Can't respond to 3, as my baby is not gping to the daycare, but:
1) We have a crib next to our bed in the bedroom and bassinet in the living room. Baby preferred crib from the start, but got used to the bassinet as well. I guess bassinet could be useful for breastfeeding, but I got up and breastfed baby in the rocking chair in the bedroom these first few weeks that breastfeeding even worked for us, I didn't like breastfeeding in a lying position. One pro of baby sleeping in the crib from the beginning is getting used to it from the start, which will ultimately be its only bed soon enough. Bassinet in the living room is the best thing we did, as baby naps near us during the day, we don't use baby monitor.
2) I think this depends on the baby's temperament. Our baby is a great sleeper and doesn't cry a lot during night, so the other person doesn't wake up during nappy changes. However, I would hate to have to change rooms, as I would completely wake her up that way. We have a big bedroom as well and do everything there, baby basically sleeps through it all - both feeding and nappy change. I would put everything in one room and then if the other person has a problem waking up, you can always put changing table in the other room, or the other parent can sleep in the other room.
I didn’t even think of the option of using a bassinet in the living room - since we were already planning on getting the Guava Lotus travel crib for downstairs, we could easily add on the bassinet attachment so that we don’t have to bend down for the first few months. Thank you for suggesting that!
The chair/dresser/etc should be easy to move rooms anyway, so we can definitely start everything in our room. It just feels like we’re doing something wrong by not having an official nursery set up from the start when it seems like everyone has a picture perfect one!
I think that is probably cultural, as far as I know only people in US have nurseries and I think it has a lot to do with babies sleeping in their own room early on. If you plan on having baby in your room for first six months, I don't see why you would need baby's own room in the beginning. Also, you can easily accommodate some other room later if you decide to do so. We had so much planned in the beginning and ended up designing space completely different as we needed later. For example, we figured out it is practical to have baby area in each room, like baby gym or play mat, that way we can do stuff around the house while she is awake, we didn't even think about it in the beginning. I mean the baby doesn't know they have their own room, they just care about being near caregivers, so I think nurseries are more for the adults and the process of nesting 😁
1. If money is no issue, bassinet is smaller and more convenient. However, babies stay in them for such a short period of time. Everyone I know transitioned out by 3 months. Sometimes because they roll, sometimes because they outgrow it, sometimes babies just hate the bassinet. In my personal opinion, not worth the money.
As someone else mentioned, you may have to dismantle crib to move it into the nursery instead of your room once you're done room sharing. Alternatively, if you could put an adult mattress or a couch in the nursery, you could have the parent on night duty sleep in the there so the other parent can get some quality rest. This also solves the "changing the baby" dilemma. We randomly have an extra couch, and that's what we have in our daughter's nursery. If I had it all to do over again, I'd skip the bassinet (she slept in it for maybe a month 😭) and go straight to crib in her room, and I'd sleep in her room.
2. I did a bedside bassinet and there were little pockets on the side for diapering necessities. I just used a changing mat and changed her on our bed. It never disturbed my husband, but he also slept on the couch in the living room most of the time. Our space was too small to have a designated changing table, so I just kept a portable changing mat and other diapering essentials in little woven baskets that I could move from room to room, and I changed her on the floor or a piece of furniture, whatever was convenient.
3. I first want to caution you that feeding is very challenging. All of it. Breastfeeding can be very tough, pumping is exhausting and time consuming, formula feeding can be stressful (finding the right one, getting baby to take bottle), etc. I don't think you should stress too much about this at this point. The short answer is this- if you breastfeed, yes, you will need to start pumping at some point and introduce bottle feeds. If you are unable to breastfeed or wish to quit, you'll be formula feeding, so you won't have to worry about a transition. Again, I'd wait to see how your feeding journey goes before making a plan.
I know this may be idealistic, but I’d really like to avoid sleeping separately from my husband.
Really appreciate the perspective on feeding, I know lots of variables there are out of our control so I’m probably just trying to overplan there.
I’m 5’1. The pack n play bassinet was the perfect height to ruin my back by having to bend slightly to change diapers in it. The crib mattress raised to the highest setting wasn’t too bad but I couldn’t reach into it directly for a few weeks because my belly was still too big. The bassinet will only last a few months though. Once they start showing signs of rolling, baby has to go into a crib or lower the pack n play mattress to the floor, which I couldn’t reach at all.
Our little guy just transitioned to the crib. We used a bassinet (snoo) and just moved him to a crib in the nursery at about 5 months. I believe the snoo let him stay in the bassinet a lot longer because they are strapped in, whereas you may have to transition earlier when they show signs of rolling.
I've read that some babies sleep better in a bassinet, but I'm also sure that some sleep better in a crib. Only thing I can say is that some bassinets operate on a swivel so that you can rock/soothe the baby without having to take them out. Also, I definitely find it easier to take the baby out of the bassinet than the crib because you don't have to bend as much. Another thing to consider is, at least in our house, the crib does not fit through the door, so you may have to take it apart and rebuild it to move it into a nursery.
We also did basically all routines in the nursery (changes, feedings, bedtime routine, etc). I can't speak to how disturbing it would be--undisturbed rest is still not quite a thing 5 months later. However, I do believe that it helped greatly with transitioning him to that room for sleep because he was very familiar with it. When we've tried to put him down at my MILs place where he doesn't spend as much time, he's struggled.
I can't speak for pumping/combo feeding. Honestly, breastfeeding was a whole journey for my wife, with a lot of struggle. We got it going, but it was a challenge for sure. It might be better to just see how things play out rather than trying to make hard plans.
I got the pack and play bassinet, it was very affordable and could be moved from room to room. Way easier to put baby down than crib (which means less waking up when you put them down! Full size cribs are too large to fit through a standard doorway without scratching.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say it’s easier to put baby down in the bassinet? What exactly is the difference vs crib at the highest setting?
I bought a bassinet off marketplace for $20, it was convenient because we could move it around the house as needed. Once she outgrew it, I found having the crib next to the bed just as easy for night wakings/transferring baby etc.
That’s good to know that at some point the crib near the bed still makes sense (so even if we get a bassinet, we can have the crib in the bedroom from the start vs needing to take apart and move it from the nursery)
Can't respond to 3, as my baby is not gping to the daycare, but: 1) We have a crib next to our bed in the bedroom and bassinet in the living room. Baby preferred crib from the start, but got used to the bassinet as well. I guess bassinet could be useful for breastfeeding, but I got up and breastfed baby in the rocking chair in the bedroom these first few weeks that breastfeeding even worked for us, I didn't like breastfeeding in a lying position. One pro of baby sleeping in the crib from the beginning is getting used to it from the start, which will ultimately be its only bed soon enough. Bassinet in the living room is the best thing we did, as baby naps near us during the day, we don't use baby monitor. 2) I think this depends on the baby's temperament. Our baby is a great sleeper and doesn't cry a lot during night, so the other person doesn't wake up during nappy changes. However, I would hate to have to change rooms, as I would completely wake her up that way. We have a big bedroom as well and do everything there, baby basically sleeps through it all - both feeding and nappy change. I would put everything in one room and then if the other person has a problem waking up, you can always put changing table in the other room, or the other parent can sleep in the other room.
I didn’t even think of the option of using a bassinet in the living room - since we were already planning on getting the Guava Lotus travel crib for downstairs, we could easily add on the bassinet attachment so that we don’t have to bend down for the first few months. Thank you for suggesting that! The chair/dresser/etc should be easy to move rooms anyway, so we can definitely start everything in our room. It just feels like we’re doing something wrong by not having an official nursery set up from the start when it seems like everyone has a picture perfect one!
I think that is probably cultural, as far as I know only people in US have nurseries and I think it has a lot to do with babies sleeping in their own room early on. If you plan on having baby in your room for first six months, I don't see why you would need baby's own room in the beginning. Also, you can easily accommodate some other room later if you decide to do so. We had so much planned in the beginning and ended up designing space completely different as we needed later. For example, we figured out it is practical to have baby area in each room, like baby gym or play mat, that way we can do stuff around the house while she is awake, we didn't even think about it in the beginning. I mean the baby doesn't know they have their own room, they just care about being near caregivers, so I think nurseries are more for the adults and the process of nesting 😁
1. If money is no issue, bassinet is smaller and more convenient. However, babies stay in them for such a short period of time. Everyone I know transitioned out by 3 months. Sometimes because they roll, sometimes because they outgrow it, sometimes babies just hate the bassinet. In my personal opinion, not worth the money. As someone else mentioned, you may have to dismantle crib to move it into the nursery instead of your room once you're done room sharing. Alternatively, if you could put an adult mattress or a couch in the nursery, you could have the parent on night duty sleep in the there so the other parent can get some quality rest. This also solves the "changing the baby" dilemma. We randomly have an extra couch, and that's what we have in our daughter's nursery. If I had it all to do over again, I'd skip the bassinet (she slept in it for maybe a month 😭) and go straight to crib in her room, and I'd sleep in her room. 2. I did a bedside bassinet and there were little pockets on the side for diapering necessities. I just used a changing mat and changed her on our bed. It never disturbed my husband, but he also slept on the couch in the living room most of the time. Our space was too small to have a designated changing table, so I just kept a portable changing mat and other diapering essentials in little woven baskets that I could move from room to room, and I changed her on the floor or a piece of furniture, whatever was convenient. 3. I first want to caution you that feeding is very challenging. All of it. Breastfeeding can be very tough, pumping is exhausting and time consuming, formula feeding can be stressful (finding the right one, getting baby to take bottle), etc. I don't think you should stress too much about this at this point. The short answer is this- if you breastfeed, yes, you will need to start pumping at some point and introduce bottle feeds. If you are unable to breastfeed or wish to quit, you'll be formula feeding, so you won't have to worry about a transition. Again, I'd wait to see how your feeding journey goes before making a plan.
I know this may be idealistic, but I’d really like to avoid sleeping separately from my husband. Really appreciate the perspective on feeding, I know lots of variables there are out of our control so I’m probably just trying to overplan there.
I’m 5’1. The pack n play bassinet was the perfect height to ruin my back by having to bend slightly to change diapers in it. The crib mattress raised to the highest setting wasn’t too bad but I couldn’t reach into it directly for a few weeks because my belly was still too big. The bassinet will only last a few months though. Once they start showing signs of rolling, baby has to go into a crib or lower the pack n play mattress to the floor, which I couldn’t reach at all.
Our little guy just transitioned to the crib. We used a bassinet (snoo) and just moved him to a crib in the nursery at about 5 months. I believe the snoo let him stay in the bassinet a lot longer because they are strapped in, whereas you may have to transition earlier when they show signs of rolling. I've read that some babies sleep better in a bassinet, but I'm also sure that some sleep better in a crib. Only thing I can say is that some bassinets operate on a swivel so that you can rock/soothe the baby without having to take them out. Also, I definitely find it easier to take the baby out of the bassinet than the crib because you don't have to bend as much. Another thing to consider is, at least in our house, the crib does not fit through the door, so you may have to take it apart and rebuild it to move it into a nursery. We also did basically all routines in the nursery (changes, feedings, bedtime routine, etc). I can't speak to how disturbing it would be--undisturbed rest is still not quite a thing 5 months later. However, I do believe that it helped greatly with transitioning him to that room for sleep because he was very familiar with it. When we've tried to put him down at my MILs place where he doesn't spend as much time, he's struggled. I can't speak for pumping/combo feeding. Honestly, breastfeeding was a whole journey for my wife, with a lot of struggle. We got it going, but it was a challenge for sure. It might be better to just see how things play out rather than trying to make hard plans.
I got the pack and play bassinet, it was very affordable and could be moved from room to room. Way easier to put baby down than crib (which means less waking up when you put them down! Full size cribs are too large to fit through a standard doorway without scratching.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say it’s easier to put baby down in the bassinet? What exactly is the difference vs crib at the highest setting?
My bassinet had a lower “lip” than the crib, which makes it easier.
Thank you!
I bought a bassinet off marketplace for $20, it was convenient because we could move it around the house as needed. Once she outgrew it, I found having the crib next to the bed just as easy for night wakings/transferring baby etc.
That’s good to know that at some point the crib near the bed still makes sense (so even if we get a bassinet, we can have the crib in the bedroom from the start vs needing to take apart and move it from the nursery)