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Am I Crazy to Make Our Bathroom the New Nursery for Baby #2?

  1. MrsTiz

    cantaloupe / 6800 posts

    I think i'd rather move further away into cheaper housing so I could get a more appropriate sized house for my family of 4, even if that meant a longer commute.

    I would never put my LO in the bathroom to sleep, expecially not long term. It's a bathroom..which I'm going to assume has no windows? If it doesn't, it's 100% illegal to make it a bedroom..you have to have to have a way in and out of a bedroom that aren't the same door. What if your master bedroom catches on fire? How will you get out of the nursery? You wont.

    Sorry OP, I'd do absolutely anything BUT that.

  2. rachiecakes

    coconut / 8279 posts

    @locavore_mama: that would be my idea!

    @cranberryapple: my DH is not handy AT ALL either, but a friend's DH built beautiful French doors on their loft and it wasn't too expensive either. maybe someone could refer you to someone who could do it at a Lowes or Home Depot?

  3. hilsy85

    squash / 13764 posts

    Eh, We've had LO sleep in the bathroom in a pNP while at a hotel for a week or so at a time. As long as the bathroom isn't getting used for bathroom things (so it's basically a non working bathroom) then I don't really see the issue.

    That being said, I can't imagine it would be very comfortable for you to do night feedings in there, nor do I think a pNP is a good long term sleep solution. So I wouldn't do it for those reasons, but I don't think it being a bathroom is really a big deal at all.

  4. lawbee11

    GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts

    I won't even pump in a bathroom for my LO, so no, I wouldn't have her sleep in a bathroom. I would try to make the loft work for now and I would definitely look into options for moving to a bigger place...I know you own where you live now but maybe you could rent it out?

  5. wonderstruck

    pomegranate / 3791 posts

    I'm going to be blunt. I think this is a horrible idea. You and DH can use the loft space and the kids can have the bedroom. Yeah, they might disturb each other's sleep a bit. But having your kids share a room is an option. Having your child sleep in a Pack n Play in a bathroom for a year should NOT be an option. I think that's insane.

    Personally, I'd be finding a bigger place, even if it meant moving further away where you'd have a bit of a commute and would have to work instead of staying at home with them. I cannot imagine having two kids in a one bedroom condo.

  6. CottonCandy

    kiwi / 613 posts

    @wonderstruck: I 100% agree. There is no reason you have to put your child in a bathroom to sleep when you have a loft that you are not using as a bedroom. I would feel terrible doing that to my child, especially if it weren't completely necessary. Not only do I think its unsafe, but how about unsanitary? I don't care how well you clean your bathroom, its still a bathroom! Never.....

  7. MamaMoose

    GOLD / squash / 13464 posts

    For me, having my child sleep in a pack n play in a bathroom for any period of time is not a viable solution to space issues.

  8. MarieJ

    pear / 1579 posts

    @lawbee11: +1!

  9. LovelyPlum

    eggplant / 11408 posts

    I'm all for creative space solutions, and if you needed to do it for a short period of time, I'm not sure it's a huge deal. But for everyone's long term comfort and sanity, I don't know that it sounds like a spectacular idea.

    I agree with the getting creative with the loft concept. IKEA furniture and pressurized walls sound like great solutions to explore, as does the idea of a blackout curtain. Our baby will not have a dedicated nursery, because we're also in a one bedroom, but it was important to me to have a dedicated space for baby. Sometimes, it's just hard to come up with how this could work.

    Maybe take a step back from your space to give you some fresh perspective on what it could be, given the right furniture and tools. I read blogs, looked at pictured, poured over IKEA catalogues, and studied the tiny house movement for ideas of how we could best make a space work.

    Good luck! I'm sure you'll figure out how to make your space work.

  10. Mommy Finger

    pomegranate / 3272 posts

    FWIW, we lived in a one bedroom condo when DS was born. His first 7.5 months, he slept in a pnp. At first, it was next to our bed in our room. When he started sleeping through the night, we moved him to this little hallway where the laundry is. It was right off of the front entrance and kitchen so we hung up a blackout curtain for the light, a small fan for air circulation, and used a sound machine. We didn't try to be quiet and would regularly make dinner, which would require banging a few pots and pans around. It was never an issue. As most people have said, I would try to make the loft work first as a temporary solution since I think the kids could be moved to the same room once the youngest sleeps through the night.

    ETA: I don't think using a clean/unused bathroom is the worst idea. You do what you need to do to make it work for your family. I just think you have the other option of using the loft before going that route.

  11. meredithNYC

    pomegranate / 3314 posts

    I probably wouldn't do it myself, but some of these comments are not the nicest. I don't have any suggestion - just wanted to wish you luck! We lived in NYC for long enough to know people who had to get super creative w/ tiny space. It's definitely not easy.

  12. Mamaof2

    squash / 13208 posts

    @cranberryapple: Yikes! I bet you wish you never asked!

    I say do what you need to do to make it work!

    How old is your DS? Can you move him to the loft area? I think if you hung some curtains on wire to block it off and used a box fan or noise machine it would work!

    Personally I would want the newborn close to me with the 100 night awakenings!

    So maybe you, DH and NB in the bedroom and DS in the loft?

    Good luck with whatever you decide!

  13. cranberryapple

    kiwi / 540 posts

    @rachiecakes: We'll definitely visit Home Depot and Lowes to see what can be done!

    @hilsy85: Even with DS, I've always brought him out into the living room to nurse on the couch. That's where I'm most comfortable, so it wouldn't be an issue. I am planning on getting a mattress for the PNP so it's more substantial that way. Hopefully this helps!

    @lawbee11: Renting our place out while trying to look for a different place would be a consideration. I don't think the rent will make up the difference in the mortgage though, and it'd cost a lot more to rent a 3 bedroom place, and it seems kinda silly to rent a two bedroom place, because our place is *technically* a two bedroom.

    @meredithNYC: Thanks for the support!

    @Mamaof2: I'm still happy I asked! I understand that with such a question, there's bound to be people who will agree, or in this case, a lot of people that strongly disagree, and that's okay. I have a friend, who is also a mother, and she did not hesitate to offer ways I could make the bathroom situation work, as she has seen my place personally, unless she was simply humoring me! Hahaha. For me personally, the bathroom is merely another room in the house. It's also a temporary solution as I intend for both kids to share the room eventually. (DS will be 25 months old at that time). I love the area we live in and I can see the four of us making it work here, even in this tiny (1017 square feet) condo. We don't need much here, but initially, I do recognize we need to be creative with our space, especially if we are to have guests that stay over to help out, and they usually sleep upstairs in the loft. I'd like to figure out a semi-permanent solution for enclosing the loft, either with curtains or room partitions, and I received some great ideas from this discussion here!

  14. rawrasaur

    pear / 1769 posts

    I would try to enclose the loft. I doubt it would be that costly. My friends place has an open lofted 2nd story room and a unit down the way from them was on the market and they had easily closed it in.

  15. wonderstruck

    pomegranate / 3791 posts

    I did some googling and it looks like this might be a good place to start - lots of reviews for CA companies that install temporary pressurized walls.

    http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=pressurized+walls&find_loc=San+Francisco,+CA

  16. Torchwood

    pomelo / 5607 posts

    @cranberryapple: Glad to hear you're handling the (kinda bitchy) negative responses so well! I can't ask questions like this, because I get really upset. And it looks like you got some good ideas out of it, so it was clearly a good question to ask! Oh well. On sites like the bump you'd probably have been flamed off the site, HB is still better!

  17. immabeetoo

    honeydew / 7687 posts

    @cranberryapple: I have way more issue with the pack n play than the bathroom. There are mattresses for pack n plays, but they don't fit super well, and I would be worried from a safety standpoint until your baby was old enough to really navigate themselves around safely. If you decide to go with the bathroom, check into a travel crib or smaller sized crib that would be more sturdy and comfy for LO!

  18. shopaholic

    bananas / 9973 posts

    Agree with PP, my first thought would be to move with your DH and baby #2 to the loft. I can't imagine any instance I'd use the bathroom as a nursery, but that may just be some weird hangup I have myself. I'd do those closet converts before that. Maybe you can put up some heavy curtains to block off the loft space. Also, babies tend to sleep through anything for the first few months. Maybe by then, you can have DS and the baby on same/similar schedules.

  19. skipra

    pomegranate / 3350 posts

    I don't know if anyone mentioned this already (sorry didn't read through all the comments) - is there any way that you could put the PnP in the master and a crib up in the loft and put the baby in with your DS in the master until you are ready for bed and then move the baby up to the loft with you?
    I would just worry about having the baby in the bathroom if you need to use both of them - like a stomach bug running through the house or something. I wouldn't really like the idea of my baby sleeping in a bathroom if there was any other possible alternative.

  20. ktdid23

    apricot / 425 posts

    My 2 cents is to move you, husband, and baby to the loft & put your son in the Master bedroom with the intent to make the Master bedroom the kids room when they are old enough to share.

    That said, if you do put your newborn in the bathroom, please put a door hanging of some sort on the door signifying that it is a "bedroom". In the event of an emergency, first responders may not think to check the bathroom for a baby.

    Good luck!!! We are in a 1100 square foot condo & I feel your pain on small living spaces

  21. red_seattle

    kiwi / 549 posts

    I think you do what you have to do to get newborn to a point where they usually sleep through the night--- and so that everyone else sleeps as best as they can in the mean time. (We live in a 750sq ft home-- I get it entirely when you have no choice but to work with the space you have.) if that means LO #2 sleeps in a bathroom until they start sleeping through the night or down to 1 wake up-- so that both kids can start sleeping in a room together-- then that's what you do. It's temporary. So who cares?

    As to the pack and play discussion: DS slept in the Arm's Reach Classic until we moved him to a big boy bed. (The Arm's Reach is kind of a glorified pack and play.) Not once did I feel like the mattress wasn't enough support or that it was otherwise an inappropriate place for a baby to sleep day in and day out until he was 21 months old.

    ETA: by mattress, I mean that we used the "mattress" (really more like a sleeping mat) that came with the co-sleeper. No pack and play or crib mattress. So no safety issues from putting a crib mattress in it or anything like that.

    Last thing-- You're handling some of these comments so well. Kudos to you for being such a good sport!

  22. PawPrints

    pomegranate / 3658 posts

    Wow, I did not see this thread when it was happening - just saw it got bumped up. I have to say I don't get the issue, at ALL. The baby will not remember being in a bathroom. If it's clean and not used as a bathroom, what's the problem? Embarrassment about not being an awesome super-mom with a gorgeous nursery? Seems fine to me, whatever works for you and your family.

    It also seems weird to me that people would suggest using a closet as the nursery but that the bathroom isn't okay. What's the difference? (As long as the bathroom isn't used as a bathroom).

  23. SleepyMonkey

    grapefruit / 4006 posts

    @cranberryapple: what did you end up doing?

    i am going to guess that people living in NYC or any other really expensive urban area felt ok with this. i think its fine too. you do whatever works for your family, making sure that it is a safe environment for your kids. there was an article about this recently!

    http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140428/upper-west-side/space-starved-parents-move-their-babies-into-bathrooms-closets

  24. Happygal

    pomelo / 5000 posts

    @cranberryapple: do you have pictures? I'd love to have a visual of your space.

    People have some strong feelings about this! I think babies in unconventional spots, like a bathroom, is probably much more common in city spaces. It may take some tinkering to find the configuration that works well for your family, but I wish you luck! Congrats on #2.

  25. wonderstruck

    pomegranate / 3791 posts

    @PawPrints: The bathroom would still also be used as a bathroom - she specifically said in the OP that even with the PnP in there, they would still have room to use the toilet, so when I read that I assumed it would still be used as a bathroom. She also said in a followup that people could still use that bathroom when baby isn't sleeping, so...yeah. Maybe I'm a germaphobe, but to me that makes it quite different from a closet (although depending on the closet I still might have some air circulation concerns, but maybe that wouldn't be a big deal.)

  26. mossyslane

    cherry / 215 posts

    @cranberryapple: Have you seen this post by Joanna Goddard about how her youngest sleeps in the bathroom?
    http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-our-kids-sleep-its-weird.html

    They seem to be pretty happy:)

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