Pls help - where to put baby?
Baby isn't here yet, and won't be for a long while, so we've ages to decide where to put him/her. However, we are decorating NOW. We hope to be done by Xmas, so we need to know what we plan to do about rooms.
I sort of need to explain logistics which will make it a long post but hope some people might bear with me! Our house is 3 storey, with the teen having the top floor. There are 4 rooms on the 1st floor. We have the room at the front, with a bathroom, and behind that room is another double that we use as a guest room and to keep our clothes in because our room isn't big enough. The other 2 rooms (a single and a double) are over the other side of the house.
Our initial thoughts were to make the small room (back of the house) the nursery, and then, if we can have another, move toddler in to bigger room next to it and new baby in little room, keeping them together. This also saves us doing something weird where half our clothes are in one room and half are on the opposite side of the house.
Hubby says baby being in small room is ideal, we both work fairly long hours (and he works varying shifts) and if baby is a screamer there's a chance of the other parent getting some shut-eye. However, the walk between our bedroom and the nursery is 30-35 feet. Which seems an awful long way to traipse several times a night if baby is cold/grumbly/lost dummy/etc.
I didn't have a 'normal' baby so I have no precedent, apart from when he had croup and baby asthma Harry never got up in the night from day 2, even if he was wet he just slept. 10 - 14 hours a night. So I don't know how much babies cry or how often you need to see to them in the night. I know that sounds daft but it's a long time ago and I was really jammy with his sleep patterns.
It would be much more convenient and flow in the house so much better to have the little room as the nursery but I wonder if we might want baby in a closer proximity. In 2 years time Harry will be off to uni and we'll have more options again and might use the top floor for little people (right above us).
What would you do? Can you please tell me what I need to be considering? I'm totally 50/50 and we need to decide in the next few days. Thanks for any help!
Replies
Will baby be in with you for the first 6 months? (Don't know if it was recommended when you had your first but is quite a biggie now) I would guess at 6 months+ therm be alot less wakes so the small room shouldn't be too much of an issue
Yes that's the plan, maybe even longer depending on how it's going.
I would think it'd be fine. Suppose it depends on how your baby behaves through the night.
I would always have the baby in the closest room to me. We have do e that to start with then moved them to their actual room. My daughter (5) now has the biggest room having started in the smallest room through from ours. We moved her when she was about 18 months. My son went from our room into the one next to my daughter but he was in ours until 12 months so seemed fine. The spare room is still decorated as a nursery from when my daughter was in there. The baby will be in with us for about a year I'd imagine then go into the wee room. I won't be decorating any time soon as we don't know the sex and its potentially 18 months before we use the room so could need freshened up again.
If your rooms really need decorated now I'd go with neutral colours that suit you and you can add baby/children's items and accessories when you decide where the child will be.
I would go with the plan you have. The advice is that you keep baby in with you for the first 6 months anyway (www.lullabytrust.org.uk/safer-sleep) after which time that distance might not seem so vast and hopefully you'll luck out with another good sleeper - what I'd do for one of those!
I'd say stick with the plan you have, as others have said the baby will be with you until 6 months when they should be waking less at night. It's probably not as far for me, but my nursery is not the room closest to us at night, but we wanted to put the baby in the warmest/cosiest room.
If you have another double room next to the nursery, does this have a bed? If baby ends up having a bad night will you be able to go in there for some sleep to be closer? This is what we did with ours when they were teething etc. this way we also found the other parent gets better sleep too as they're further away. of course if the baby's room is big enough you could always put a bed in with them if they turn out to be a baby who cries a lot in the night.
I should add that like you I've been very lucky with my two and both have slept brilliantly, so there is still hope for the second baby to be the same.
N
Is there space in your room for a cot?
If so I would say keep them in your room for the six months anyway, then after that if they are still waking in the night you could keep them in your room until they start to sleep through. Once they are no longer waking in the night you could then move them into the little room.
Or, if you'd rather not keep them in your room after the six months, could you move to the big bedroom at the back and then the little room would be next door to you for baby.
In our house the third bedroom is the attic and I don't like the idea of one of the kids being on a different floor to us as it just seems far away. So our plan is for baby to be in our room for six months. After that they will then go in to Ws room on the same floor to us and the two of them will share.
If baby is still waking in the night at six months we will put the cot in our room and she will stay with us until she stops waking in the night and then she can share with W.
This is exactly what we were thinking... there's a double bed in there so one of us could crash there is necessary. When Harry had croup/nebuliser etc a lot I slept on a pull-out bed beside his cot for a few nights at a time so at least there's scope for that sort of thing
I think I love you!!
Yes, cot in our room at end of bed luckily, so that's ideal. I definitely wouldn't move rooms to the back, I'm comfortably ensconsed where I am and we've got the en-suite (and a view of the sea that I am obsessed with lol). I am glad folk seem to think it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think I am making these things bigger in my mind to try and prepare myself, IYSWIM.
JT - ordinarily I'd agree with you re babies/kids on a different floor but the top floor is so much closer to us than the other side of the house, I'd actually feel closer. although I wouldn't put one up there alone. Which I guess is weird, ha ha.
Counter I know what you mean about the attic being directly above- you'll hear them better than you would in another room on the same floor.
It's more just me psychologically not liking it in our house as you have to go across the landing , along a corridor and then up the stairs to get to the attic so it just seems so far away. For most people the attic is probably better than a room further away on the same floor as you can hear them better.
Yes JT, I see what you mean. With us it's along past the stairs, down a few steps, and along the corridor to the back rooms which is why it seems further. The stairway up is right outside our bedroom door.
I'd do what you planned too - TBH 100ft doesn't make much of a difference though if E is having a screamer of a night, I would hear her 3 doors down the road I think. However, you'll probably need the guest room for visitors. Other things to consider really are, where is the staircase? Es room is right at the top of the stairs, with my room the next along, which is a bit of a pain now she is crawling, and I imagine worse as she gets to be a 1 year old walking / then into a toddler bed too.. But a stairgate fixes the issue.
Also noise and heat of the room and sunlight as the sunlight / early mornings wake E up!
We are in a townhouse with the children on the floor above us. When we just had Zoe she was in the smallest room but actually after a couple of years we moved her to one of the bigger rooms as wanted her to be able to play in her room etc. I would probably go against the grain in that case and say put baby in the bigger of the two unused rooms to save moving them in a few years time.
As for the distance, it wasn't too much of a hassle having Zoe on the floor above. She generally slept through (well until she was 2.5 yrs) unless she was unwell in which case we co-slept as any distance would have been too far IYSWIM.