Moving into 3 floor townhouse while pregnant, good idea?

[MariaDingbat]

Hi, I'd love to hear people's feedback on this. I'm 4 months pregnant and we're looking to buy our first home together after a few years renting and saving up a deposit. One house we like is a three floor townhouse with kitchen, lounge and WC on the ground floor, two beds and family bath on the middle for and two beds and an ensuite on the top floor. What are people thoughts on this layout with a new baby on the way?

[DorothyHarris]

Honestly? If you're planning on more than 1 child avoid!

[autumnboys]

This is exactly what we moved to when we were expecting DS1. It worked very well for us. When we had DS2, DS1 went upstairs. Almost as soon as he could express a preference, DS2 moved up there with him. We moved when we were expecting DS3 but he would have gone into the nursery on the 1st floor if we’d still been there. The only thing about that layout if that the footprint of the house is often the size of a three bedroom house; we ended up moving for more living space.

[BikeRunSki]

I grew up in a 4 storey town house. I am the 3rd of 4 children. DM says she spent over a decade running up and down stairs with a child under her arm, usually in a hurry for a toilet on a different floor.

When we bought our house - when we had no plans for DC (we now have 2) - she was very impressed that we had 3 toilets and only 2 floors!

[bilbodog]

It will keep you fit going up and down stairs all the time - but i wouldnt, it would drive me mad!

[Spied]

Presuming you have no health issues that would make it difficult for you I'd say go for it.
You can't dismiss a house due to pregnancy if it will be perfect in the long run.
Presuming you aren't going to be pregnant for years and years on end.
It will keep you fit and it's only one extra flight of stairs to the majority of people.

[noloh1]

This is the layout of my house and I have two children, the youngest was born a year after moving in. The stairs aren’t an issue at all. The bedrooms are big but the compromise is too much for the lack of downstairs space. The kitchen and living room are too small for us now so hopefully we are looking at moving soon.

[MariaDingbat]

Thanks for all the replies, it's great to see other people's experience. I was worried about the practicality of going up and down lots of stars with a baby or squirming toddler. I'm 40 so I think this may be our only child and we're looking for something to live in for about 5 years before moving closer to schools etc.. The living room is a little smaller than we're like but I think it would be fine for a few years. Thanks all!

[HighlandPeach]

I think it’s fine if the baby’s room is next to yours. We lived in a duplex apartment previously and only master bedroom was on top floor. Navigating stairs constantly with a baby on the floor below was really tricky at 1am...and 3am!!

[onlywomennotmen]

We lived in something very similar and it was easy with young children. Have just moved though to something on one floor, but older than you and not planning on moving again!

[SeagoingSexpot]

Can't really see an issue. My house is on 3 floors and we sleep at the top. When youngest was a baby we had him in the other room on the same floor with us to make it easier to go to him in the night, now he's bigger he's on the first floor with his brother again. There's a toilet on every floor, which is helpful. I just really don't get the flapping over flights. It's two flights of stairs. Max.

[gigchuckedout56]

All the living is on one floor which is great. I would want baby on same floor once they're in own room, purely because mine weren't good sleepers so we were up a lot in the night, navigating stairs all night would have been hard work

[NWnature]

We will be moving into our 3 story town house either when I am right at the end of pregnancy or have the newborn. I don't think its a problem. As previous posters have said, it was important to me to have a loo on each level so we have put in a WC on the ground and an ensuite in the loft. We also have two rooms on first floor and top floor so whichever we choose, we can be on the same floor as the baby. We live in central-ish London so a lot majority of houses have three (or more!) levels.

[FightMilkTM]

If your bedroom and babies room can be on the same floor I think it’s fine.
Our house layout means that our 1 year olds room is on a different floor to us, which in reality means she sleeps in our bed most nights. Ain’t nobody got time to be going up and down stairs all night.
We don’t mind her being in our bed though so it works for us.

[Aria2015]

I think it's fine. I'm in a town house and your set up is better than mine as our bedrooms are separated so that 2 are on the top (third floor) and 1 on the ground floor. This had been great for years because the ground floor is a great private space for guests but now we're having a second child it will be more tricky. We'd be fine with your set up through with bedrooms just a floor apart. I'd go for it if you like it.

[SabrinaThwaite]

If there’s only likely to be the three of you in the house then you could turn one of the middle floor rooms into an extra sitting room? We have this arrangement, so the downstairs is a kitchen / diner / family room and we have a separate (more formal) sitting room on our middle floor.

[MariaDingbat]

Thanks everyone for your great advice. We saw the house today and love it so we're putting in an offer this afternoon!

[HappyDinosaur]

Congratulations, I missed this thread before but wanted to say we loved ours when we had a baby. The townhouse layout gives us so much more space than we'd have had otherwise and it was brilliant to have different places to escape to. When our dd turned 1 she went into a bedroom on the 1st floor which means we can still use our room without disturbing her and we know she's not far away at all - though we have our video monitor on of course. She sleeps all night long without waking and I'm sure this is a big factor, townhouses are so underrated for families, but I'm a big fan. Good luck with it all.

[MariaDingbat]

Hi all! Just to give an update, we went sale agreed on the townhouse today!!! Thanks for all your advice, it was really helpful.

[Aria2015]

That's great news! Congrats!

[Settlersofcatan]

We had our kids on a floor below us from 6 months old - we used a monitor for longer than usual but it was fine

[JoJoSM2]

Good luck!

I just wanted to say that will your living areas on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs, on a practical level the house sounds the same as a Victorian or 30’s with a loft conversion.

If you’re likely to only have the one child, you’ll mostly live on 2 levels anyway.

[DianasLasso]

Congrats. 3 floors are fine (she said, typing from the attic bedroom of her old, rickety terrace with the dodgy loft conversion...)

We moved in when DS was 11 months. Obviously had stair gates for safety but within a matter of weeks he'd mastered crawling up and down stairs under supervision.