Hello everyone! Not currently expecting, but fiancé and I are looking into more long-term housing, where we might live with a newborn/toddler one day.
The most likely house right now is small (all that we can afford in central [name_u]London[/name_u]) but has a great open plan kitchen/living space on the ground floor. The downside is that the two bedrooms are stacked right on top of each other. I would like to have the baby sleep in the same room for the first few months, but:
A) Would it be a hassle to have the majority of the baby things on another floor?
B) Would it be more sensible to have the nursery on the first floor (which has a lockable balcony but less steps) or the second floor (more steps)?
Well, I currently live in my mother’s house, and my 7 month old daughter shares a room with me.
The bedroom is upstairs, while we spend the majority of our time downstairs in the family room or kitchen.
Honestly, I don’t think it matters all that much. When you first come home from giving birth you’ll be advised to limit stairs, so you’ll have things like changing and feeding supplies in both locations. I still keep a changing pad, diapers, etc downstairs so there’s no need to run up each time she’s wet. If the baby is sharing a bedroom with you, you’ll end up bringing stuff like that in your room regardless.
I would have the nursery upstairs, just for sound reasons, if they are napping or sleeping in the crib and someone rings or you want to make noise in the kitchen or whatnot, it wil be quieter upstairs. That’s the only plus I see.
I would have the nursery upstairs figuring baby would start out in your room anyway.
We rearranged rooms so we were on the same level, but we have two bedrooms up and one down. It is more convenient to be closeby, but I think two floors is workable. You may want a baby in your room a little longer at first, and later on chances are if the nursery is right above you would hear him or her if they were up at night.
If the living spaces are on the ground floor, I would definitely put the nursery upstairs. That way you can have friends over after the baby goes to sleep for the night (you know, after the baby is sleeping in his own room, etc).
I don’t think it’s a big deal to have the baby stuff on another floor. You can always keep some essentials (diaper changing supplies, etc) on the ground floor as well if it is too much to go up and down the stairs for every diaper change.
I agree with the PPs that I don’t think it’s a huge deal if the nursery is on the 2nd floor. In the house that my husband and I are in now (renting), the room that would be our nursery is upstairs. Downstairs is the living area/kitchen/our room. I’m really not concerned since the baby would be in our room for the first few months anyway. I wouldn’t sweat it! [name_m]Just[/name_m] keep the essentials in your room or master bath (like diaper stuff, etc).
We have all our bedrooms on the same floor but we had to replace our ceiling, which led to us being on the pull out couch downstairs for a month with the children upstairs. Are you buying the house so it would be your home for a very long time or renting? One issue with putting the nursery upstairs is when you have an older child if they wake up and need you they’ll have to navigate the steps or will start to navigate the steps in the middle of the night. Is the room on the ground floor decent sized so that you could fit somewhere for a sick child to sleep? Are the steps steep or difficult to navigate? When we were downstairs our son got a stomach virus and it was a pain to go up and down the steps during the night to tend to him (no bathroom downstairs in our house so we couldn’t bring him downstairs for the night). My daughter was also not sleeping through the night and I frequently worried about falling on the steps as I exhaustedly climbed up and down them most nights. She was almost a year and a half too so not a little baby but teething. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you absolutely love the rest of the house? Are there other houses with the bedrooms on the same level that you feel similarly about? I would avoid separate levels for bedrooms if possible especially if you’re buying and planning on living there for a long time. If you do go with the house then definitely put the baby upstairs where it’s quieter.
The house is actually three levels, a narrow sort of city house: living area on ground floor, bedroom + bath on first, and another bedroom on the second. It’s small, so would diaper stations be necessary on all three floors?
If you are planning to keep the baby in with you (and thus, all of his stuff is in with you) for the first few months, probably not. But it really depends on you and your willingness to go up and down stairs. A six month old baby might need say, six diaper changes per day. Going up and down three flights of stairs six times per day does not sound like a really big deal to me, but other people might feel differently.
I don’t think you would have to decide about things like diaper changes in advance, even. You wouldn’t need a full on changing table on each floor, just a roll-up mat and some wipes and diapers. You could easily throw that together if you found the stair-climbing onerous.
I’m still young and nowhere near kids, but I don’t think it would be a huge deal. In the future, I’d like a master loft and all of the other bedrooms spread out over the other floors. I wouldn’t have a nursery in the basement or on the main floor (kitchen, living etc) but I’d handle it anywhere else. To bring a baby upstairs would be easy. I’ve babysat lots, which is nothing like parenting obviously, but I can easily run up from a basement to the third floor up, so you’d be good no matter what
My kids room is on a different floor than mine, and it is kind of bothersome. My kids want to be near me in the middle of the night, and going up or down the stairs in the middle of the night for tired little ones scares me.
If you plan on sharing your room for a while, it’s not a big deal, and the downstairs room could be where her clothes, diaper changing, nap time, etc occurs. But if you plan to sleep separate after a little while, it will become more troublesome.
