Nursery Preparations « Back to Group Discussions

[veggieviola]

This pregnancy is my first, and I'm a little bit at a loss as far as deciding how to prepare a space for baby.  Here are my thoughts, and I'd love input from you veteran mamas about what worked and what didn't!

- We will start out with a co-sleeper (probably the Arm's Reach one) in our room. I have a feeling we will be co-sleeping for some time, but do want our child to transition to their own space eventually. Should we even bother with crib shopping at this point, or wait until after baby is here and ready to transition?  Have any of you skipped the co-sleeper in favor of rigging up a sidecar crib situation?  If you had a co-sleeper, did you get much use out of it in its pack-n-play configuration?

- How much of a "nursery" did you prepare?  We have two empty bedrooms, so space isn't really an issue.  Poring over nursery decor is fun, but decorating a room specifically for a baby kind of feels like a waste to me.  The little one will spend most of their time in our room for the first many months, and by the time they are old enough to care about how the room looks, they probably will want something a bit more grown up.  That being said, the room we intend to use has to be painted anyway and has zero furniture in it, so some level of sprucing up is needed at any rate.

- Rockers/gliders:  yea or nay?  

Now, after typing all of that, I feel like I have answered my own questions.  Funny how that works!  I would still love to hear your thoughts though! 

Edited by veggieviola - 2/2/13 at 5:12pm

[bearandotter]

We had a crib in a 'nursery' even though we room share for at least a year. It is very convenient for changing diapers on in the highest position (we didn't ever have a change table). Also nice so that you can occasionally put the baby down for a nap (the nursery is right off the main living area, close to mommy, while our bedroom is a bit of a distance away. 

We certainly have never gone overboard on decorating. I made some inexpensive cotton drapes to aid with light reduction over the blinds and some removable fabric wall decals using fabric starch (example of instructions here). I decorated the knobs that go on the dresser too and painted and hung some large wooden letters in my daughter's name. 

We do have a reclining chair for that room. I am happy to nurse my baby in front of anyone, but sometimes if she/they were fussy or I needed a break from guests (ILs especially!) I had an excuse to hide the baby and I away for a break. Now it makes for our bedtime story chair, I'm happy we have it. 

[shanna-cat]

we've never had the space or money to make an actual nursery and always used a co-sleeper. for the first i splurged and bought a 'nursery set' decor (mobile, diaper holder, stuffed animal, hamper and curtains) which was cute but way too much money. And the curtains looked silly in our room. i don't think we have any of those original things left now- dog chewed up the mobile, curtains we passed on, child sat in diaper holder and it broke (go figure)... wait, we DO still have the hamper! 

that said the only new things we are buying for this LO are a carseat and sometime down the road a stroller. I usually don't start using a stroller till baby is about a year old anyways. changing tables are handy but we mostly used ours for storage and then as time went on the clean laundry pile. we changed diapers where ever we could... the bed, the floor, a chair, the table. 

nurseries are cute and adorable if you're into that kinda thing- we just never were. 

[Sassicaia]

We decorated a nursery for our first, and it was wonderful to do. Moved out of that house though, and are in a smaller one now (thank you recession) so no space to have a dedicated nursery. This baby will just have to fit in to existing spaces - co-sleeping in our room, then eventually sharing with DS, changing station in another room.

If we had space & funds, I'd love to do it again.

[jr'smom]

We went all out with our first.  My sister painted a beautiful mural on 3 full walls of the nursery; we got a gorgeous convertable crib and dresser/changing table from DH's mom; we had so many hand knit blankets, etc. that we received as gifts.

Turns out we coslept and never used the crib.  He wouldn't even sleep in there for naps. We ended up getting an Arm's Reach, but he wouldn't sleep in that even connected to the bed.  I found out babies (at least mine) like to sleep right by you.

We really didn't use the room at all (except for the clothes closet) until baby was about 2 years old and transitioned from a toddler bed in our room (that he went into at 18 mos when his brother was born) into his "crib" turned into a full size bed.

So this is how it's gone for all of our babies (4 and 5 is on the way)... Sleep with us until the next one comes around 2 years and then go into a toddler bed in our room. When they're sleeping soundly in the toddler bed, transition to a bed in their own/shared room.  We keep the Arm's Reach set up when they are little to have a safe place (away from other little kids) to set them upstairs when we are showering or whatever.  We have a cradle in the living room that we set them in downstairs when we need to and possibly the baby will nap in it.  Our babies usually nap in our slings while we are doing other things around the house.  One of the 4 didn't mind actually sleeping laying down swaddled on her own.

So it boils down to we never used a crib, even the Arm's Reach wasn't used much, and we decorated the nursery 2 years before we really needed to.

Oh yeah, and I rarely used a rocking chair upstairs...only if I got tired while doing something else with the other kids up there.  I do keep a recliner in our bedroom for night nursing.  I am just not good at nursing laying down, so I get up and sit in the recliner with a boppy.

That's the one thing I could not get enough of...we have at least 3 boppies.  One upstairs, one downstairs, one for work (DH brings the infants to work at lunchtime for the first year so I can nurse them.  I work 3 days a week after a 3 month mat. leave.)

[spotty4]

This is baby #1 and we are not going all out on a nursery.  My MIL offered to buy a complete set of furniture for the nursery but we asked her to defer the offer until our daughter is a toddler.  Like you, we feel it a waste to go all out on a nursery - a nursery is more for the parents and less for the child.  A baby could care less what her room looks like!  We do have a space for her and we do plan to set it up w/ a crib, dresser, glider, changing space, and we do intend for that to be her space from very early on, but everything in the room are hand me downs.  We will go all out on a bedroom for our daughter when she is a few years older and her personality is truly shining.

[dayiscoming2006]

I don't really decorate. LOL I would like to and wish I had a decorative bone in my body, but I'm lacking. I already have a crib set up for my 20 month old. And an old falling apart changing table that I am looking to replace with either another used changing table or dresser that I can use as a changing table as long as I need to. There is a short bookshelf in the closet that I can use for stacking something. Right now it has my daughters clothes stacked neatly. I'm all about practical. :) For the baby, I need a new playpen because the old one has gotten worn out from regular use with my last 2 babies. I want one with a bassinet option and decent changing table option. I'm going to try to find one on craigslist. We'll keep the playpen/pack and play in our room until baby they are probably 3 months old, then move it to where my daughter is currently. I will move her to share the large bedroom with her brothers. I don't have a problem with that when they are little. It fits 3 twin beds and a dresser easily. 

If you can get a decent price on a rocker/glider then go for it. I use our recliners for nursing. They are in the living room. But, if I did see a good price on craigslist, I'd get one. I had one with my last that I had found at goodwill for only $25 and sold/gave away later. Can't remember.

[Sweet Huck]

We don't have the space to dedicate an entire room to a baby, especially one that will likely spend its first year either in a cosleeper or in our bed. We'll try to squeeze a small rocker into our office/guest room as well as a pack-and-play or crib just to have an extra place to lay the baby down and/or nurse/retreat. I am drawn more and more to the pack-and-play because of its portability. I have some wall quilts that my mom made for my own baby nursery, but that's about the extent of our nursery prep! 

We are also hoping to put our house on the market before too long, so we're not keen on the idea of painting or acquiring more furniture if it wouldn't appeal to a buyer.  If we end up being here longer than originally anticipated, we'll convert the office/guest room into more of a kids room. But until then, no significant changes or acquisitions!

[amlikam]

The only reason we decorated a nursery (dont think it really qualifies as decorating) was because there were some things that needed to be done like windows and painting which we didn't think would be doable after baby arrived. This time we're just waiting. Dd still doesnt use her room regularly at 4.5.

[FarmerMomma]

Transitioning our house around from mommy's room and DS's room to sleeping room and play room. DS at 5 is a co-sleeper. Never used a crib or sidecar just bed with good side rails. Did get a portable new born bed type thingy that has 5 inch walls to define baby space. Not sure if it will work for us but boyfriend has some co-sleep fears so hope to help him feel better.
Not sure exactly how play room will go. It's a large kind of fancy room and DS and I like a castle theme. Seems to fit the room and be gender neutral.
We got the bed moved and that's about it so far, sleeping room is much warmer. Not heating play room now so hard to be inspired in there.

[holidaymama]

We have an extra bedroom for the baby, so we are making a nursery. However, we are going el cheapo minus the crib bedding that was my Xmas gift. I found a crib and mattress on Craigslist for $65, we had a small ikea hemnes dresser that will be the dresser/changing table, I will get a mirror and cheap white curtains. The only thing I do plan on splurging on is a really nice recliner/rocker. However, this is something that will eventually get moved out into the family room and I can't even decide if I want it in the nursery or in the family room right away or even in our bedroom! I'll probably start with it in the nursery and then figure out where we need to do most of our rocking.