Could you manage a baby in a one bed third floor flat?

[Lakely]

DH and I live in central London in a large one bed flat. It's on the third floor of a Victorian block with no lift. The rent is heavily subsidised through DHs work so we pay £690 a month for a flat worth £1,700 a month.

Our baby is due in December and I'm wondering if and how we will cope living here. There is a large front room, medium bedroom (enough space for our bed and a crib), small bathroom and decent sized separate kitchen.

We don't have any usable communal space downstairs to store a pram etc so everything will have to come up and down the stairs with us. We can't really afford to move as rent for a two bed this in area would be £2k a month plus and we don't want to leave this area yet if we can manage not to.

Has anyone done this? Are we mad to try?

Either shop online or one shops and one stays with baby.
Flat will be fine until baby is at least five , much longer if you buy a proper evernight sofa bed and sleep in the lounge.

I did this and still do - shopping I just get 2-3 small loads (enough to fit on the buggy) every week. The only problem I had was I had to carry ds upstairs first then bring the shopping up and then the buggy which sent my anxiety over the edge some days (leaving a baby alone in a flat for approximately 2 minutes) but I did have post natal anxiety. It’s perfectly do able and helps keep you fit

Yes. We did this. 4th floor and no lift. No car. No where to leave pushchair downstairs .

We used a sling the vast majority of the time when she was a baby. Barely used the pushchair. We did buy a city miny jogger as it was easy to folding and light. When she was a toddler, we bought the maclaren mark ii which is the lightest pushchair on market. I could carry her and the pushchair up the stairs together.

She also shared our room.

Online shopping is your friend.

It’ll be fiiiiiiine.

The issue might be more when they are walking!

I live in a one bedroom flat - due in March and not planning to move. I think it will be fine. We have a lot of stuff so plan is to have a clear out/sort out of junk we don't need before the baby is born.

We could afford to move somewhere bigger, but it wouldn't be in as nice area and not as nice a flat either. I reckon we are best off staying here and hopefully in a few years we will be able to move somewhere better.

We tend to do periodic big internet shops for food that doesn't go off and buy smaller bits and bobs as we need them, so will probably keep doing that. Don't have a car.

I am glad I only live on a first floor though.

Dh and I did this for 2 years. It was tough but doable, worst bit was having to wake sleeping baby/ toddler up when getting out of the pushchair and up stairs. Coaxing tiny toddler up 54 stsirs wasnt always easy either. But it was doable. When ds2 was born the wheels well and truly came off though.

Did it for 6 months when DS was born. Stored pram in car and used sling lots. Although to be honest - it was a huge relief when we finally moved!

Live in a tiny one bedroom flat with DH and DS (14mo).
It's hard but doable. We've only got a 2 seater sofa to keep floor space free for crawling and walking and playing.
We ended up co-sleeping so ended up taking the cot down in the end to create more space and keep the pram in the boot of the car.
It's not ideal, but it's fine and it works if you want it to.
13 week a pregnant now so worried about how we'll cope with 2 here as moving isn't an option at the moment but we wanted 2 close together and hopefully by the time we have a house they won't remember the tiny flat.

We did it, it was fine although might have been tricky after a c section. Slings are great (we used stretchy for the early days then ergonomic ones as the babies get heavier, the Tula is great or the ergo baby). The yoyo buggy is also fab, so light, the newborn attachment is good and it has loads of life as your child gets older. Tiba and Marl or other backpack style changing bags are much better if you are a heavy sling user, or if you do lots of shopping outside, get a roller bag like an elderly lady

One of my friends agreed with the people in her flat to keep a cheap folded buggy under the stairs on her ground floor, if there's an option like that it would be hugely helpful, maybe not in the early days but especially later on when they are heavier and you might want to do longer days out.

Apologies battery died so I pressend send quickly before dying!
We managed fine, when ds was about 6m bought a stroller so could get out and he started nursery at 8m so convenient with stoller on train as I didn't drive. And sharing a bedroom was fine, we considered swapping living room and bedroom but didn't. So yea is doable

I think you'll be fine. I have a house with a garden but we have used the pram about 10x and DS is nearly 2. Slings all the way here (and get a rucksack nappy bag)