Which bedroom for newborn?

[HappyKite2067]

We have 3 bedrooms (4 but one is a study downstairs so we are ruling that out), and we don’t know which bedroom to make into the babies room. One is a box room and the other is a decent size double room, which currently has a double guest bed inhabiting it. Happy to get rid of the guest bed (it won’t fit in the box room) but I wanted to see if there’s any positives for baby having the smaller bedroom and keeping the other double as the guest room for now?

A baby doesn’t need a big room, they won’t be I their own room until 6 months anyway and then will be playin downstairs with you for a couple of years after that. Personally I’d make the smaller room into a nursery for baby and keep the guest room, then when they’re older and want their own space to play (maybe around age 3 or 4), switch the rooms around then.

The baby will be in your room for the first 6 months anyway. I would use the box room for their things for now you can always move them to the bigger room when they are older. Keep the spare bed, you may be sleeping in a separate room from your DP occasionally so you can slept a bit better.

Baby will be sleeping with you for at least 6 months, probably a year. As long as their stuff fits in the box room for storage, use that one.

I’d keep the room with the double bed as long as possible. Assuming you have a partner, it can be really useful if one of you needs to sleep separately because of an early wake up to get the work or one of you has a vomiting bug and is trying not to make the whole house sick. A double bed is also very useful for lying down with a toddler who can’t sleep when you don’t all fit in your bedroom anymore.

Our house is pretty similar to yours in terms of size (it sounds like!) and what we did was kept the baby sleeping in our bedroom for the first 7 months whilst storing all the baby items, built furniture etc in the box room, and then at 7 months we completely redid the big double bedroom for him, redecorated it with a gorgeous jungle theme (he was well into animals by then!) and had all his toys and furniture in there with him as well as an additional single bed which has been a god send for nights he’s been unwell or teething as one of us will sleep in there to be close by in case he needs us. The box bedroom then had a single bed, bedside table etc so effectively still a spare bedroom just a lot smaller! Now that my little one is 17 months, his big bedroom is and has been an absolute lifesaver as it doubles up as a big playroom for him as well!

edited to add: agree to keep the double bed in the larger bedroom certainly for the first six months until baby moves in (if that’s what you decide to do), as it will be invaluable for you each to have somewhere to get a good nights sleep while the baby is very little!

Does the double room have space for the double bed and the cot?

We have a similar setup and have used the larger room for DD which currently has her cot and a double sofa bed. We use the sofa bed for reading bedtime stories and having a cuddle before transferring her to the cot. My DD usually won't settle by herself in the cot even at 2.5 years so having the extra sofa bed in her room has been essential. If you move at 6 months your baby will still likely be feeding in the night so you will want somewhere comfortable to do this (either a chair or extra bed) whether bottle or breast feeding.

One of us also sleeps on the sofa bed when she is unwell which was frequent over the first two winters at nursery. We are now switching her to a bed and will try to make the smaller room the spare room.

Obiviosly had her cot in our room initially, actually for the first 18 months as we were living in a small flat. The one time we had guests after this we moved her cot back into our room for a few weeks. Unlike the previosu PP we don't keep any toys in the bedroom (apart from a few teddies) as its hard enough as is to convince a toddler she wants to go to bed without additional distractions.

As other posters have said, I'd use the box room for the baby in the medium term. When they're bugger and has friends coming round to play, you could then re-think. Unless as a PP asked you could put a cot in the double room with the double bed. Could mean you alternate night feeds in the early days (if expressing/formula fed). Some people would probably caution against it, but I would have killed for a comfy place to lie in the early days of getting a six month migrated into another room too. There were times where we ended up sleeping with an arm through the cot bars, on the floor to settle ours. Not sure that's a recommended technique, though 😅

We have baby in the smaller room now - he’s 7 months - and that suits him absolutely fine. Eventually either he’ll go into the bigger room or we are looking to move

but I wanted to see if there’s any positives for baby having the smaller bedroom and keeping the other double as the guest room for now?

The obvious one is whether you need or want to host guests.

I’m not too fussed either way! It’s nice to have a space for guests but equally I prefer having the house to ourselves and I imagine that will only magnify when we have a child in the house.

To go against the grain, I wish my baby’s room was bigger. All the toys could be in there, it would be a nice play room that I could completely childproof. Yes they have toys in the living room but it’d be nice to have more space to play upstairs too

So unless you have guests all the time that can’t stay in the box room I’d rather make more daily use of the space.

This is one of the main reasons I did it the way I did, from the age of 7 months when he was sitting up it acted as a wonderful playroom for him and meant I could still keep the living room tidy 😂

This is what I’m considering! Somewhere to put a chair I can sit in as well, and keep it all contained!

Baby is in the box room because my parents frequently come to help out and live too far away not to stay overnight. One day I will sell a kidney and still not be able to afford a 4 bed house in my area...

Also a good point, parents do live far so it might be worth it if we need some support? We didn’t factor them in knowing they are far away and still work. We had to move out of our expensive area to get a decent size home…