Am I the only one planning to put baby in her room right away?

[hellokitty]

My first baby is not due until feb 2004, and we plan to have baby sleep in his crib right away, so you are not in the minority as far as I am concerned. :) The nursery is the next bdrm over from us and I am a very light sleeper, so foresee no problems hearing baby, plus we will have a baby monitor too.

Anyways, my main reasons for wanting to put baby in crib right away is for safety reasons (the dog sleeps with us, and there is NO way you can teach this old, spoiled dog a new trick!) and also b/c my bil/sil co-slept with both their kids. They JUST finally got their 5 yr old out of their bed into his own room, but the 2 yr old is STILL sleeping with them and probably will until she is around 5 as well! There is NO way I want to go down that road. I know co-sleeping works for some ppl, but when I talk to bil/sil about it, they act like it is a pain, and they are not too crazy about it, so in their situation, it was not something on purpose. If worse comes to worse the baby can sleep in our room in the PNP bassinet for the first month, but that is the longest I will let baby stay in our room. After that, it is my belief that the baby gets too used to it, and it makes it difficult to transition them to the crib in their room. I read, "the happiest baby on the block" and plan on swaddling the baby and using the other techniques in that book. I highly suggest that book if you haven't read it, my friends who already have babies that read the book said it really helped. Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

[hellokitty1]

Same here...my hearing seemed to improve dramatically while DH's seemed to have worsened. :) Only partially kidding bc my DH is great but he has his moments.

Anyway, a crib right away is just fine. I used a bassinet at first thinking it was easier to nurse at night but I couldn't actually nurse laying down til later so I sat up in bed which quite frankly, offered poor back support so the glider in the nursery was better.

Justed edited for spelling.

[wreckgirl1]

Our nursery is our former guest bedroom, so we actually have a double bed in there in addition to the crib. I was all for putting her in the crib alone the first night, but my husband insisted that we sleep in the same room with her at first. It worked out well for us not because we needed to be in there to hear her (if you have the baby monitor on in your bedroom, you'll hear just as well as if you were in the room), but because we had my parents visiting and I didn't want to move the bed or make them sleep with the baby. After two weeks, I announced that I was going back to my own bed, and he very reluctantly did, too. After that first night, he was convinced that there was no need to be in a smaller bed in her room, rather than our own comfy king-sized. If your room is right next to the nursery, it won't take you any longer to respond, so I'd just use the crib in the nursery if I were you.

We went through kind of the same thing as you, and almost bought a Pack N Play with a bassinet right after she was born (while we were still in the hospital). If you are planning on getting a PnP anyway, the bassinet comes on most of the current models, so you could just make sure you have that before the arrival date if you are still unsure. But, if you don't plan on getting a PnP right away, I wouldn't bother. _Plenty_ of parents put their babies in the crib the first night (me included!). I don't think what goes on on these boards is necessarily reflective of the population.

Cynthia

[cmferrara]

You are not alone.. we are expecting our son in January 2004 and all along we have planned to put him in his crib in his own room. You are right.. hearing many other people talk you do feel in the minority and possibly as if you are neglecting your baby's needs by putting them in their own room, but stick to your guns. Our birthing class instructor thinks everyone should "co-sleep" with their babies, our pediatrician says put him in his own crib. I think it boils down to a matter of opinion, but the pediatrician we chose specializes also in child behavior and development and he does not think it's a good idea to put the baby in your bed not only for safety reasons but because it can be hard to get them out once you start down that road and can lead to other behavioral challenges. IMHO each parent has to decide what is right and comfortable for them and their baby.
Good Luck!
Christie

[momma_boo]

I don't think you are in the minority for planning to use the crib right away. Our DD has slept in her crib since she came home from the hospital. Her room is right down the hall from our room. It would have been more convenient for us to have her in our room on some of those nights when she was a newborn and didn't sleep at night, but it wasn't an option. DH's bird (a big blue and gold macaw) sleeps in the bed and like a previous poster with a dog, it's hard to break them of a habit. I have no problems hearing her. The monitors are very sensitive, if you put the volume up on ours, we can actually hear DD breathing sometimes. These days, I find myself jumping out of bed even before she is really crying, just starting to fuss a little.

We did have a Pack N Play with the bassinet which we kept downstairs in the living room (she took most of her naps there during the first couple of months).

Before we had the baby, DH had an idea to put a small tv into the baby's room so that whoever was up with the baby could watch tv. I resisted spending more money and of course, when I was sitting there, holding her at 3 in the morning, was wishing I had more to look at than the walls. I never admitted that to him, though. He'd have a field day with the "I-told-you-so's." Reading about how Joey watched DVD's on her laptop reminded me of that.

[hellokitty1]

Esther-

Your post caught my eye bc we put a tiny tv in DD's room for all the time we spent in there setting up the nursery b4 DD was born and the late nights we were in there when she was first born. My mom, of course, wondered why there was a tv in her room, thinking we were gettign DD addicted young.:) I have to say, it really did come in handy during those times. I caught a lot of Jay Leno and also the BabyTalk Magazine TV show.

[momma_boo]

Gee, I hope someone reads this thread and learns a lesson from my mistake, LOL! I resisted putting a tv in the room b/c I was so worried that we would end up with a tv addicted baby. It's funny b/c the tv is ALWAYS on when she's playing in the living room and she never cares about it.

Well, when #2 arrives, I'll have to make sure to get a little tv. I think after a night or two of being bored out of my mind, I put in a small radio and listened to the news (although that got bad too since they repeat the same news every 10 minutes).

[hellokitty1]

Yes, the TV is nice and you're right, it's on on every other part of the house, it seems like, and she could care less about. Now the remote control is a different story. :)

My husband even added a VCR so that all the primetime stuff you can't watch with a new baby, you can record and watch at 3am. :)

[Judegirl]

We live in a tiny one-bedroom, and are in the process of moving into the living room to make way for the crib in the bedroom. So I'm another one; sleeping in the same room as the baby isn't even an option for us; we never considered it.

But as a first-time mom, I'm confused about all the t.v.-in-the-nursery talk. Is this only for nursing mothers? I mean, if we're using a bottle, how long will it take to feed the baby - will we want entertainment in there??? Yikes.

Thanks much!
Jude

[Jen in Chicago]

Jude was in his crib from day one! Ironically we put the P&P up in our room a few weeks ago b/c of bad night of sleep for him. He slept in there for an hour. His room is close but I still use a monitor. It is about time to stop that b/c this morning I woke to him kicking the monitor part that hangs in his crib. Not a pleasant thing to wake to CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK