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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Baby sleeping arrangements?

31 replies

PipJoy · 03/08/2012 07:33

Hi all

So I understand that the baby should sleep in the same room as us for the first six months - but we wanted to do the 'nursery' thing and get a room ready so that the baby has its own room - it feels weird not to do that really - but then if it's not sleeping in there what is it actually for?

We had planned to get a cot in there, and I had been thinking fine the baby can go in there for daytime sleeps - it will be painted nice and babystyle - as opposed to our room - so more lovely and restful etc...

But then what does it sleep in at night time in our room? We can't be moving the cot every morning and evening between the nursery at one end of our hall and our room at the other.

Are you meant to have a crib or some such other thing in the bedroom? Aside from anything else am not sure a cot would fit in our bedroom...

I also read that the baby shouldnt sleep next to a radiator which is another issue as we dont have any other space!

Confused...

Grateful for advice!

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NellyBluth · 03/08/2012 07:38

We had DD in a moses basket in our room - most newborns will be small enough for a moses basket for the first few months. Like you're planning, she started to have naps in her nursery when she was able to sleep on her own without our help. You could possibly buy a cradle instead, I think they are a bit bigger than baskets but smaller than cots. I know some people have then put the baby in a travel cot for the last month or so if the baby grew out of the basket before they were ready to move over.

As for the radiator, I imagine that will be ok for a while at the moment because you're heating might not be on? But if it is going to be on, it does seem sensible for the basket/cradle to not be right next to it - can you shift your bed over to make room on the other side?

Original poster

PipJoy · 03/08/2012 07:50

oh well I am really stupid not to think of actually moving furniture! pregnancy brain...
sure can find a way to make it work - our baby is due in December so think the heating will be a problem. bit worried about radiators in general - the nursery is pretty small and radiator-ed up as well. sure will figure out a way around it.
Good to hear maybe a moses basket - although is it insane to worry about one of us getting out of bed and tripping over it? bedroom isnt very big!

OP posts:

Original poster

PipJoy · 03/08/2012 07:50

or are travel cots smaller than cots? could that work? or is that not comfy...?

OP posts:

PeshwariNaan · 03/08/2012 08:05

Definitely get a Moses basket with a stand - you can move it around as needed. Try to put it somewhere where you won't trip on it - surely your maternal instincts will kick in, and you won't :)

For cot death you're meant to sleep as close to baby as possible for as long as possible, so keep this in mind. And for night feeds it'll be a lot easier to have baby in your room than in the nursery. Remember baby has been inside you for 9 months - it'll be a shock to his/ her system to be anywhere away from you!

PeshwariNaan · 03/08/2012 08:05

*AVOIDING cot death, that is

Original poster

PipJoy · 03/08/2012 08:16

I hope so re not treading on it - think maybe am a tad paranoid but I have been known to sleepwalk...

so no to a travel cot do we think?

OP posts:

Paperclips · 03/08/2012 08:30

For the security of knowing baby is close at hand, the nursery may have to be a bit redundant for the first 6 months. You'll get the use out of it soon enough.

Our plan is to finish getting the nursery ready around now, decorating etc, the cot will sit there looking nice until the little'un arrives (only 7 weeks to go!) then baby will stay in our room for the first 6 months. We're thinking that at first they'll probably sleep in the moses basket while they're really tiny, then we'll bring the cot into the bedroom.

At present the "nursery" is the little spare room where we dry laundry etc. So it will stay as spare room for the first 6 months, but be decorated like a nursery ready for when baby is big enough. DH seems to think its a waste of time decorating it already if we're not using it but I disagree, would rather do it now, and we're not going crazy!

We're having to re-organise furniture quite a lot in our room to avoid baby being next to radiator and window.

Lovelylace · 03/08/2012 08:37

I am only ten weeks but we are doing the nursery up now in august. The autumn will be full on for me who as well as being preggers are starting a new education plus have a small farm to look after (horses, alpacas, chickens, cats, and dogs) so we are painting and decorating the nursery. We will have a cot in there for daytime naps and even though we (me and baby) might not spend a huge amount of time in there at the moment, it is a nice and quiet room downstair, where I will have an armchair for some chillout feeding time etc..The nursey is downstairs though, so I will have one of those co-sleeper things upstairs in our bedroom for nighttime naps.. I think you can prepepare alot but then you just have to be flexible as you might not find that it is suitable when baby arrives..

vodkaanddietirnbru · 03/08/2012 08:44

we had a crib in our room until they grew out of it and then moved the cot through and it sat along the end of the bed. They never moved into their own room until about 7/8 months. I didnt buy a moses basket as they dont last very long.

They slept in the carrycot bit of the travel system or in a fully reclined buggy when they were downstairs.

HarlettOScara · 03/08/2012 08:48

Baby is in a crib in our room, at my side of the bed for quick access for night feeds. DD (4 wks) is a bit of a monster sized baby so is unlikely to get more than another 4-6 weeks in the crib. The room is quite small and to make matters even more cramped, we have a super king size bed so we're planning to move out one of the bedside cabinets and push the bed right over to the wall to make room to move the full sized cot in when needed.

We have painted and furnished DD's room even though it'll be months before she moves in there. It's useful to have a proper place to store all her little clothes and toys erc that she got as gifts.

Tangointhenight · 03/08/2012 09:00

Baby really should sleep in the same room as you even for naps for the first few months at least so I would go for a Moses basket. We kept it in the living room on its stand then brought it up at night when we were going to bed. DD wasn't a fan of it do we eventually moved her into a crib at night but still used the basket downstairs during the day.

TBH a travel fit would be fine so long as you had a decent mattress in it but ikea do a small cot for about £30 and fairly cheap mattresses which would be much better than a crib or travel cot IME or you can buy mattresses for carrycots from your pram fairly cheap!

DDs cot bed fit in our room because we moved furniture out temporarily, C

Tangointhenight · 03/08/2012 09:01

Sorry posted too soon, could you try that? We moved her into her own room at 5 months because she was such a noisy sleeper!!

Flisspaps · 03/08/2012 09:13

Just wanted to second what Tango said about baby sleeping in the room with you for naps - DS (15w) naps in the pram in the living room, and we co-sleep at night. He wouldn't go in his moses basket at all. His cot is currently FULL of stuff in his bedroom. The plan was for him to sleep in his moses basket until he outgrew it then move into his cot which we'd put in our bedroom like DD did. Ha!

Bear in mind that whatever you plan now, your baby may well not agree with.

Ieatmypeaswithhoney · 03/08/2012 10:05

Mine was in moses basket for first three months, then travel cot (definitely smaller than a cot - you will probably need one of these at some point anyway) in our room for next three months, and then cot in nursery from then on....

MushroomBurger · 03/08/2012 10:17

Mine is ten months now and still will only sleep in bed with me. So glad we never did the nursery business as it would have been totally unused! Don't assume your baby will calmly and happily fall asleep in a cot or basket. DS had VERY clear ideas from day obe about where he would be sleeping - not on his own!

AKMD · 03/08/2012 10:21

First time round: cot in baby's room, Moses basket next to our bed. Baby ended up in our bed, taking up most of the space

This time round: Moses basket in baby's room, bedside cot next to our bed. Fingers crossed.

KatAndKit · 03/08/2012 10:25

We did the nursery before DS was born - he is nearly 4 months now and has only just started taking one or two daytime sleeps in there while I have a shower or get on with stuff that needs doing nearby upstairs. At night he has been sleeping in a crib - originally it was right next to my side of the bed but now he is down to one stupid o clock feed it is at the side of the room so he doesn't see me and think "hmm don't mind if I do..." and demand a five minute snack. As he is outgrowing the crib he will me moving into his own room soon. However we have been using it since birth as the changing table is in there so I get him dressed there in the morning and dried and dressed for bed there after his bath. And if I have needed to get stuff done upstairs I have put him safely in his cot with the mobile on for entertainment. Is definitely worth getting the room sorted before birth.

CountryKitty · 03/08/2012 11:06

Hi, with our 2DD we never decorated the nurseries until the baby was safely here (but I'm quite superstitious!) We had a crib in our bedroom and they both were turfed out of our bedroom and into the newly decorated nurseries at 5/6 weeks.

This time however our friends suffered a cot death last year and I definitely won't be moving DC3 out of our room until at least 9 months. We plan to have a crib at first in our bedroom and then swap it for a cot. We will have a moses basket downstairs for daytime sleeps. With our 2DD we just used the pram carrycot for daytime sleeps as never had a moses basket.

Original poster

PipJoy · 03/08/2012 11:58

It's good to hear all your experiences, I am pleased to hear that some of you think its worth doing the nursery, am a bit superstitious too to be fair but I really want to do it, it just feels right, even if only use it for changing etc.

I guess lots of different approaches with the bedroom sleeping but clear that the baby may have its own ideas anyway! moses basket seems to be popular though, or crib. or could look at the small cot. Going to have to have a serious think about rearranging furniture - hadn't thought about the window - it seems wherever we dont have a radiator we do have a window...

the advice to keep them with you for that long is quite new is it? I didnt think it was the case a few years ago - they all seemed to go into the nursery straight away and I thought that was the case with lots of friends / colleagues children now actually - am obviously ignorant. I am afraid of the sleepwalking though.

OP posts:

Flosie1989 · 03/08/2012 12:07

We've had our little girl sleeping in a Moses basket on a stand (definitely get a stand) at the end of our bed for 3 months. Now she is way too big for it we plan to move her into her own room this weekend. I know it's 3 months early but she has slept from 6.30pm until 6am every night for 6 weeks. Plus it's just next door.

We too decorated her room before she was born and we've always used it during the day for changing/dressing and playing etc.

Good luck!

oscarwilde · 03/08/2012 13:01

Booted my DD out into her own room at 2 months old. She wouldn't sleep in her crib and slept like an angel in all the space of the cot so between that and the really noisy grunting, we moved her out. To be fair, she was right next door with the doors open and more often than not, I slept in the sofa bed in order to bf lying down so the room got lots of use.
Neither of you will have the energy to start decorating after your DC is born so do any painting and decorating now. If it's your guest room too, then you can always keep it v simple and then just add nursery stickers etc when the room is in use. Of course if you want a full on wall frieze, then I'd just get on with it.
You could always use one of these?
www.bednest.com/about-bednesting.php

tamster83 · 03/08/2012 15:36

i had all mine in a crib next to bed untill they grew out of it , couldnt imagine it any other way tbh , i have a 1yr old atm and hes still in our bedroom as he wont be haveing a bedroom to his self when he does move and not quite sure my oldest ds will appreciate being woke up at 5 in the morning !

GnocchiNineDoors · 03/08/2012 22:30

OP, we decorated DDs bedroom ready for her arrival even though we kept her in with us for a while. It was handy really, as trying to do decorating with a little one would be hard work, imo. Plus, people tend to be very generious with gifts and its nice to have somewhere to put them so you aren't tripping over stuff.

We used a Moses Basket in the bedroom and DD slept in the carry cot part of her buggy in the lounge in the daytime. After about a month, we would put her down at 7pm (after a bath and bottle) in our bedroom and then wake her when we went in at 10.30/11pm and give her a feed then.

Once she outgrew the moses basket we used a travel cot. If you are yet to buy any of these things, may I suggest one of these which is a travel cot that also has a halfway up base too, so you use it on the 'high' setting in the first few months, then low setting afterwards - in hindsight, one of these would have negated the need for both a basket and a travel cot. Using a travel cot from birth would result in a very sore back from all the bending right down to the bottom for your baby.

Badgerina · 03/08/2012 23:08

I've never decorated a nursery,nor indeed ever had a nursery and I'm fine :) I still had a baby, still became a mum and am about to do it all again; with no nursery.

tinyshinyanddon · 04/08/2012 01:23

Just thought I would chip in: bear in mind what size your baby is estimated to be. I tend to have small 6lb-ers so we get a lot of use out of our bassinet (I think thats like a Moses basket, may be a bit bigger). Then move to the big cot when they start looking squished in the bassinet and that usually coincides with moving to their own room. Incidentally I am not a big fan of having baby in our room so I put up with is for 3 months and then they get booted out. What ever works for you though - I sleep worse when baby is there so that was not a sustainable choice for our family.

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