Now that we're just 5 weeks out from baby boy's arrival, I wanted to share our nursery setup progress. I really believe in infant and toddler bedrooms being a quiet, peaceful place that is meant solely for sleep. Meaning, I do not overly decorate the boys' bedrooms, do not store large amounts of toys in them, and do not use that area as their play space. With my first son, I found that when I did have toys in his room he would use them as a "stalling bedtime" strategy. The moment I removed the toys and put them in the playroom, his stall tactics decreased significantly. Now, knowing the distraction toys can cause in the bedrooms of young children, I have taken a very minimalistic approach towards designing my boys' bedrooms.
Disclaimer: No need to worry...they have about 5 million toys in other parts of the house :)
The room we turned into baby no. 2's room was previously empty, which was nice because I got to work with a blank slate. I made it my mission to only have things in the nursery that serve a specific purpose for his needs while in that space. All the extra stuff will be stored elsewhere. I wanted a clean, modern design with small pops of decor that would pull the space together.
Below you will find a list of the essential nursery setup items along with a suggested floorpan [i.e. where to locate these items for maximum efficiency]. For a comprehensive list of newborn essentials, you can refer back to a previous post where I focused on the nitty gritty. Click here for that. This post focuses on the broader scale nursery setup.
The Nursery Necessities
1. Crib
Since this is babe #2 for us, I was lucky enough to already have a crib that was used for Axel...one less thing to purchase this time around. We have the Origami Mini Crib by Babyletto. Honestly I never knew a mini crib was a thing until someone told me about it when Axel was born. It really is the perfect invention because it can be used from newborn stage up until 18 months, but takes up a fraction of the space. We used this by our bedside when Axel was an infant and then in his nursery when we started the [attempted] transition to his own room. You begin with the mattress up high when the baby is newborn and then drop it lower when they learn to stand up on their own; same rule as a standard sized crib.
See my image below.
2. The Glider
You are going to want to have some kind of rocking chair in babe's nursery. This is where you will be spending a lot of time in the middle of the night; feeding baby, burping baby and maybe even taking a snooze yourself. Just like the crib, the glider we have is the same one we used for Axel; the Babyletto Swivel Glider + Ottoman in Coal Gray. I was really happy with this model and look forward to using it again. Features I really liked:
...Super comfortable overall
...Sides came out just enough to be able to tilt your head to the side and rest on edge
...Pillow placement is good
...Moveable ottoman
...Smooth rocking motion
...Forgiving fabric [you would never know how much milk/puke has been on this chair. It cleans very nicely]
See my image below
***Floor plan note: Make sure glider is placed right next to crib. Makes picking up baby for feeds and transitioning to chair so much easier.
See my placement below
3. Side table
You're going to want to make sure to have a side table right next to the glider. You can put a night light/lamp on it, an extra burp cloth and it's a convenient place to put the bottle down while you're burping halfway through a feed.
4. Changing table
You are 100% going to need a changing table in the nursery. You will use this more than anything else. My personal reccomendation, buy a regular chest of drawers that can be used indefinitely and then purchase a changing table topper to add to the regular drawers. That way, you can continue to use that same set of drawers in your kiddos room as they grow and not have to replace it as they age. We got ours from Wayfair.
In addition, by purchasing a regular dresser, you have so much more actual drawer space that can be used for extra diaper/wipe storage, burp cloths, bibs, diaper cream and any other item that may be required during a change.
Rule of thumb: you want anything you could possibly need for a diaper change/clothing change/wipe down to be within arms reach of the changing table. For obvious reasons you cannot leave baby on a changing table and walk across the room to get something. Having everything at arms reach is absolutely necessary.
In the image below, I added labels so you could see where I have things stored...no those are not actually real labels on the drawers...I just added them to the image :)
5. Changing table topper
Like I mentioned above, if you purchase a standard dresser, you will want to get a changing topper as a way of converting the drawers into a changing table. The topper helps keep things organized and separated so that you can have access to all the things you need during a diaper change. Ours is from Lellobaby. You can also find similar options here and here.
See my image below
6. Diaper pale
You must have a diaper pale in the actual nursery. Make sure to place it directly next to the changing area so that you are not carrying diapers across the room...you will be grateful for close proximity during the inevitable blowout situation :). We have the Ubbi. I purchased this one new for baby no. 2 because I have not been happy with the diaper genie I have for Axel. The diaper genie is a pain because you can only purchase their brand trash bags and the way the cutting system is designed to detached the used bag forces you to have to literally stick your hand inside, which kind of defeats the purpose. The Ubbi allows you to use any brand bag made for a diaper pale, it has a lock on top so that curious toddlers cannot open it and you don't have to stick your entire arm inside to remove the bag.
See my image below [excuse the shadows...the sun was a little extra this morning :)
7. Baby gym
This is not necessary to keep in the actual nursery if there is somewhere else in the home you would rather have it, but since I have 2, I decided to put one of the baby gyms in his nursery more for the purposes of decor. Like I mentioned in my intro, I do not like to have to much stimulus in the boys' rooms. Their rooms are meant for sleep...not for stimulation; that's what the playroom is for. However, I do like to have pops of decor and decided to use this baby gym for that purpose. The playmate is from Crate and Kids; I got it when Axel was born. The gym is from Etsy on loan from my cousin.
See my image below
8. Secured baby monitor
If you have read my previous posts discussing newborn essentials, I really emphasized the importance of having a monitor that is not wifi dependent. The reason for that is because if your power goes out or if your wifi is just mediocre, you're sh** out of luck. You absolutely have to have a camera that does not require wifi to work. Now, this does not mean that the camera "is not allowed" to have a wifi capability, it just means that the packaging has to specifically say it is "not wifi dependent." We recently switched over to the Nanit because I liked the fact that I could see Axel from my phone; especially if Jordan and I happened to go out and leave him with a babysitter [not a common occurrence]...I like to be able to check in. This monitor is connected with wifi, but not reliant on it. This was tested when our internet went out randomly for 2 days.
The only thing I would say about the Nanit is that if you are considering purchasing it, wait for a sale. We got ours on black Friday for a steal. I wouldn't recommend buying it regularly because it is very expensive and is honestly no better than our original monitor [motorola] besides the ability for it to connect to our phones. If you get it on sale it ends up being the same price as any other monitor so then it's a wash, but regular price is absolutely crazy for what it is.
We have ours mounted to the wall directly above the crib.
See my image below
9. Pumping/milk storage
This is an aspect of the nursery that I wouldn't necessarily recommend for first time mamas who do not yet know what their feeding situation will be for baby/what their milk supply will be. However, for second time mamas who have a better gauge based on past experience, I found this to be a convenient idea. After Axel was born, I quickly became aware that I had a major oversupply of milk. Each time I pumped [every 2-3 hours] I was collecting 10-18oz each time. So in a 24 hour period that is about 120 - 216 oz or well over a gallon daily. I break this down for you so that you can see I rapidly discovered the need for a deep freezer to store my milk. For me personally, I didn't want my milk in the regular household freezer for a few reasons:
...we actually use our freezer so space was limited
...the frequency of opening and closing it for other reasons made me nervous that someone would leave it cracked and my milk would all defrost
...sanitary reasons
Right when Axel was discharged from the NICU, the nurses recommend the purchase of a mini deep freezer due to the milk volume I was producing. Of course, Amazon came to the rescue and my freezer was delivered same day. It made it so much easier keeping it upstairs next to my pump and pump parts so that I wasn't running up and down the stairs 12x a day with a c-section incision trying to store milk.
Knowing how well that worked last time around, I perfected my organization in anticipation of baby boy no. 2.
I purchased an Elfa mini refrigerator stand during the Container store 30% off sale. I decided to do it this way so that I could put the deep freezer on top of the stand and use the drawer storage below for milk bags, pump parts and anything else I might need while pumping.
Like I mentioned above, this is not essential for the nursery itself, but it is a major convenience. If you have the space, I would suggest it. Minimizes the amount of times you're running from room to room gathering pump parts and storing milk...especially in the haze of newborn days when you don't know which way is up and which way is down :)
See my image below
There you have it. My minimalistic nursery setup suggestions. I still have a few things to hang on the walls to bring the space together, but besides a few pieces of decor, we are locked and loaded. Mamas...I cannot stress this enough...do not wait to setup the nursery. This is not something you want to have to do when baby is already earth side. It is a lot more work than it seems simply because furniture assembly directions are a total joke. Don't put it off to tomorrow...get it done now.
If you have more specific questions/concerns, you can always reach me in the comments below or DM on the gram. It would be my pleasure to help any mama to be or vet mama out there!
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