think you'll want and use a second bedroom. I know it's a huge job, especially when you're pregnant, but it would be worth it if you could fit yourselves into your space but getting rid of some of the stuff you currently have. There are some great threads in The Mindfull Home area on decluttering, etc.