Nursery Set Up

There are a million websites and people who will tell you what you "need" for your nursery. They'll tell you to set it up and decorate and have everything baby proofed and blah blah blah. Well, in case you haven't gotten it yet, I'm a "do it as you go" kinda girl, and nursery prep was no different. I knew my newborn was going to sleep in a pack n' play next to our bed in our room. I didn't experience "nesting instincts" because we moved, to a different state, a month before I was due. I was too busy trying to get myself comfortable to worry about getting a baby, who hasn't arrived yet, ready. My method would freak some (type A) women out. Some people need to feel prepared in order to feel "ready". I don't. I was ready for the baby as soon as I had a box of newborn and size 1 diapers (never know how big the cutie is gonna be), wipes, a bed (pack n play), baby wash, a washcloth, swaddle cloths and a few onesies. Seriously, that's all I needed. Thanks to my baby showers I had more things but I open all those things much later. I didn't even go in the nursery until Nico was 3 months old. That's only to set up the crib, I still didn't use the nursery until he learned to sit up on his own.

Now that he's 7 months old here is how I have things set up. It's all an evolving process but this is what currently works:

CRIB:

The style of crib doesn't matter just buy whatever you like. I  prefer to have one with an adjustable mattress height. As soon as Nico learned to sit up I moved him from the bassinet in the pack n play and into the top level of the crib. It's too difficult for me to put Nico in the lowered pack n play while he's asleep. I still haven't been able to do it and keep him asleep. The crib transition was pretty easy. I started doing naps in the crib when I saw that he was close to sitting up so by the time he reached that milestone I was ready to put him in the crib for the night. I did sleep in the nursery for the first 3 weeks, simply because I was too lazy to walk across the house to feed him in the middle of the night.

A few weeks after moving him into the crib, he learned to pull himself up to standing using the crib railing so we had to drop the mattress to the middle height. Super easy. A week after that he started chewing on the railing so we bought a Gummi Railing Guard. I only put it on the front railing. It seems to be the only one that he chews on. It's clear, you can barely see it in the  picture.

I also have a mesh "bumper" to keep lil legs and arms from getting caught in the slats. Nico loves the scratchy sound it makes when he runs his fingers across it so bonus. I tied the top ties to the top railing to keep it from sliding down. (*this apparently is a safetly hazard because babies can use it as a step to climb out of the crib but I'll deal with that when I get to that point.) For now, it's more important for it to stay up and keep his parts from slipping through than a safety hazard. He can't even lift his foot yet.

NURSERY FURNITURE:

This is the rest of my nursery. Long story but yes we have an extra king size mattress. I'm terrified of letting my baby play on the floor because it's hard tile and I worry about him hitting is head. We play on the mattress 90% of the time. I used old diaper boxes to store toys and as a "diaper caddy" (which are crazy expensive but so necessary). I don't have a changing table. I personally believe they're a waste of money because after a month or two your baby will be too wiggly to change on the table safely. I always prefer changing baby on the floor, or in my case, the bed. I keep stuffed animals and pillows to keep Nico from rolling/crawling/falling off the edge. ***I never leave him on the bed unattended*** I can't believe I have to add stuff like this but I know someone out there will think it's cool to leave baby to play on a bed alone. It's not. 

The only other thing I have in the nursery is my rocker/glider. I love it and it's necessary. I always nurse Nico in the glider. So I get a lot of use out of it. It's right next to the crib (you can see the top of it in the crib picture). Shorter distance to walk after he's fallen asleep.

DIAPER CADDY:

Diaper caddy's are like $35, even on Amazon! It's a portable changing station. For those who are lucky enough to have carpet or brave enough to let baby play on the hard floor, this is a life saver. You can bring all your supplies to baby instead of having to corral and contain them. *Side note: give baby an extra diaper to play with while you change them. It should hold their interest long enough for you to get them fresh and clean. Although you gotta take diaper back when you're done so it stays interesting for next time.

As i've said in previous posts, Nico has never gotten diaper rash and I rarely use any products on him. So in my caddy I only have diapers, wipes, tylonol, burp cloth and A&D. Everything I need in one place!

GOOD LUCK!!