sorry this is going to be a little long.. ok so my fiance and i are living with my parents and will be for quite a while until we can save up a good amount of money.. we are expecting our first child a little girl in july and our house isnt exactly a mansion with extra room to spare for the baby .. we have a pretty big finished basement but it is totally my dads area.. hes has his couch and his computer and his big screen tv its also my dogs space too hes huge his bed is actually our old futon mattress the basement is the only place in the house it will fit .. almost every single night my dad ends up falling asleep down there in front of the tv.. on the main floor we have a kitchen a bathroom and a living and dining room but they are pretty much one big open room.. there is also a small room that used to be my playroom when i was little which is now the room my fiance and i sleep in we have our bed (futon) our tv a small table for my laptop and 2 small shelves that we keep a little bit of our clothes on and a small closet.. other than that theres not really much room.. we got rid of my big old computer desk to make room for the bassinett when the baby comes.. upstairs in our house theres only 2 rooms my mom n dads bedroom which is pretty big and my old bedroom that has a single bed a big closet 2 dressers and a small rack for my fiances extra clothes that i couldnt find room for anywhere else .. while the babys in the bassinett it wont be a problem but once the baby has to be moved to a crib theres no way a crib wil fit in the room we sleep in... the easiest thing to do would be to make my old bedroom upstairs into the babys room but i really dont feel that its fair to my mother.. thers no hallway upstairs the rooms are directly across from eachother at the top of the stairs.. to me its not right having the baby up there across from her while we sleep downstairs i mean its just not fair that she has to wake up wenever the baby does.. theres no way i can ask her to give up the master bedroom for us to be across from the baby and have her sleeping on a futon in what was our room every night (we may be young but my parents arent they are 62yrs old) my dad has suggested a few things but i feel like they all involve alot of work.. 1 is to knock the wall down in our room and open up the closet to the rest of the room and a crib would fit in there.. the second is to partition off half of the basement and that would be ours and the babys space.. it would also involve closing off the open side of the stairs.. the only problem with that is the part that would be our room is connected to the laundry room/my dads work bench where he hangs up his blueprints for work... the thrid suggestion was close off the living room from the dining room and make that our n the babies room.. however the back door of our house is in our living room which is how we let my dog in n out of the house .. i feel like with any of the idea we have theres some sort of issue with .... does anyone have any suggestions or are we basically screwed because we have a small house
... i really dont want to inconvenience my parents anymore the nwe already are
Knocking out the closet wall sounds like the best route to me. When I was a first time mom there was no way I would have been able to sleep if my baby was upstairs and I was down. The closer the better was what I was comfortable with.
I think it depends a lot on how long you expect to live at your parents house.
Can you & your fiance move your bed to the bedroom upstairs, and the upstairs furniture down to your room? You could make the upstairs room only for sleeping and the downstairs room the dresser/storage room. The baby could have his crib in the closet! I know it sounds terrible, but it's really just a smaller room (you could even take the door off if it was too cramped). Whenever my sister visits, we put the Pack N Play in my master closet & she's a happy camper. Good luck!
First, let me say 62 is NOT OLD LOL. I would not worry about it right now.
There are "mini cribs" which are great. Not a pack and play, just a scaled
down crib that might work in your room. Remember babies do not need
much. By the time she is old enough to need more space, you probably
willl have figured out what to do. Congratulations!
Get a pack-n-play (much smaller than most cribs, cheaper too and safe for baby for at least the first 18 months), then take the door off of your closet. That is pretty minor work, and easy to return to the previous state when you leave. This way, the pack-n-play can be part in, part out of the closet space and it basically enlarges the room without knocking out walls. I have 2 kids, and we never bought a crib. Went from the pack-n-play to a low twin bed around 14 months with my first (and planning the same around 18 months with the second). MUCH cheaper than the crib/todder bed and all the associated transitions.
Good luck!!!
Wow, your parents seem to be more than accommodating. I agree with you that you can not ask your mom to give up the master BR and that the baby should be with you and not upstairs in your old bedroom.
I also do not think you should close off the living room on the 1st floor since this is your parents house.
I think if I was in the situation I would make do with what I had and use the situation as a major motivator to move out and get my own place.
Congratulations and enjoy your new baby.
would you consider putting your baby in a pack-n-play? I think they take up less space than a crib. I got a really expensive Italian made crib and my daughter never slept in it. Every child is different, yet today's society buys way too much (I'm guilty of it too).
Maybe you could sleep upstairs with the baby in your old room and your boyfriend needs to say in the downstairs room.
I also like one idea to have your dad use your current room as his TV room and you 3 use the basement. This might be too much of a loss of space for your dad since I do not know the sq ft trade off.
I would have a hard time taking the master bedroom. If you take it, I imagine you like the man in 'The Giving Tree' and your mother would be the tree stump. Remember that when she offers it.
When the time comes, you guys can sleep upstairs, and put a crib in your current ground floor bedroom. A baby monitor next to you and you can go up and down and tend to baby as necessary.
plan on "noise proofing the baby." from the outset, do not tiptoe or be quiet as it naps. That way you don't have to all shut down when it goes to sleep.
Keep the baby in the bassinett for the first 3 months or so. Then, with the help of Ferber, you can sleep train so baby sleeps through the night, and everyone gets some rest.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
If you guys are low income you should be on the waiting list for low income housing. There are many nice places to live that are affordable.
Perhaps finding a local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. If you want to own they provide future home owners the opportunity to participate and work off the down payment. It's called sweat equity. The homes are modest, simple, and a good starter home for any family. During the pregnancy you could work at different things, fixing refreshments for the workers, stuffing envelopes for events and fund raisers, going to classes on budgeting or even just straight college classes. We had an severe asthma mom and she worked nearly 200 of her families hours on her own and never set foot on the property on work days. The dust from the construction was to much for her lungs to be around. Boy friend can work on site on the work days, he can go to classes too, so many ways of working the 300 or so hours that most require. They go fast too. All your friends and family can work. About 200 of their hours can apply/come off your 300+ sweat equity hours.
If you are looking to buy and saving money to do that, well, there are mixed blessings for that too. It may not be the time to save up. It may also be the best time.
Having this kind of support is wonderful. I do think you guys need to sit down and have a talk with them. Ask them what they would like to see happen when the baby comes.
Are they thinking you guys will be out on your own by then.
Are they already thinking of a plan on their own? What do they suggest, it is their space after all?
Are they thinking of rearranging the rooms any? It is their house and if you start sectioning off rooms it may seem like you have no plans to move out, ever...lol.
What funds have you been able to put aside? If you are planning on buying it may be that the end of Summer is the best time to jump on a house. Everyone wants to be settled by the end of July so their kids can get used to the new place, start making friends, and get enrolled in school. Houses usually don't sell well in August and on into the Fall or Winter. Once it gets cold house prices may even go down more. But the baby will be needing to have more room by Christmas.
Do you realize the baby can stay in a bassinet for several months? There is not need to worry too much right now. A pack-n-play is what I would do here. It can go with the baby when you guys are upstairs and then pop down and back up to go downstairs at bedtime.
I can only recommend getting your stuff together, saving up and moving into your own place by the time your baby needs his own room. Situations like yours tend to go south fast once you add a baby to the already cramped quarters.
Good luck.
Time to rent a one bedroom apartment?
Have you checked into low income housing? That might be your best bet due to your love and not wanting to inconvenience your parents more when the baby comes. I do understand your situation but low income housing will help you save up some money to get your own place. You should look into it. Low income housing is made for couples like you two. But that's my idea. Let me know what you think ok?
IKEA sells mini cribs. I would go with a pack and play though. My son slept in a pack in play in our room until I gave it away thinking he would be forced to sleep in his bed. Now he just sleeps in our bed and today is his 4th birthday. I'm thinking of buying another pack and play. LOL! My kids are tiny.
I would get on a waiting list for subsidized housing that charges rent based on your income. Save money while you can and make due with what you have while you can.
You will want to keep your new baby close to you for a while so I don't see knocking out walls or completely reorganizing the house being a necessity.
I agree with the pack-n-play idea. We travelled a lot and took ours everywhere. They don't take up much room and suffice quite nicely for little ones as far as sleeping.
Your parents aren't exactly "old", but I wouldn't want to ask my parents to start knocking out walls for my family. You and your fiance will be longing for a place of your own so I would put my energy into making due and making plans for your own place. I'm sure your parents will love having the baby in the house and you are so lucky to have a supportive family. You're not at all "screwed" for having a small house. You are blessed in many ways.
Best wishes.
Why can't y'all take the whole basement - your dad can start falling asleep watching tv in the old playroom or in the upstairs bedroom.
Or can you move upstairs and have the baby in the playroom? Have a monitor in your room so that (hopefully) you hear the baby wake, but your mom and dad don't.
I agree also that you should consider how long you plan to stay there. It is expensive to knock down walls and refinish them to look nice.
Why can't you and your fiance take your old bedroom upstairs, and put the crib in your current smaller room downstairs? If there's room for a futon, the crib should be smaller than that. It wouldn't be ideal that you'd be on different floors, but with a monitor you'd still know as soon as baby needed you. I wouldn't use a pack n play as a crib, the mattress is nowhere near as soft and comfortable as an actual crib, and if your baby sleeps on her back like they recommend it can make her little head flat (flatter than a mattress would at least). My son sleeps in his when we are on vacation or staying with family and he never sleeps through the night like he does when in an actual crib. Lots of houses have the master bedroom on a different floor than the others, so while it wouldn't be ideal to be going up and down the stairs at least your little one would have an actual bed to sleep in. Good luck, having your mom and dad in the same house will hopefully be a lot of help with a new baby!
