Being Pregnant
Making Room for Another Baby
My first son slept in this family heirloom bassinet when he first came home. My second son will do the same.
We live in a modest three bedroom house. When my husband and I first bought our home it was just the two of us. We only needed one of the three rooms to use as an actual bedroom—for the two of us—and the other two rooms we turned into an office and a studio. We had no problem utilizing the space we had. When I got pregnant with our first son my husband gave up his studio room and we converted it into the nursery. The office stayed.
Here we are four years later and finding ourselves in that making some room situation once again.
I imagine there is only one real option. I’m going to have to give up the office and turn it into a third bedroom.
Selfish as it may sound, I’m not ready to do that. I’ve grown fond of this office over the last six years and to move it into the basement doesn’t thrill me. Plus, I’ll be encroaching on my husband’s space as the basement has kind of become his area over the last few years. Moving all of this stuff does not excite me one bit.
We really don’t have another choice.
What we do have at least is a little bit of time. When the baby is born we will use the bassinet that belonged to my mother when she was a baby. It was the same bassinet that I used as a newborn and that my first son used when he was a newborn. Just like with our first son the bassinet will most likely stay in our bedroom while baby number two is just a wee newborn.
But all too soon he will grow out of that bassinet and my husband and I will be ready to have just the two of us in our bedroom again.
Then I will have to give up the office.
What did you do for baby number 2? Does each child have his/her own room or do your kids share a bedroom? If they share are they close in age? I’d love to hear how you handled making room for your expanding family.
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9 Comments
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Easy Like Sunday Morning | artistmotherteacher.com commented on Jul 03 11 at 11:44 amlauren commented on Jun 30 11 at 10:01 pmi’d put the baby in your other child’s room. it’s a baby … they’re kids. i shared a small bedroom with my younger sister (4 years’ difference) for 14 years, from the day she was born until the year i turned 18 and moved to college. sure when i was a teenager i wished for a little more space, but overall our room sharing was a positive thing. we shared late night giggles, endless games and a huge stuffed animal collection. it was our space together – our kingdom.
i understand the desire to want to give everyone their place, but i honestly believe for smaller children it’s just as important to teach them how to share space, share belongings, share life. not for nothing, but i think in the US people fill all the space they’re given and then some. i’d consider room sharing a valuable lesson in using what you have.
Andrea commented on Jun 30 11 at 10:03 pmHonestly, if your plan is for baby number two to stay in the bassinet in your room for the beginning, then I would absolutely put the two kids together in one bedroom after that. There will no doubt be an adjustment period as your older child learns to sleep through the younger one waking up, but in the end, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, and you can keep your office for another few years.
Voice Of Reason commented on Jul 01 11 at 1:16 amI was in a similar situation housing-wise and tried working part time from home after I had children. I agree with the above posters that sharing a room probably won’t be an issue for your children… but, for me, it was so difficult to concentrate on work when there was always so much to do in the house. My husband came up with this idea:
http://www.finnforest.co.uk/products/finnlifelogcabins/cabins10m2-20m2/Pages/Reikko.aspx
If you have some space in your back yard, you might want to look into something similar. We loved ours. After baby number two I gave up work for a while and my husband used our ‘shed’ to spend less time commuting and at the office, so he could spend more time with his children.
Helen Palmer commented on Jul 01 11 at 2:40 amwe don’t have an option – we have a small flat with one extra room, which is now part office, part nursery and will have baby no 2 in it as well shortly! I think letting the kids share is actually a good thing :-)
Sara commented on Jul 01 11 at 8:40 amMy girls have to share at room right now. They have since my second one was born. They are 18monts apart. We are moving into a house that they can have their own rooms now. We will keep them together. They would be so sad to be separate at this time. They have learned how to sleep through each others’ crying/singing/babbling/screaming. They love it.
Megan commented on Jul 01 11 at 10:47 amI’m lucky that we live in a rural area so we were able to afford a 100 year-old 4 bedroom house when our first was still a baby. By the time we had our second 7 1/2 years later, the 2 extra bedrooms were a playroom and a storage area. We moved our son into the larger spare bedroom and turned the smaller room next to ours into the nursery for our daughter(it does have the biggest closet though because it’s under the attic stairs). The smallest bedroom is still a playroom, although it desperately needs cleaned out before the baby starts crawling to get rid of or put up any of the 8 year-old’s toys that are a choking hazard. With the different sexes and the large age difference I wouldn’t have the 2 share a room, but I know a large family where a teenager offered to share her room with the new baby because all the younger kids were already 2 in a room. THe oldest just had her own room by the privelege of being the oldest, and she decided that she’d rather share with the baby than the sister that was closest in age to her. My son’s best friend shares a room with his 6 year-old brother and he loves it. The boys are really close and the only time there are conflicts is usually when one has a friend over and they can’t ditch the sibling. All different kinds of room-sharing arrangements can work for different families.
Erin commented on Jul 03 11 at 11:53 pmWe just brought our 4th baby home to our two bedroom apartment. We put our 3 older children in one bed room and the new baby is in our room with my husband and myself. We once had to live with my in laws for a short time. In that moment we had 5 of us in one room. There we had 9 people living off and on in a 3 bedroom duplex. I hope it all works out for you.
Crystal commented on Jul 04 11 at 9:09 amI have a 100 year old war time house with very small rooms. We knocked down the wall between 2 rooms to create a good sized master bedroom, leaving us with with only 2 bedrooms, the master and guest bedroom. When we had our first baby, the 2nd room turned into the nursery and we built a guest bedroom in the basement. I’m now expecting our second which was unplanned. So we built a room for my toddler in the attic and the new baby will inherit the nursery. The room was too small for them to share.
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