He won't decorate - can I paint?

[Stefka]

My husband is under a lot of stress at the moment and has decided that decorating the house is no longer a prioroty. I would really like to paint the place at least though - I really want to get the house nice before the baby arrives. Is it safe for me to paint?

Keep the room well ventilated and I think you should be fine. I started redecorating the bathroom at about 38 weeks and then ran out of puff and DH had to finish - not happy!

how far gone are you?

You can get less-smelly paint (it has a proper name but I can't remember it) if you're worried re the fumes, but the trickiest bit will be balncing on ladders if you have any sort of bump.

I'm tempted to say that it's not much of a priority either - do the baby's room if it makes you happy but don't go nuts.

My DP is a builder and says that most modern paints are low emission now, and the real danger is in stripping the old paint from a wall. Nevertheless I would not spend more than a half an hour at a time painting and would have a very strong breeze going through the room if I were you. If you are only first/early second trimester I wouldn't paint at all.

I am at 23 weeks right now and not done anything at all. I don't know why I so badly want to get the place sorted - I must be nesting or something!

Maybe pretend you are in a rented flat and cannot do anything? The baby won't mind if the walls aren't a nice colour. Only you will notice.

i decorated our spare room, included stripping wallpaper, sanding, glossing, painted ceiling and walls when 8.5 months pg with dd. chances are if he sees you make a start, he will end up pitching in, much easier if you do it together imo. we moved house when i was 11 weeks gone, so even in the early stages, i'd decorated our bedroom, dd's room, painted and tiled the bathroom. we got the upstairs done, then took a 6 month diy break when dd arrived.

I'd say its up to you but ventilate the room well. I redecorated our attic room and the nursery when I was pregnant, and lay loft insulation too, I really enjoyed getting it all ready, I think I was nesting, I haven't done any painting since and dd is 2 now!

maybe have a good tidy and clean instead?

washing the curtains is a great nesting task

I have a problem with painting in pregnancy. I just get this urge to do it.

I've painted loads in all of my pregnancies and have been fine.
I'm 17 weeks atm and have already painted my gate and fence

i painted our flat when i was pg with ds, we moved when i was 36 weeks and i painted the whole flat.
Just get the low odour paint and keep the windows open.

Depends what you want to paint. Water based paints (walls, ceilings) are ok but acrylics (doors, windows etc) have VERY strong fumes and likely to make you light headed. Plus you have to use nasty chemicals and strippres to clean brushes and skin.

Do you REALLY want to paint your whole house? It's really hard work, maybe a good spring clean would scratch that nesting itch?? Or just doing the baby's room.

We (me, dh and my mum & Dad) painted our whole house when I was 7 months pregnant and it is NOT something I would ever do again. Took ages, so tiring, so much mess and so stinky.

I have done some painting - about 5 weeks ago, (am about 25 weeks now) did two smallish rooms. But i did use holidays from work to get them done as opposed to trying to do them aswell as my job - dont try and do too much.
Only advice is not to take on huge projects. Both rooms I tackled were not huge and also were fairly straightforward - involved no stripping etc.
Keep rooms well ventilated and take rests - listen to your body and stop when it says enough. It is annoying, but I can nowhere do the amounnt i used to do pre pregnancy.
Getting decorators in to do the hallway - not risking ladders or anything to do high walls - and with 3 floors - that is too big a job for me a DH.

I was just going to do the baby's room and our bedroom - no doors or anything, just the walls. Rooms are not very big - small house!

I decorated almost an entire house at 7 months gone. I'd just moved in and the place was an absolute tip. I had help from friends for doing ceilings and anything that involved moving heavy stuff, but the rest I did myself with no problems.
So I'd say it's fine, as long as you don't overdo anything, make sure you get plenty of breaks and when painting open all windows etc.

I went home and told hubby that it would probably be ok for me to paint and he said he would do it - hooray!!!

i read somewhere recently that the fumes from smelly paints are supposed to have an effect on babies digestive system ...i dont know hwether they meant all through pregnancy or not as i thought by late on everything is formed..and i was just about topain the nursery and debating whether to do it myself...i`m fed up of waiting for dh to do it!!

I painted the baby's room when I was 30 weeks, the only concession I made was opening all the windows and doors in the house (except the front door...) and using an extension pole for the ceiling. It cost about a tenner from b and q, and I alos taped a brush onto the end to do the corner bits, but as I painted the ceiling teh same colour as the top of the walls it didn't matter that I didn't have straight lines!