The Mini-Nursery
Just like we did with Bean, we are keeping Gracie in our room at night in a bassinet until she’s a little bigger. I’m sure she’d be fine, really, to sleep in her crib. In fact, I put her in there for naps during the day already. But at night, I have two main reasons for keeping her so close. First, she’s sleeping in three to four hour stretches and I am not just comfortable yet leaving her by herself for that long. Maybe I’m just a weenie. Secondly and selfishly, I don’t want to have to get up in the middle of the night and go very far for feedings and diaper changes.
Like with Bean, we have solved this little problem with the Mini-Nursery. I say that like it’s something we invented. It’s really just common sense and I’m sure tons of people use this same concept already. We basically set up a mini-version of a full nursery in our bedroom.
(Excuse our bedroom. It’s always the last room to be decorated, straightened, and cleaned…)
What’s in your mini-nursery will vary by preference, but let me show you what we’ve stocked in ours.
First, we have the bassinet right next to my side of the bed. Like, RIGHT next to it. That way, I can just lean over and peer in at night when she’s making weird noises and I don’t have to get up to check on her.
The next critical thing is the rocking chair. With Bean, we put our actual rocking chair in my bedroom because we didn’t have room in his nursery and it ended up being really nice to have it right there in the middle of the night. With Gracie, we have our real rocking chair (the one that matches our nursery furniture set) in our living room right now because it’s easier to use it during the day out in the common area where I can keep an eye on Bean while I’m rocking Gracie. But I still wanted one in our bedroom for the mini-nursery because that worked so well with Bean. So, I stole a comfy rocking chair from my parent’s house. Now when I get up for feedings in the middle of the night, I just pick up Gracie and go about 2 feet from my bed to the rocking chair.
We also have a diaper changing station in our mini-nursery. We cleaned off the top of our dresser and laid down a few beach towels. Then, I brought in one of Bean’s old diaper caddies with the necessary supplies. It’s not attractive, but it does the job at 3:00am.
The best thing that I’d recommend for anyone with a baby sleeping in their room is a little lamp. We tried a nightlight, but it didn’t give off enough light. So instead, we use this little lamp. It uses one of those small little light bulbs instead of a big one, so it doesn’t give off very much light at all. It is very dim, but just a hair brighter than a nightlight. We actually sleep with this lamp on all night long. It’s dim enough that we can all sleep because it keeps the room pretty dark, but it gives off enough light that I can see in the middle of the night when I get up without turning on a light. This is important with a newborn because you’re supposed to try and keep nighttime feedings dark and quiet so they learn the difference between night and day. With this lamp on all the time, there’s no difference when she wakes up. It’s not like we have to turn on a bright light when we get up.
The last thing that our mini-nursery has that isn’t pictured is a bottle station. If you’re nursing, then, obviously, you don’t need this part. But if you’re bottle feeding, it is super helpful. We keep as many bottles as we’ll need during the night beside my bed already pre-filled with formula powder. Then I fill them through the night as we use them with bottles of water. With Bean, we didn’t do this part. We warmed his bottles, which meant he woke up and screamed for 15 minutes while we heated his bottle. With Gracie we are using room temperature water and it is really so much faster. Gracie wakes up and within a minute or two, I’m rocking her with a bottle.
With our mini-nursery, nighttime feedings take, all total, about 15 or 20 minutes. That includes waking up, making the bottle, feeding and burping Gracie, then rocking her back to sleep. It is incredibly fast, which helps Gracie learn the difference between night and day and it helps Chris and I get more sleep – which is important because Bean Man wakes up at 7:00am on the dot, whether we’ve been up all night or not.
If you have a newborn or are expecting one, try using a mini-nursery at night to help make things a little easier for you. They aren’t cute and they aren’t exactly what you want to show off to your friends, but they are really practical and helpful.
26 Comments
Kat
We have a cosleeper attached to our bed for Peanut and since her room is only 2 feet away (and our bedroom is the size of a medium size closer) so we do everything else there. It’s actually nice for the other person who is “off during that shift”. That way when I wake up with her at 2, Jon can sleep while I tale care of her and when Jon gets up with her at 5, I can get a little extra sleep. Then we rotate the next night. Btw, the night small lamp is a must for us too!
Sarah@TheExPat Bride
I love that you have pictures all over your room 😉
Cindy In Owensboro, KY
That’s very practical and very good advice, thanks for sharing!
Lindsay (Young Married Mom)
I agree that having a set-up in your own bedroom is ideal for the first few weeks, months, whatever you choose. We used an Arm’s Reach co-sleeper attached to our bed, and I sometimes wished we could have fit the changing table and rocker in our room. But after a while, I found that I didn’t wake up enough when feeding Jacob (I nursed), and sometimes I think I picked up him and fell back asleep myself without feeding him! Sometimes going to another room can be a good thing 🙂
Tara@ourlifeinthedeepend
We had the same type of thing going on in our room with our son. But we used a pack and play with the bassinet/changing table attachment. With having a csection it made it so wonderful. You are better than me though I would just lift him right up onto the boppy to feed him and he would go right back to sleep. We didn’t rock him till a little later, I am not sure why but we didn’t. I loved having everything in one place so much we actually set up the same thing in the living room so I didnt have to lift him off the changing table with staples. I used to have to have the room pitch black to sleep so funny that when he came into our lives I learned to adapt immediately and have a light on all night. He lasted 8 weeks in our room and then went to his crib. I must admit he didn’t mind at all but I missed him 🙂
Tina
We co slept with all our babies for the first 2-3 months and then transition them to their crib, but they never leave our room since the crib is in the corner;) Its nice to have a large enough bedroom for that I guess. Then they usually get their own room at around the time they can stand up in the crib. Plus there is so much evidence to support not just rooming with baby, but co-sleeping. The sooner mom can respond to baby the better in my opinion! Oh and I have the same bassinet btw, my little (ok not little, huge) man grew out of it by 8 weeks.
Talia
Excuse your bed room? K- you just had a baby…you can use that as a reason for having a messy house for At LEAST the first year!
Jen at Cabin Fever
I fully intend on using this idea and actually have already begun planning out my “mini nursery” and how it will fit into my current bedroom. Love the idea for changing the baby, especially. Cabin Fever in Vermont
Sandy
i am on the next plane to come down there and put a coaster under that glass!!!
Jen @ Caved in
I loved our mini nursery. We had an arms reach co sleeper then had to move to a rock n play sleeper when Sullivan was diagnosed with reflux. Finally moved him into his own room @ 6 weeks. It was nice not waking up at every peep. Now I just watch the monitor. Cuz that’s better right? 🙂
Shelley
Oh Sandy, that’s so funny because I was thinking the same thing!!! I didn’t dare say anything because I’ve already corrected a few spelling or grammar errors, but….you’re right, Katie get a coaster in your room! LOL
Alaina
I love the little lamb you always have in pictures! So cute 🙂
SushiMama
Such a good idea- I’ll add that to my list of things to do when we have a little one. Would a pack n play work in place of a bassinet?
Breann
We didn’t have exactly the mini nursery, but having a bassinet next to the bed is HUGE. In fact I got more sleep when ours was right then than since we have move him. I was able to pop a pacifier in his mouth when he was starting to fuss and eventually that sleep trained him (I didn’t start this until 3 months). But otherwise I did the same thing with a bottle right by the bed. Made things so easy! I am glad you are sleeping because I didn’t sleep for at least 6 weeks!
Sarah H.
This is a wonderful post. We registered for a co-sleeper and plan to have the baby in our room for€¦well I’m not sure€¦a month? 6 weeks? 8 weeks? Guess we’ll see how the whole parenting a newborn goes! But I was thinking what’s the use of being able to easily nurse the baby and go back to sleep if I have to get up and walk over to the changing table in the baby’s room (Gosh I don’t even know if you have to change a newborn every time you feed it€¦ I’ll learn!) I like the idea of using your dresser€¦.I think I’ll set something up like that. Good to know about a lamp! This is also good, because I know if I leave my bedroom at anytime after 4am my cats will think it’s breakfast time and won’t leave me be€¦.so this sounds good for the entire family 🙂
Stephanie
Thanks for the idea! We are expecting a baby in September and I like hearing how other people do these things so I can get ideas and try them out for myself when the time comes.
Nancy
Yup, we used an Arms Reach co-sleeper also. Best thing ever! We moved both kids to the crib at around 6 months.
Anna in Ohio
SO GLAD you’ve decided to go with room temperature water for Gracie Girl’s bottles…it makes life infinitely easier!!! Love your little set up. 🙂
Katy @ MonsterProof
We still haven’t decided. We have a bassinet, but I may just sleep down in the nursery w/ him at first because then I don’t have to do stairs to get to the bathroom and to get to him. Can’t decide.
Beth
We did the room temp water, too! We pre-fill the bottles with water and have one of those travel formula shaker things pre-sorted. SO much easier than warming the bottles!
Emily Langston
You’re not a weenie! I slept with my son by me for a lot longer than he should have. I breastfed and in the beginning I had to feed and pump every 2 hours! I was not going in his room to do all that.. I would have NEVER slept!
Lori @ I Can Grow People
We never had Porter sleep in our room. His room was right across the hall and I found that if he was in our room with us, I couldn’t sleep. Every little noise he made caused me great anxiety. That’s why I couldn’t sleep in the hospital–because Porter roomed with us. And once P-Bo went to formula we did the room temperature water thing too which made feeding Porter so much easier. Nothing to warm up!
Elise
One of the Arms Reach cosleepers was just recalled (see cpsc.gov).
Meghan
*sigh* I have newborn envy. My little girl is growing up too fast! Her bassinet just sits empty in our room (we haven’t had the time nor inclination to take it apart) and she’s sleeping in her crib in her own room. I miss having her right there!
Also, I get your posts via e-mail and the pictures display a little differently, so not everyone can see it; but the first picture of Gracie on the boppy with her arms up in the air was cracking me up! Totally made my morning 🙂
Gela
boy, we went through this…the bad news is that it can last for a while…the good news is that it does pass 🙂 Whenever we got interrupted we would let our eldest know what we still had to do before he got our attention, so rather than saying we would be one minute (which doesn’t mean a lot to the <2 crowd) we would say that we could help him once we were done i.e. changing the baby's diaper. We did cut some slack on the discipline and that didn't do anyone any favors, so we switched back to discipline as normal, which I think was a relief for everyone (including our eldest). good luck, your family is beautiful!
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