One bedroom flat with baby, is it realistic?

[SunnySideUp2020]

Clueless FTM looking for opinions or experiences of living in a flat with only big bedroom with a baby!

DP and I are looking for flats at the moment, it would be to stay until the baby is 10 months to a year. Due in April hopefully!

I liked one of the flats but it only had one bedroom. It's spacious and has a nice separate dressing room and a utility room but none possible to convert in baby room as no ventilation and small spaces tbh.

I know that baby is supposed to sleep in our bedroom anyway so what do people think?

Is it ok or the worst idea?

Thanks x

You'll be completely fine.

I do live in a 2-bedroom flat, and although my baby will technically be old enough in 3 weeks that I could move him into it, I've no intention whatsoever of doing so. It's way easier to keep him in with me for the time being. My second bedroom has definitely been useful for having my dad come to stay, and for storing my vast collection of random balls of wool, but it's been completely irrelevant so far for the baby himself.

It will be completely fine. Change baby on the bed on a changing mat. Cot in your room. The most important things are space for the buggy, space for the washing, and toy storage (people will buy you A LOT!).

We were four in a one bed for six months, a two year old and newborn. It was totally doable. People will tell you the baby needs their own room, how will manage to have sex, all sorts of things, but honestly it was never an issue for us. You can get high chairs that clip on the the table and can be hung on the back of the door when not in use. Toy chests that serve as seating too. Baby can sleep in Moses basket for first few months and be carried from room to room. In my opinion it is much more important to have a big living room and bedroom and the above things than it is to have a separate room for the baby to sleep in. They will only be in there for 16-20 weeks anyway if you follow guidelines of in with you till 6 months.

Definitely feasible. It's not so much about the bedrooms as the general amount of space so if that is decent, definitely. We had DD in our old flat and moved to our house when she was 18 months. It was ok, it was a 2 bedroom but only 600 ish square feet, no balcony, no separate loo, tiny reception room. We were ready to move but could have coped a bit longer.

Agree too with a PP who says one of the biggest disadvantage rages is people's reactions... some of our family thought we were living in penury 🤣

Another big advantage of having only one bedroom m, for us, was that people had to stay in hotels when they came to visit. This made hosting with a tiny baby a million times easier. Now the kids are older it's great to have a guest room but I found that most of our guests, even if they really wanted to help, actually made more work if they were around all the time. Sofa bed is a really good idea though for if one of you needs a night off and uninterrupted sleep.

Set up a changing station on one of the bathroom floors - my little one is prone to jets of poo mid nappy change a hard floor is a must for nappy changing in our house! We have two travel changing mats (in rotation) and a plastic storage caddy for all the nappy changing bits (nappies, sudacrem, wipes etc) so it is easy to grab everything to move to a different room if needed and it's all neatly stored so it's not taking up the whole bathroom.

@Twizbe

Me personally, I'd want 2 bedrooms so that you can have some space just for you. Babies do tend to take over the space.

Also - don't change baby on the bed! In the early days you will get at least one wee when the nappy comes off that you're not expecting. On the bed that is going to be a nasty mess to clear up

You use a changing mat on the bed.

My DP's done it but I preferred to use the floor from the beginning.

Of course it’s fine! It sounds like your one bed flat is a great deal bigger than the two bed terrace I had when I had a baby. There was a small room for them to move into eventually but I barely went in there and it wasn’t really big enough to swing a cat. Child slept in my room until nearly 2 years and then did move into the room, just, and we had another DC who then slept in my room until we moved to a bigger place. Even after the move (nearly 3) still stayed in with me for a few more months.

”There will be nights your oh will want to sleep somewhere else to get an ounce of sleep.”

That’s nice for him. Where do I go when I want an ounce of sleep? And what’s wrong with the sofa anyway?

If it’s not going to be long term then sure. In our first flat our neighbour had a child - they left when he was about 3. She was going mad by then (top floor walk-up and the flats were pretty small) - this was in the last bad recession and they couldn’t move.

To echo the majority you will be fine in a one bed with one child for the first two years. You have a separate living area and bedroom so someone can always go to the living room away from the bedroom. Just don't buy tons of baby stuff as pp have already said. Best of luck

Thank you so much everyone for all the honest answers!
I think we can manage in that flat until baby is a year old.
Reassuring to hear people have done it before and it was ok!
We have more viewings on Wednesday so hope to make our decision by then!
😊

It's American, but I love some of the ideas in this blog:
www.600sqft.com/

I found it when I was wondering how we'd manage in our tiny terrace and have followed since.

The flat sounds great. All in one room is fine. DD stayed in my bedroom until she was at least 18months. Never had a changing table. Has 1 changing mat up statues and 1 downstairs - never understood why people would want to walk upstairs or into another room every time they wanted to change their baby?!

If you have an option for more than one bedroom, definitely DEFINITELY take it.

We had a one bed flat with ours and were all set to move and then lockdown hit, dh started working from home and it was hell. Throw into the mix that dd was a noisy sleeper and we would've moved her out early.

It's possible but really not an ideal option IMO x

It can work, but I'd say realistically, will you want to house hunt and move with a 10 month old? For that reason alone I'd keep looking for a 2 bed just so you have that little bit of security if you don't want to move around the time you'll also be looking to go back to work etc if you choose too.

@NameChange657 thing is we are in a temporary country/place right now.
Neither of us want to stay here longer than needed. Literally just to have the baby, recover, get used to family life and baby and move asap even if it means hassle.

I was going to mention the 600sq ft blog that @Semele5069 posted - it’s great!

It might be worth you getting a sofa bed for the living room in case you wanted to have guests/either of you wanted somewhere else to sleep. I think it would be totally fine.

@SunnySideUp2020 then I’d say go for it. The extra storage room sounds ideal, and if you have a nice vibe about the place do it! I didn’t realise it was a temporary pit stop. Baby definitely doesn’t need it’s own room until you’re back where you want to be long term

We live in a two bed but the second bedroom is not big and is currently an office/where all the laundry dries. A one bed with dressing room and utility would be about the same.

I know one single mum who lived in a studio till her dc was nearly 3 and a couple of families with 2 children who lived in a one bedder for several years.

Kids had the bedroom and parents had a sofa bed,

Thing is, of course you'd cope if you had to.

But it depends how much you value and need your own space? So whenever baby wakes up, you'll both wake up. You'll end up sleeping on the sofa, guaranteed, whichever parent gets the lie in / off duty.

Yes yes to the sofa bed

FTM here too
My partner & I moved into our one bedroom a year and a half ago & since then we have had a baby. Our room is a nice size & same with living room. It is definitely fine. Most people I know who also have babies/toddlers and are only in 1bedroom flats or houses manage fine also

We lived in a one bed, 3 room flat with our first. Buggy/stairs were hard. We coslept with a crib that attaches to the bed. It was a bit stressful being on top of each other, but it was doable. We found getting out the flat where possible important. It was much easier to keep clean as it’s tiny, so newborn phase was fine in that sense! DH still slept through all the crying despite being in the same bed! I think it’s more common to live in a one bed than people think. If you can get a sofa bed cheaply, that can give someone space to sleep if unwell/important workday coming up. I’d plan what you’d do if one if you needs to self isolate, whatever you decide it’s a plan I’d make before anything happens - not saying it’s likely, but with less space than other families it’s always good to be prepared. It’s easier to keep an eye on the baby crawling/toddling when they reach that age and you don’t need a stair gate (unless there’s stairs somewhere). You don’t need a two bed at that age. I think it depends a bit on parenting experiences as most people who said we needed a two bed had baby in a separate room very early on. We coslept until toddlerhood when DS was ready to go into his own bed (He moved happily to a cot but woke so often due to medical issues that we moved him back to our bed as even 5 minutes extra sleep was worth it), so it wasn’t an issue really. For anyone happy to have baby in the same room, it’s not a problem. As he went down before us (side on crib, bed sides on bed) it wasn’t a huge jump sleeping in his bed and having his own room was a positive experience. He took to it well!

I lived in a 1 bed flat with my mum and sister until I was 7. The bedroom was spacious enough for a double bed, single bed, cot and play corner. Obviously not ideal but can be done if need be! You'd need to make adjustments to the things you buy and the way you live, but those saying it's not doable are ignoring the fact that many, many people live like this out of necessity and get by. Worst comes to worst and you want to sleep separately from baby (you probably won't need to) they can sleep in a cot in the living room.

We lived in a 1 bed flat with DD until she was 15 months. It's fine.