The trouble with adding a new member to the family, along with the adjustment period with a new baby and a toddler, is mainly: where am I going to put all of this baby crap? I recently washed most of the baby’s new clothing and folded it (or, I should say the babysitter did it for me!) but I had no clue where it was going to go. In my mind I am not even sure where the baby is going to be getting changed or dressed.
The plan is for the baby to sleep in bed with us at first for nights, and I will put the baby in the Hushamok hammock for naps. And hey, if the baby really loves the hammock, I will throw him in there at night too. It will be right next to my bed so I can get him whenever I need to nurse him . He will need changing in the middle of the night but I won’t want to wake my son, so I am going to not only need somewhere to change him (on the bed?) I need a place to put his diapers. I will also need a wet bag for our room.
During the day I will change the baby on the changing table in my son’s room, most likely. Unless my older son is napping. Then bedroom again. I feel like a nomad of diaper changing and he isn’t even here yet.
Same goes for clothing changes, which I am sure will be frequent. My first son had massive spit ups until he was 10 months old! No, he did not have reflux or food/ dairy allergies. I was just lucky I guess. We went through gobs of outfits and burp cloths. I feel like I need 2 wardrobes; 1 for our room and one for “playroom” bedroom. Same for a stash of burp cloths. ACK!
As it stands, the changing table in my older son’s room is stuffed with diapers and inserts. I have 6 baskets, 3 full of diapers, 1 full of extra inserts and cloth wipes, 1 with the “overflow” of diapers, and one with newborn diapers and wet bags. But I need the newborn diapers in the top basket, not the bottom one. I have to rearrange my whole system to accommodate. At this time my top 3 baskets are arranged, left to right: Daddy Friendly Diapers, Daddy “meh” diapers (he can use most but he doesn’t like to), and Daddy Don’t Touch (diapers I need to review or ones he sucks at putting on). Now one needs to be Newborn Diapers. (I included my changing table tour from a few months ago)
I am also unsure where I am going to put the Mamaroo, which I am so excited to be reviewing! Will the livingroom be good for it? If the baby naps in it will the livingroom be too noisy or unsafe (think- toddler who likes poking eyes). Then, should the bedroom be a good home?
None of these things were issues with my first son. I could do whatever I pleased and I had a wonderful 9 months of nesting! Now I don’t feel the need for any nesting. I have no desire to wash and fold tiny baby clothes and I certainly don’t feel like rearranging furniture or drawers of clothing. My birth kit still needs some things and I am slacking.
With Fletcher I was very excited about the “stuff” and arranging it (and of course having a new baby). With this baby I am excited about the birth and how my son will bond with him.
As an organized person, this drives me nuts! I need order!
Any tips on having 2 young children, 1 “bedroom,” and no storage space?!?
We experienced a similar situation when we added our DD to our family. She shared a room with us for the first 6 months and then moved in with her brother. Her change station was in her brother’s room, so each morning I would stock a basket with the essentials – diapers & wipes, a few changes of clothes, a few receiving blankets, etc. I would put this in the livingroom to grab if my son was sleeping when the baby needed to be changed. Then I would just set the dirty diaper in the bathroom until my son woke up. Then it would go in the diaper pail. It added a few steps into the process but it worked.
I was very similar in the non-nesting feeling with the second baby. I had her clothes and stuff out, but I didn’t do nearly the prep work for her that I did for my first. I am not sure what it was, lack of energy or just a realization that sometimes you need to see how life is going to funtion before you can organize your space.
Good luck!
Yep, I did middle of the night dipe changes in my bed. The babies aren’t squirmy yet, so it is SO easy–you just need a dim bedside lamp, which you will need anyway, for feedings. And a small basket for wipes, creams, vaseline, and alcohol (circs and belly buttons!).
I started keeping a changing station and some clothes in our family room area, b/c that was where I always ended up changing them, and I am embarrassed to say that now ALL of their Clothes and changing takes places there–the dresser and changing table in their room–just for show, I guess 🙂 In fact, right now I am debating putting the fall/winter stuff upstairs, but truthfully, it’s jsut easier to do it down here, while I get the bigger boys ready for school. So it’ll stay down here for awhile more.
I definitely suggest setting up nap area near your main living area for awhile, at least. Our bassinet was in the Living room, just off the family room, so plenty of noise and commotion–great for little sleepers 🙂 They only slept upstairs for overnights.
Don’t worry about not feeling like nesting. It’s because you know newborn babies dont’ need any of the junk we thought they did when we had our first 🙂 Good luck!
PS–my babies are 9-month old twins 🙂
I set up another changing table station in my laundry room. Bascily just a changing pad that I can throw ontop of my washer and dryer and I have a basket nearbye with some cloth diapers there,and a wetbag …This is if I do not want to wake one baby to do a emergancy change:) Good Luck!! BTW I nested like crazy with my first my 2nd not so much and this one even less…I Think because we are so busy!!
The first week and a half after my son was born we spent at my mother’s house so I could have extra help. We brought a pack ‘n play that had a changing station that could attach – it was PERFECT! The baby slept right next to us and it was a perfect size changing station for a newborn! Plus, I liked how I was changing him feet toward me rather than to the side. We turned a bookcase into a diaper storage area and it worked great. Good luck finding what works for you! We’ll see what we end up doing for our second as we’re stuck in a 2-bedroom apartment until my husband is out of law school!
Carter slept in our room when he was born. It was easiest to take care of him and Parker was in the one kid bedroom we had at the time. We clothed both. During the night we would change Carter on our bed and put the diaper in the bathroom. We took care of it in the morning. Our diaper pail was also in the bathroom. We were in an apt and had to use a community washer. So, after rising it– it was just easier to put it in there. Right now I have my pail in the laundry room but am seriously consider moving it back to the bedroom. With my first I ALWAYS used the changing table. With the second, and now both I HARDLY use it. Floors work well. 😉
Hang in there!!! You’ll find a spot for everything and everything will have a spot.
And don’t remember, you can always take a chill pill 😉 <3 ya!
I am wondering if you could store some extra stuff under your bed, or clean out one drawer in your room to put some stuff? I don’t know what your room is like, but if you have a low dresser, maybe you could rig up a (safe) changing station on there? Maybe you have a large closet? Check yard sales for inexpensive changing tables (I got mine for $5 and it’s wonderful). Keep a spare contour changing pad under the bed/to the side, and whip it out onto the bed for changes.
I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I hope some of these suggestions are helpful, though!
We’re getting ready to go through the same thing! I’m going to get a new changing table for my second son and I recently bought 6 nice size plastic storage containers to put all the diapers/trainers/covers, etc in. These will easily fit on a changing table with one or two right next to it if we need to. I’m still not sure what to do about clothes-my 2 year old likes to scale dressers so his is “locked” in his closet (we have a cut-down adjustable shower bar that fits in so he can’t get in-that’s been a nightmare folding his clothes several times per day) and we don’t have a lot of storage so we can’t put a second dresser in and we don’t have much room to hang stuff other than some church clothes. I think I’m going to have to use the same dresser for the two of them which will be quite the crunch but the drawers are really deep. We found a good dresser at Ross for under $100 when his old one broke. It has the nice drawers on wheels and deep deep drawers. It’s really hard when you don’t have a lot of room and you’re trying to sell a house but everything in plastic storage containers looks much more organized than just having it stacked on a changing table (that was our old system)
We have a small house and both baby and toddler in one, 8 x 9 room. =) No joke. A lot of people have walk in closets larger than that! Our bedroom isn’t much bigger at maybe 11 x 10. Anyways, We have a toddler bed and crib in their room, a 4 drawer dresser and rocking chair. There is a small built in wardrobe that is no larger than most armoires.
Our son sleeps in his crib for naps and crib/our bed at night. We have a console table by my side of the bed with a basket of diapering things in it. Wipes, diapers, covers are it pretty much. At first it was a large basket because he was in our room all the time as a newborn. Now it is a smaller basket with just overnight diapers in it. We also use a hanging wetbag instead of a pail.
In their room I used one of those college closet organizer things that velcro to the rod. It has 4 cubbies and then a rod under it. Here I am able to store covers, wipes, wetbags and extra things while still being able to use the rod under for his clothes. All of his stuff fits on one side, my daughter’s clothes hang on the other. There are shelves on the bottom for my pump and their bedding(plus some prefolds).
We also have a wall hanging caddy of sorts I got from Ikea. It has 3 canvas basket things on a wrought iron frame. We have bedtime books, a few toys and pacifiers in the top, diapers in the bottom 2. I love this thing.
The dresser we use mostly for clothing. My son has one 1/2 drawer for socks and little things, my daughter has the other 1/2 for her unders, socks, etc. Then my daughter has a drawer for pjs, pants, skirts, etc and my son has the last drawer for things he will be growing into next, extra baby accessories I don’t use often(like a monitor, nightlight, mosquito netting).
And it works =)
Oh, we have no changing table. I will use the dresser top for next baby or maybe yet for my son, otherwise it’s just on our bed or the floor.
Oh Kim! You’ll be fine. We actually have our changing table in our bedroom. And our oldest was so careful and loving with the new baby… I’m sure Fletcher won’t be poking any eyes out! lol. And we didn’t actually have the baby in the eldests room so much, her toys were big and noisy and didn’t want the newbaby to get scared or what have you. As far as storage, we had all the baby clothes hanging/folded in with big sisters clothes and all the diapers and washing stuff in the masterbed room. We only took her in the big sis room to change her clothes.
Enjoy the new baby and hope all goes well with the home birth!!
We are in a similar situation–two bedroom apartment with NO storage, and we just had our third baby. When our second was born, we kept her clothes and diapers in our room (just in Rubbermaid bins–not terribly attractive or convenient, but it worked). When she was about 8 months old, she moved into the bedroom with her brother, at which point we moved her stuff in there as well. Each kid has one of those hanging organizers that velcros to the closet rod (from Ikea) for clothes, and diapers are in a small dresser, also in the closet.
Now our third baby is in our room, probably for his first year (or until he sleeps through the night–13 months for the older two), and he has the same hanging organizer for his clothes and diapers in our closet. Whenever he moves in with the older two (I have no idea how we’ll fit beds at that point, maybe bunks for the kids and a crib for the baby?), we will move his organizer to their closet.
With my first, we did all changes on the changing table, and now I’m contemplating tossing the changing pad, since all diaper changes pretty much happen on the bed, couch, or floor.
haha , congratulations , we don’t have a changing table either , I’ll do it on the sofa or on the floor it dose not matter really as long as the jobs done 😉 . And I doubt anyone wouldn’t like Hushamok [well I don’t know about kids really]