You can go to town fitting out your baby nursery. It can be a lovely thing to do whilst you are pregnant. Choosing wallpaper, colour schemes, a cot, you name it... or you can beg and borrow from friends and family and search online or in 2nd hand stores. Whatever you choose, it can be a minefield for 1st time parents. Just what do you need? I bought lots of things thinking I MUST have them, only to never use them at all. Clever marketing made me think I needed them.
Every family and every baby is different, but this is what we put into our baby nursery
First things first - your baby will need somewhere to sleep.
But where to start - Cots, cribs, cot-beds, Moses baskets
We chose a crib for our room for the baby's first 6 months. We really didn't want to get up go to his room for night feeds. Also advice says that the safest place for your baby is in your room by your bed, in a crib or cot. (For the first 6 months anyway.)
We put off buying a cot until he was going to use it. Newborns are expensive enough!!
Mobile
We bought a mobile for above his cot. He loved the music and movement of the animals as it turned around. Newborns are supposed to see black and white shapes the best.
Changing table
The last thing you want to do is bend down on the floor to change your baby - especially if you have just given birth. A good safe changing table with a comfy changing mat proved essential time and time again.
We had a changing table upstairs and down - to make life easier for us!
Drawers for clothes, towels, bedding
It's amazing how much room his clothes took up. We only had a few vests and baby-grows before he was born. Friends and family all bought him gifts and the chest of drawers in his room soon filled up.
That's really all we had in his baby nursery. As he has got older, teddies and soft toys have taken over his cot. His drawers of clothes are overflowing - despite numerous trips to the charity shop. The mobile had to go - once he could reach it - it was too much of a temptation for him! Sad for us to remove it though - his baby days were going so fast!
Jane Rainford. When I was pregnant, I looked to the internet for information, but what I got was information overload. Never having been pregnant before it was all so overwhelming, I had so many questions, the internet seemed a good place to start. Once my baby was born I didn't have the time to be searching for answers, though I still had so many questions. As he is growing, I really want to pass on all I've learned to other parents who have questions, want answers, just want a laugh or to know there are other mums out there tearing their hair out too.
I'm no expert, I'm a mum - hang on maybe that does make me an expert! And boy do you learn a lot after baby is born! I run http://www.onlinemum.com From bump to toddler.
