room organising ideas!

73trix

I am trying to figure out the best way to re-organize the bedrooms in our house with the pending new arrival! We live in a 4 bedroom house - 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bedrooms downstairs. All rooms are similar in size so no obvious small room for nursery as such. The main bathroom is downstairs.We have been using the back bedroom upstairs and had thought bubs would take the other room upstairs at the front. I would prefer both room upstairs in general as brighter and warmer than the equivalent rooms downstairs due to the sun etc. However, now I'm thinking...at least for the initial year...about swapping to downstairs altogether as then all rooms are close by, no stairs, near kitchen, main bathroom and living room. Perhaps taking the least attractive room for ourselves.. temporarily .. but more convenient for that 1st year or two! The disadvantage of using either bedroom downstairs is that the downstairs front bedroom, it's not as private obviously as the upstairs rooms (we live in an estate). The downstairs back bedroom is the current overflow/ laundry room ie dump room. Handy laundry room as beside kitchen/ utility but that can move upstairs for a while. Overall, I'm thinking would having all living quarters downstairs make the most sense? Or are we better having the baby upstairs (and then of course, ourselves) from main living area from a noise point of view? Is there anything I'm missing?? I'm veering towards the notion of not going up and down stairs v keeping with the nicer bedrooms!

Rosy Posy

It depends on your lifestyle. If you tend to have people in or play loud music or tv in the evenings then sleep upstairs. Also your laundry is downstairs. You'll probably want to put a wash on while baby is sleeping which might be a problem if the noise disturbs them.

If you're not breastfeeding there may be an advantage to being downstairs closer to the kitchen?

73trix

Rosy Posy wrote: »

It depends on your lifestyle. If you tend to have people in or play loud music or tv in the evenings then sleep upstairs. Also your laundry is downstairs. You'll probably want to put a wash on while baby is sleeping which might be a problem if the noise disturbs them.

If you're not breastfeeding there may be an advantage to being downstairs closer to the kitchen?

Not big into loud music, TV etc in the evenings. But fair point.

Potential baby room downstairs is far enough away from utility so that wouldn't be an issue.

Will try breastfeeding but may not work out either and if i do succeed, may not do it beyond a couple months anyway so close to kitchen could be good.

Flippyfloppy

Definitely good thinking as regards kitchen!

Guess weigh up pros and cons. If you have someone else getting up for work in the morning it might be a bonus to be upstairs away from the noise of them having a shower?

Also for baby napping in the day you'll probably want them near you so if their bedroom is downstairs that would be good too!

Would setting up the two rooms upstairs and one room downstairs as a bedroom be a possibility? That way you have a spare room to take a break in if you know what I mean!!

Also baby will be sleeping in your room for first few months so maybe after they come along and you know what they like etc you could make the decisions regarding this!

highly1111

My advice would definitely to stay upstairs with the living areas downstairs. There are 2 reasons for this - firstly, definitely try and have your room beside the babies room. Makes night time feeding much easier - even in the morning time etc - I just would be much happier with my babies on the same floor as me. However, and more importantly, secondly, I'm a firm believer that for you as a new mum and dad there is great peace of mind when your baby is asleep/napping in their room. I know that some may disagree but once the baby hits a few months old (which will FLY in!) the baby will start to nap in their own room and believe me - this gives you a lot of head space. I always found that when my babies were napping downstairs -which they did for the first few weeks - for me, it was never really a break as they were still "there" - I hope that this makes sense but I always found that when they started napping upstairs (or downstairs in your case) I always felt that I could properly knock the kettle on and properly relax. This will also become increasingly important when the baby starts to sleep through - which, contrary to all the horror stories you may hear - could be within 2/3 months.

Oh, and congratulations!!

Rosy Posy

+1 on having a spare room set up for you to nap or to take turns having a decent nights sleep. In the early days a Moses basket is great for baby having naps wherever you are. Also consider the placement of your hot water heater- we're staying at my parents' house atm and no one can have a shower or do the dishes while the baby is sleeping as the hot water heater makes a roaring noise that wakes him up! In saying that they do tend to be fairly immune to noises they hear from the start- we live close to a fire station and not one of my children have ever been woken by the siren- they've been hearing it since the womb!

Chattastrophe!

I have to say I've never really found having both our bedroom and the baby's upstairs to be a problem.

For daytime naps, we always had him downstairs - in his pram at first (or some people would use a Moses basket), then as he got older in his travel cot or bouncer or buggy. Will probably start using his cot upstairs for daytime naps soon, but we'll have the monitor downstairs so it's not like we'll be constantly up and down.

It's a good idea to have a stock of spare clothes, bibs, cloths, nappies, wipes etc downstairs.

Only problem I could see is maybe if you had a section, and found the stairs difficult while carrying baby? In that case you'd probably be in hospital for a few days, so your partner would probably have time to set up a temporary bedroom downstairs if necessary.

nikpmup

I am having this problem at the moment - we live in a funny sort of house; it's a dormer bungalow, with two ''bedrooms'' (one ensuite) downstairs, and one really big one upstairs, as well as a family bathroom. Now, while initially it was great to have the big room upstairs - I have it kind of divided in half, his cot, changing table, chest of drawers and whatnot in one end of the room, really handy - he's now 9 mths old and I'm wondering about moving him out. That would mean moving us all downstairs as I wouldn't be happy sleeping upstairs with him on the ground floor. At present, the downstairs rooms house a collection of junk in one room (easy enough to sort out) and himself's man cave in another - decks, vinyl, computer, and huge amounts of man junk. I'm putting off making a decision as I just cannot face the mammoth task of clearing out and moving the man cave.
You don't necessarily have to make a decision on who goes where straight away. FWIW, I reckon it's a good idea to get a newborn used to household noise such as the washing machine, so proximity to the kitchen wouldn't worry me. If you're getting up at night to feed, an extra bit of a walk makes no odds, you're still bleary eyed! And as for stairs, I had a section and managed stairs no problem; I brought him upstairs for all his changes - I realise everyone heals differently though (I didn't have changing stuff downstairs cos I just didn't have the room)

73trix

Thanks for all the suggestions. We do have 4 bedrooms, 2 up and 2 down. I'm thinking of veering to the downstairs option- for the first while anyway. Either way baby is beside us (who will sleep on same floor as baby regardless) in adjoining bedroom whichever way so that's not the issue.

Our hot water is immersion by summer and via CH in winter, so no noise there. Our utility and kitchen is enough of a distance away, again no noise issues. If we live downstairs, the electric shower is upstairs so actually less noisy for bubs downstairs. The main bathroom has .. a bath... and shower is a basic shower thingy on the wall, works off the immersion..no noise.

I get the having another room for a break- but as we have 4 rooms - if we "live" downstairs, a spare room upstairs can be for the break!

I actually hadn't considered a c-section :eek: so this is swaying me more towards no-stairs initially.

Exciting posotion to be in, will work it whichever way.

PS laughed out loud at the man-cave reference. Thankfully don't have one of those!!

Chattastrophe!

Lol we've a mancave in our house too
... funny thing is, the people living here before us had a baby girl, so it's pink and decorated as a little girl's nursery.

nikpmup

Chattastrophe! wrote: »

Lol we've a mancave in our house too
... funny thing is, the people living here before us had a baby girl, so it's pink and decorated as a little girl's nursery.

Then it's not a man cave. It's a pretty little girl cave. It must be painted brown or grey immediately, or your boyfriend will have to hand over his Man card and resign from manhood in disgrace

Dravokivich

nikpmup wrote: »

Then it's not a man cave. It's a pretty little girl cave. It must be painted brown or grey immediately, or your boyfriend will have to hand over his Man card and resign from manhood in disgrace

It's fine, I've got a weigths bench, dumbells, tribar, couple of games consoles, PCs, Guitars, Bass, and lovely satin curtains to offset the pink.

nikpmup

Dravokivich wrote: »

It's fine, I've got a weigths bench, dumbells, tribar, couple of games consoles, PCs, Guitars, Bass, and lovely satin curtains to offset the pink.

You almost had me convinced.......


..... till you said satin curtains.

Man Card. Immediately please! :pac: :P