Office/Nursery a Bad idea?

[SlickCheetah]

My husband and I live in a 2 bdrm apartment. Baby is due in September and both of us use our office a lot (10' x13').

My husband works from home a lot for many hours, and I often use the office too. We have 2 work stations that we will consolidate into one desk. I've read and heard two different perspectives of trying to have a nursery/office combination. One opinion is that you HAVE to have a nursery and not to combine the two at all. Opinion #2 is that you can make it work, but I haven't seen anyone actually do it. What do you think?

I have considered trying to move a computer to the living room, but space is very limited. We're also considering having some type of bassinet for baby to nap in that would be moved in our bedroom or the living room. I'd appreciate any suggestions/questions for more info.

[ciw]

As a WAHM, I can tell you there's no way I'd share my office with a newborn's nursery. I would either a) move the bassinet to your bedroom or living room or b) move the computer to your bedroom or living room. Most likely, I'd move the bassinet to your bedroom -- there are a lot of moms here who had bassinets/cribs in their bedrooms for months. Of course, that set-up won't work once your child is older but hopefully you will have moved by then?

[deborah_r]

We've chosen to put our desks in our bedroom or the living /dining areas, and let the kids have the 2nd bedroom. Until 6 months ago, we had one bedroom and the kids were in with us. Our desks were in the common areas (living or dining). I can't see combining an office and a nursery.

[bubbaray]

As a WAHM, I can tell you there's no way I'd share my office with a newborn's nursery. I would either a) move the bassinet to your bedroom or living room or b) move the computer to your bedroom or living room. Most likely, I'd move the bassinet to your bedroom -- there are a lot of moms here who had bassinets/cribs in their bedrooms for months. Of course, that set-up won't work once your child is older but hopefully you will have moved by then?


:yeahthat:

[KrisM]

As a WAHM, I can tell you there's no way I'd share my office with a newborn's nursery. I would either a) move the bassinet to your bedroom or living room or b) move the computer to your bedroom or living room. Most likely, I'd move the bassinet to your bedroom -- there are a lot of moms here who had bassinets/cribs in their bedrooms for months. Of course, that set-up won't work once your child is older but hopefully you will have moved by then?

We had a cradle and then a crib in our room until DS2 was 1 year old. We could have gone longer, but we moved him.

[codex57]

I'm with ciw and bubbaray. No way baby goes in the office. She's bunking with you guys in your bedroom or something.

[Katigre]

We live in a small 2 br house and when DS was a baby we had a combined office nursery (and he coslept in our room full-time - the 'nursery' held his dresser, clothes, a glider, and a bookshelf). That worked out fine until we were ready to move him into sleeping in there about age 2.

Then we moved our office stuff into the living room. DH does a lot of working from home (1-2 days a week plus stuff on the weekends) and needed a dedicated space, and we changed the second bedroom into a children's room (DS and DD still sleep in our room, but their toys/clothes/changing table/bunk beds are all in the second room).

I don't think having a baby sleep in a nursery that is the same as the office will work well because the light and noise of the computer/typing will interfere with their sleep cycle.

[kijip]

Put the baby in your bedroom for now if you need to office to work from home.

I don't see how this combination could work well, as the office would likely get most use when baby is sleeping.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

As a WAHM, I can tell you there's no way I'd share my office with a newborn's nursery. I would either a) move the bassinet to your bedroom or living room or b) move the computer to your bedroom or living room. Most likely, I'd move the bassinet to your bedroom -- there are a lot of moms here who had bassinets/cribs in their bedrooms for months. Of course, that set-up won't work once your child is older but hopefully you will have moved by then?

i agree. i work from home too (so does my DH) and there is NO WAY this would work for us. i agree that if space is tight, the solution would be to put a small crib or bassinet (or pack n play, or whatever) in the bedroom or living room.

my DS cries/whimpers in his sleep a lot, there is no way either DH or I could get any work done if he was in the same room as us while we were trying to work. plus, when i got a bit older we'd be concerned about disturbing him when we wanted to do some work during his naptime/at nighttime.

[dhano923]

We lived in a 2 bdrm townhome for several years, and both of our kids were born while we lived there. DH works from home, so our 2nd bedroom used to be our home office. When DS was born, he slept in our room and we kept the office as-is. When DD was born, we had to consolidate DH an dmine desks into one and move it into our bedroom. We gave the 2nd room to the kids. There was no way we could have an office and nursery together. Kids won't always sleep and wake up when you need them to, so if you need to work when they are sleeping, you'll have issues.