Nursery spare bed ideas

[LunaDreams]

Hello!

I'm currently 21 weeks and beginning to think ahead now passed the 20 week scan mark.

I know the baby will sleep in with us for 6 months before going into the nursery but am trying to get my head round furnishing the rest of the nursery.

We don't have a huge room, but it currently has a double bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and x 2 bedside tables in it so some room to play with.

Quite a few friends and family have advised to try and keep a bed in there for DP or visitors but I just don't see how I can keep the bed plus fit a cot and other bits for baby in?

Have thought about swapping double bed for small double or single but realistically how much will it be used? Other options are a day bed or sofa bed but then I'd worry about comfort of this if DP was sleeping in there regularly (which quite a few Dad's seem to do!).

Had anyone got any experience or suggestions on a useful yet practical sleeping arrangement?

Hi @LunaDreams, we've got the same dilemma. We've decided on getting a day/sofa bed that pulls out to a double, that has storage that we can keep a good mattress topper in. That way when we set it up as a bed for anyone they hopefully will still be comfortable. Then we can still use the room for guests or if one of us needs to sleep in it, as well as putting the bed 'away' for more space and having it set up like a sofa with some cushions where we can feed baby in the night. We are planning on keeping the room quite versatile so will still have a desk in it for DP to work at, space when the bed is away for yoga/exercise for me, and a cot for baby, but like you envision baby will be in our room for at least the first 6 months.

@PlantMummy87 the idea of keeping a mattress topper underneath is fab! I'm also learning more towards a day or sofa bed with storage, IKEA seem to do some good ones btw. Just hard to know what works best as like you we need the room to be quite versatile. I feel like I'm playing a game of real life Tetris 🤣.

We’ve been looking at hemnes daybed from
IKEA for spare bed in the nursery as pulls out into a double and looks nice. They’ve got a couple to choose from

You don't need a spare bed in the nursery. It might be a nice to have, but it's not necessary. You can always get an airbed (modern ones are quite comfy!) or sofabed. Personally I would prioritise play space, particularly after 18 months ish. If you wanted to keep the double bed until then, it might work well.

I'd probably scrap or relocate the wardrobe and bedside tables, though. These aren't really useful for a nursery. At least I've never bothered to hang baby clothes!

@LunaDreams, haha absolutely feels like real life Tetris doesn't it. We've been looking at the IKEA Hemnes day bed too and think it will be the best for us too. It's hard isn't it as you don't want to get rid of anything and need it later down the line or get something new and need to get rid of it in a few years.

I definitely wouldn’t leave a double bed in a nursery. A good sofa bed might be better, we had a sofa in DD’s nursery and it was a nice place for me to feed her.

We are the same. We have a newish small double in a small room. I plan on leaving the bed, adding a cot and a chest of drawers, at least until they love into the room themselves and then judge whether to keep the bed.

I’m going to get some nice neutral bedding and dress it nice so feels like a baby room. I feel a spare bed could be handy in the early days of partner needs a better sleep for work.

I would do one of those pull out sofa beds! So you can pull it out every time someone comes over but then can put it back then and have all the extra room when people aren’t staying over :)

We've left the double in DD2's room as our plan to amalgamate the office and spare room wasn't practical with WFH. It's nice to have and makes night feeds very comfortable but it also just clutters up floor space. DD1 never had a bed in hers, just a chair for feeds and that was absolutely fine.

Unless you need the spare bed for visitors I'd chuck it. The baby will need a single bed before you know it, so you could always put in a single bed and a cot now if there's room, but unless you think there's a real need I wouldn't bother.

We’ve got a blow up bed (a nice one) which we use and just rearrange the furniture to fit it in.

We are currently planning to keep our double bed in what will be the babies room. It's big enough to fit the cot and the double, just. I think it will be a fairly short term measure before our children can share. But I don't want/can't justify getting rid of a decent/hardly used bed, when in years to come we will want to buy the same again!
Plus, we would be very limited from having anyone to stay - if we keep the double, baby can move back in with us in the travel cot if grandparents stay etc.

We have the Ikea hemnes. Was perfect for our little sleep stealers. My husband ended up sleeping on that a lot with my toddler who never slept. Now I co sleep in it with baby 2 who also hates sleep. Highly recommend but you do need a mattress topper. The matteesses that come with are too thin for my comfort.

Thanks guys! I'm pretty sure we are going to need a spare bed for one of us to sleep in as our normal bed is quite small and no option of co-sleeping or getting a separate nights sleep. Will weigh up a pull out sofa or day bed probably. Luckily we still have lots of time to sort!

We kept the double in the spare room/ nursery until DD1 went into a single bed. While they are in a cot/ toddler bed they don't really play in their room so it is a storage/ sleeping place.
The spare was a godsend when she had bad nights as one of us could go in with her and not bother the other. It also stopped her getting used to getting in our bed.
We removed it once she needed the floorspace to play.

From experience definitely keep the bed. Useful for visitors and you. I would get rid of the wardrobe (unless you need it for your clothes - you don’t hang baby stuff) and consider getting rid of one bedside table (can you then push the bed against the wall to make more space?)

My second child actually ended up going straight from his cot into the super king bed in his room when he was just 18 months old, so very glad we kept it!

We’ve put a spare bed in his room! I’m thinking it won’t be used at all the first 6 months because in my ideal world my partner will be able to be in the same room as us then get up to go to work the next day fine, although that might not happen 😂 It was more for after he goes into his own cot if he won’t settle I thought it’s far better to be able to sleep in there and actually get some sleep rather than sit on the floor etc waiting on him falling asleep every time. A guy I used to work with was always telling me how sleep deprived he was and he’d hurt his back from sleeping on a camp bed beside his baby’s cot 🤦🏼‍♀️ So that was what convinced me 😂