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Those of you who have experience with babies and nurseries...
So, I'm finding that my birth month board over on the Bump is all about buying the biggest, best and most expensive furniture for their yet-to-be-born-babies. The phrase "4000$ is a great price for a solid wood furniture set" has been thrown around more than once, and all I can think is: no way am I paying the cost of almost a year of tuition on furniture. One girl through a hissy fit because her MIL offered her a used crib (she felt it was insulting not to have something new), and the board backed her up on that, so I'm feeling like my super-cheap-we-only-have-hand-me-down-furniture ways doesn't really jive with the rest of the board's materialism. I mean, a pimped out nursery seems more for the parents than it does for the child, IMHO.
So, as I'm all about doing this by spending as little money as possible, I could really use some advice. Based on your experiences, what do I really, genuinely need in terms of contents of a nursery? Is there anything you bought that you never used? Anything that you got TONS of use out of?
Re: Those of you who have experience with babies and nurseries...
Obviously I don't have a kid yet, but I don't plan on spending ridiculous amounts of money on nursery furniture. Right now I don't plan on buying a changing table, I will set up a changing pad on a dresser or use the floor. We'll probably get a dresser, crib and a comfy chair. I'm debating on whether I want the chair to be a glider or just a regular stuffed chair, because I'm worried about the cats getting under it.
We'll probably also pick up some wall and book shelves, but we will be moving when I am 8 months pregnant so we are waiting on figuring that out.
Oh, and for nursery wall art I am having a girl on Etsy do some custom art work for us for fairly cheap.
I don't consider myself to be cheap, but I also don't see the need to spend thousands of dollars on nursery furniture when I can get quality furniture for a reasonable price.
ok disclaimer I have not set up my own nursery nor have i had the full baby experience. I did how ever help my sister take care of her daughter for two years. I lived in the house with her and pretty much played the role of mom2.
so here goes my sister was in the same class as you in the lets not pimp out the nursery thing. when we set up Makena's nursery other then the butt load of cloths my sister insited on having there was a nice used dresser that my grandmother gave her (I stained it as it was a bit beat up), a used crib that she got from a friend, a rocking chair that we got from my mom (I have it now as I asked for it when she didn't want it anymore), and a pack and play that she got new at the baby shower. if and when i have a baby that is all I feel that we will need.
I didn't have hardly anything with Jordan I was young single mom and got by with what I could. Then when I got pregnant with Preston people went overboard crazy. I got so much crap I never used.
A changing table was worhtless. I used his dresser and put the changing pad on it.
A swing and a bouncer...they both do the same thing basically why need 2 of them?
I never used a pack and play with Preston it seems like alot of space taken up for nothing. He played on his tummy time mat a good bit and sometimes he woudl fall asleep on his mat.
I am sure each mom is different in what they used and diffrent use.
I got prestons crib off craigslist for 100 dollars. I checked to make sure it had not been recalled and everything was fine on it. I got his dresser from a garage sale for 20 dollars and refinished it. I got a rocking chair from my grandmother and painted it and made a cushion for it. It worked perfect.
You can do whatever is best for you. The only thing that I would recommend being brand new would be a crib. They constantly do recalls, so I'd hate for you to find out something is defective on the place your child will be sleeping for many many moons. Also, go with something convertible to a toddler bed at least. Ours goes all the way to a full size, so this baby is going to be having this furniture for a long time. It was worth the splurge for that. Otherwise, you don't need much. A changing pad or a blanket on the floor is all the same, but I recommend something up higher. You'll be changing a lot of diapers and kneeling each and every time could suck.
I didn't think we'd use a rocking chair, but it's come in handy lately. You could also just rock. As for the swing/bouncer/millions of other crazy baby items...just know that every baby is different, so save receipts and don't feel weird taking things back if they don't work for you. Our swing worked great sometimes and the bouncer/vibrating chair worked great other times.
I think Lucie's List (not sure of the name) is a really great site for telling you what may or may not work. Nothing wrong with a good hand-me-down or thrifty find. Carseat and crib are not the place to be cheap, IMHO.
That's totally what I'm talking about! LOVE it. Did you do any travelling with Preston? Everyone seems to rave about the pack and play for travelling, which we'll be doing, but if I can get away without one, all the better.
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We use ours a lot, because we like to go to friend's houses well past Jackson's bed time. My SIL didn't go out as much and didn't use hers. Def try and find one used. They're insanely expensive for just using on travel.
You can bet your booty that we will not be spending a ton of money on anything for this baby. We is cheap yo!
Pick up the book Baby Bargains. It's a fantastic resource. It helps lay out when used is fine and when new is better (IMO, unless I know it's a really good quality used crib, I'd prefer new) and when the less expensive brand is just as good as the more expensive one.
Re: crib, we're getting an Ikea special. Even their most expensive crib is only $160 or something like that. Baby Bargains ranks them very well too.
As far as a chair is concerned, we're re-purposing a stationary (yet very comfy) arm chair from the living room (that's just too big for that room) with an ottoman, only cost there is the $100 to replace it with a smaller chair.
Changing station will be set up on top of a dresser (either something from Ikea or re-purposed/repainted from what we have already) or the floor.
For other resources, ditto snoopy on Lucie's List. It, along with Baby Bargains, really helps weed out the crazy.
We'll just not tell H about this little fact, m'kay?
$4000 for a nursery set. Um, no thank you.
I bought a floor model crib that was 50% off. I did splurge on an organic mattress. My situation is a bit different (we bedshare) but I have only used the crib a handful of times. If I knew going in that Parker would be sleeping with us I wouldn't have spent so much money on the mattress. Dumb, dumb decision.
I bought the changing table from Craigslist for $50. I used it a lot at the beginning and it was nice not to have to change Parker on the floor--that would have killed my back. Now I change Parker on the bed but I still use the changing table to store all of the cloth diapers.
For the other things if I didn't get them at my shower I bought them at a gently used resale store--bouncer, swing, PNP, activity mat (best purchase by far!), exersaucer, jumperoo, and stroller. The only thing I paid full price for (other than the mattress) was our jogging stroller.
Most of the used baby items I looked at were in excellent condition. You figure they are only used for such a short period of time that it's hard for them to get majorly damaged.
Have fun shopping for everything!
I got turned off the all the fancy-schmancy crap that some people deem a must-have for a nursery. I don't have that kind of money to drop of pieces that you're literally only using for two years the most.
I repurposed existing furniture and cubby storage for his room and bought a used crib. At the time, we had both FIL and BIL living with us, so FIL was in the room that was supposed to be Joseph's nursery. The crib was in our bedroom and I still do not have a changing table since I have used our bed to change his diapers since birth. No big deal to me, but a big deal to some because you're 'expected' to have a changing table.
The dresser was crappy. DH had it for ten years and refused to part with it, so all I did was buy some curtains on sale, got my staple gun and covered it. Crib I paid $50 from craigslist and cubby I already had (bought from target 5 years ago). His room is small, so that's all I can fit in there. I had a glider in the living room that was given to me, but DH broke it a few months back.
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Well I'm not pregnant but I have given this issue some thought. We probably will buy a pretty nice crib but with the caveat that it is a converter style. There are a couple from Restoration Hardware that we love that converts from a crib to a toddler bed to a headboard from a full-size bed. I figure if it is a classic style, it will probably last our baby his or her entire 18 years under our roof.
As for other furniture, I imagine we will buy a coordinating dresser that will also be used forever and will have a changing pad to go on top of that. I dont think we plan to buy a separate changing table. I'm sure we'll also get a rocker/glider too.
I was going say most of what snoopy already said!
Our nursery has 1. a crib, 2. a big dresser, and 3. an armchair. Completely furnished from Ikea
I stalked our Craigslist for a while for cribs, but I actually had a lot of trouble finding anything that I was really comfortable with. Hardly anyone could even tell me the exact model so that I could look it up for recalls. That said, I love our Ikea crib. They are held to just as high standards for safety on baby furniture as other companies. For me, it works well because it's shorter than most other cribs. It converts to a toddler bed, which I figure will last us until we have #2, by which time we'll turn it back into a crib and get a bed for Darian.
We got a fairly sturdy dresser where I set up the changing station. Ditto whoever said, you will spend a LOT of time changing diapers, so something higher is nice to have! It's got 3 big drawers, and it's enough to store all his diapers, medicines, clothes, bibs and blankets.
I haven't used that chair much, but Sherlock really likes it... We just rocked Darian standing, but that can get tiring... I guess a glider would have been nice. I'll never know.
We got a mini PNP which Darian slept in for the first 4 months in our bedroom. But I know some mamas use the crib from day 1, or just move the crib to their bedroom if they want to co-sleep. The PNP worked well for us, we still use it sometimes when I'm too lazy in the middle of the night to trudge back to the nursery. I've also heard lots of good things about the Fisher Price Rock N Play which is this cozy little cradle, very portable.
We didn't have space for a swing, so we just got a bouncer, which is really nice to have as a spot to put him down sometimes. But since you're in an apartment which is all one floor, you might be fine to just put the kiddo down in the crib instead. The bouncer is nice because it's portable; V likes to move it to the kitchen so he can watch Darian while he cooks
I know a lot of mamas say that the swing is great for putting the baby to sleep, and for a while I used to be sad that we didn't have one, but now a lot of those same mamas are having difficulties weaning their babies off from sleeping in the swing.
A playmat was good to have, but he didn't really find it that interesting until maybe 2-3 months. We get a lot of use out of our Exersaucer now, he loves bouncing in that thing, and again, it's a good place to just put him down. But we didn't need that until maybe ~4 months. We got some use out of our Bumbo but only for a short while... I'm really glad I didn't pay full price for it.
Hey, have you heard of the shop that sells used baby stuff on St Clair at Christie? It's called Twice As Nice, that's where I got the Exersaucer for $40.
Lucie's List was an amazing resource for me too.
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My mom bought a pack and play for her house and we just borrow it if we are going out of town. i think we have had to borrow it 3 times since P has been born. She bought it used off craiglslist for 50 dollars. It has been much more efficiant than spending 200 dollars for one we are going to use 3 times.
How could I forget--this thing was a lifesaver! I would put Parker in it and read her books and show her toys. It's supposed to be really good for sleeping too since a lot of babies don't like to lay completely flat on their back and the RNP has an incline .
So with all the money we spent on the adoption, everything we have has been given to us, with the exception of what we had already purchased for the triplets. We got a big dresser from IKEA (also works as our changing table), a crib (Target), and a rocker (Walmart) total spent MAYBE $400- that was with 3 cribs.
We have TONS of boy hand me downs from my friend who had twins, all his toys and books have been gifts from other people. Hand me downs are my favorite!
I'm sorry, but after everything I've been through part of me (a big one) wants to tell those girls to check their priorities. For reals.
I also don't have children but I already know that the only thing I'm going to splurge on is one of those 4 in 1 cribs that go from a crib to a toddler bed to a full sized bed, but those do not cost even $1000 let alone $4000. Holy crap who wants to spend that much on a baby?!? Seriously, they outgrow everything so fast I plan on getting almost all my clothes from thrift/consignment shops, save for a few special occasion outfits.
My sister had six kids and none of them got their own nursery. They got a crib in her room until they were old enough for a big kid bed. I think she had a changing table as well, but that's it.
I haven't really thought about any of this yet, but I know we won't spend much money on things. I like the idea of a convertible crib (so we don't have to shop again...I hate furniture shopping) and I also like the idea of a rocker or glider, but I am thinking I can get a rocker second hand cheap somewhere...and if not, we have an arm chair that we don't really use right now that would be fine too.
The one splurge I really want is to get a new dresser set for Ed and I...and use my current dresser for the baby. I have had my dresser since I was 10. It is sturdy and works fine, but Ed's is terrible (also a second hand dresser) and it would be nice to have ones that matched (you know, like grown ups...). So I already told Ed that we were buying ourselves new dressers and mine will become the baby's and the changing center. Yep, I'm spending money on me...probably I am already a bad mom
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I am of the belief that every baby and family's needs are different but here are my thoughts and what we used most.Also, everything is pretty gender neutral
Crib - We got a used crib in excellent condition from our friends who bed shared so they barely ever used it. We looked it up and there were no recalls so we picked it up and we love it. We did spring for a good mattress at BRU because we wanted her to sleep in her crib and be comfortable. It's for newborns and toddlers so we're hoping she can use it until she's at least two or three.
Changing table - We got a used one that belonged to my niece otherwise we wouldn't have bought one. We would have gotten a dresser instead and placed the changing mat on it.
Dresser - We have one from Ikea that works just fine. None of her furniture is the exact shade of wood but she doesn't care and neither do do.
PnP - We didn't plan to get one at all, but the same friends gave us their used PnP. We never used the changing station or bassinet part of it but use the playpen now that O sits up on her own to play with her toys. She is usually in there while we cook, clean or eat.
Bassinet - We registered for one and received it at our baby shower. O slept in hers from the day we brought her home until she was about 6 months. I know a lot of parents say they never used theirs, but it was invaluable to us because we wanted her to sleep in our room for at least a few months.
Bouncer - When O was a newborn she did not like her swing. We found that the bouncy chair was perfect for her because it had the slight rocking motion which soothed her while we ate, took showers or what have you. By about two months she was over it, but during the newborn period and after DH went back to work, it was the only place I could put her so I could shower or eat.
Swing - At around two months, the swing replaced the bouncer and allowed us to put her somewhere so we could eat or cook. She would only take naps in it occasionally though. By about four months, she started sitting up and would lean over and I was afraid she'd fall out so we stopped using it on a regular basis.
Playmat - We got a lot of use out of this. From about a month we started using the mat for tummy time, and around two months we started using it for playtime too and she loved it. There were times where laying on the play mat and playing with the toys was the only thing that she wanted and kept her calm.
Jumper/Exersaucer - We have a Baby Einstein Jumperoo and she loves it. On the occasion where I need to put her down and she doesn't want to be in her play pen, we put her in the jumper and she loves it. She loves jumping up and down and all the toys so we get a lot of use out of it.
I lurked a lot on the Nurseries board on TB got tons of useful info. I've also heard good things about the Baby Bargains book. We received all of the above as gifts but if we hadn't, I would have bought them gently used from CL or a local consignment.
I agree with all of this. I had a change table from my sister (used) and never used it. I ended up putting picture frames on it and just found it easier and honestly more convenient to use the floor with a change pad or receiving blanket to do diaper changes.
I had a used crib from SIL that broke after only 2 months so I did use a playpen instead of buying a new one knowing I wasn't planning on having more kids. It was a royal pain, but I also had a bassinet my sister gave me that I used until Izaac started rolling and moving in his sleep.
I agree that the nursery is for the parents to "show-off" as much as they can. It's a pointless waste of money IMHO unless you are buying expensive things for safety reasons. The baby doesn't use it for very long so I just never saw the point in having expensive, over-the-top baby stuff. We ended up spending more money on their beds they have now and their furniture that they have now cause they can use it for many, many years, (till they move out)
Here is what I have. Mind you this room is tiny, there is no closer and on a small budget.
Cribs -the boys are convertible, but if I would do it again, it would be no more than up to a toddler bed. My reasoning is when they are old enough they will be in bunk bed due to lack of room. Also even though there are protectors (soft) ones all over the sides to help with no teeth marks. You still end up with them. I don't think my boys will want their full sized bed with teeth marks all over. (don't get me wrong it's bit bad, but enough to know what it is).
We have an old bureau that doesn't match their cribs.
One bookcase for all thief books. This was also used to store burp cloths and nursing blankets when they were newborns.
We have a changing table that did get a lot of use, but not so much since they were about a year old. I'll probably be posting it to Craigslist soon or using it for additional shelving.
Lastly a humidifier. That's it. If there is one place you could also save money on it would be the bedding. I would have gotten basic sheets, etc if I were to do it again. Yes it looks nice but it is more for decoration than anything. (or I'd buy a used one on craigslist). Also check out local any consignment shops. Sometimes they have larger ticketed items for cheap.