Many women have dreamed about it. That wonderful day they learn they are pregnant and all the things that go along with it. One of those things is the dream of being able to actually decorate a room the way they want. It will be for the baby, but it will be something that she’ll be decorating using her own taste.
Not the usual hodge-podge of furniture that usually ends up in a home. Some of her stuff, some of his stuff. This room will be filled with all the new things. But…is all that really necessary? Putting aside all those long-held dreams is hard, but does a new baby actually require all that stuff? The answer, of course, is no, not really.
14. FORGET IT: ADD UP THE COST AND PUT IT IN A COLLEGE FUND
As much as we love decorating a nursery for the new arrival with all the adorable stuff in the stores, it’s really more for us than the baby. The baby isn’t going to be aware of it, won’t remember it, and so doesn’t need it. The bassinette, changing table, baby monitor, rocking chair, new paint, fancy diaper disposal pail, diaper hangers, curtains, wallpaper, matching crib sheets, bed skirt, bumper pads, and stuffed animals are all unnecessary. Do a search on how much it cost to create a nursery with the matching crib, paint, curtains and all the rest, and it can run over $2000.
13. NEED IT: A DESIGNATED PLACE FOR ALL OF BABY’S STUFF
Until you actually have a baby, you don’t realize how much stuff that tiny person needs to have around. You really find out the first time you take the baby out, maybe to the first well-baby visit at the pediatricians. Of course, you have a diaper bag filled with ready to go bottles, a couple of blankets so baby doesn’t get cold, baby wipes, half a dozen diapers, drool wipes, a hat, a baby carrier, a stroller, and on and on. If you don’t want your home to look like a daycare center, you need a place to keep all that stuff out of sight. The nursery is the perfect place to store all that stuff.
12. FORGET IT: NEW STUFF CAN BE TOXIC
As something most people never think about unless they’re looking at a layer of smog hanging over the city, the truth is that the air inside can be 5 times more polluted than the air outside. Nearly everyone knows that smell that comes from new furniture and especially new carpet. What we are smelling are called VOCs by the technical folks, or Volatile Organic Compounds. This is the smell of toxic chemicals leaking from your new stuff and they include the likes of formaldehyde (we all know what this is used for!), acetone (the stuff you remove your nail polish with), and benzene. Do we really want our new baby breathing in all that?
11. NEED IT: A PRIVATE, QUIET PLACE TO FEED BABY
If you are breastfeeding, or even if you’re not, you want a nice quiet place where you and baby can have some quiet bonding time. This can be especially true if you have other children or simply a house full of people for whatever reason. It is often very important to be able to go to a quiet place and breastfeed your little one in peace. This is also true for those middle of the night feedings when you would rather not disturb your partner. Even though you may have to get out of bed, it’s a sure thing that your partner will appreciate it when they are not awakened by you getting back into bed to feed, then out again to put the baby back in their crib.
10. FORGET IT: NURSERY STUFF CAN BE DANGEROUS
Since you are going to be a parent before too much longer, you more than likely have heard about the debate about using bumpers in a baby’s crib. Some say they are fine, while others say they are a tragedy just waiting to happen. The truth is, why risk it? If there is even a remote chance your baby could get tangled up in a crib bumper and suffocated, why buy one? When it comes to buying a changing table, a pediatrics instructor, Dr. Julia Michie Bruckner at the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine states that it’s just another high place for the baby to fall from. Babies can be changed pretty much everywhere, so just invest in a few changing pads.
9. NEED IT: BABIES SLEEP LONGER IN THEIR OWN ROOM
The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended for a long time that infants sleep in the same room as their parents for at least six months to reduce the occurrence of SIDS. However new studies show that after 4 months babies sleep better and longer when they sleep in their own room. The study showed that when infants sleep in the room with their parents, the parents were more likely to engage in co-sleeping practices that are unsafe. Babies sleeping in their own room after 4 months slept an average of 9 hours, but it was only 8.3 hours for those who slept in the parent’s room.
8. FORGET IT: YOU SIMPLY DON’T HAVE SPACE
Of course, one of the best reasons to forget having a nursery is that you simply don’t have space for one. There are plenty of people who live in small apartments or homes when they start a family. Having extra space is great, but not everyone can afford it.
There is nothing to be ashamed of or feel bad about if you just don’t have an extra room to dedicate to your new baby. Don’t worry about it because the baby is never going to notice the difference. Unless family or strangers are going to fork over the cash every month for the extra space, they have no right to pass judgment.
7. NEED IT: SO THE KIDS DON’T DEPEND ON YOU TO GO TO SLEEP
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg, the director of their behavioral sleep program says that co-sleeping with children nearly always ends up causing problems. She says that helping our children become good sleepers independent of their parents has more positive effects than the co-sleeping does. Children who always have a sleep partner will come to depend on that and be unable to go to sleep without that person. They develop a ‘sleep crutch.’ It’s more important that children learn to fall asleep, comfort themselves on their own to become confident and independent. Children who develop a sleep crutch usually also develop anxious behaviors later in life because they haven’t learned those important self-comforting strategies and need an outside source.
6. FORGET IT: JUST CAN’T AFFORD IT
In addition to not wanting to spend a bunch of money for something that really doesn’t make a lot of sense, many people just can’t afford it either. Finances are very tight for a lot of people, and despite their desire to create an awesome, matching everything nursery, there just isn’t money for it. For these folks, trying to figure out how they are going to afford all the diapers they are going to need, let alone a cute crib bumper and matching curtains. A box with a sturdy pillow for the baby set next to the bed is sufficient for the baby to sleep in. As long as the baby is well taken care of and loved, that’s all that is important.
1. NEED IT: MOM AND DAD CAN KEEP THEIR PRIVACY
There are a lot of studies that show that co-sleeping with your baby doesn’t affect parents’ sex lives, one has to wonder if it is because they are especially creative, sneaky, or are simply too exhausted to bother. Some articles say that co-sleeping can actually improve the parent’s sex lives. Whatever the reports and research say, we’re pretty sure that trying to have sex with the baby off to the side is going to be awkward. It sounds much the same as not wanting to have with a dog in the room. It’s just creepy. Whether the dog or the baby knows what’s going on or not, it just doesn’t feel right to have another pair of eyes in the room.