Pregnant & Small Apartment

Hi!

I am currently about 18 weeks pregnant and live in a 1 br apartment in NYC.

We won't be able to move right away, so we wil have to get by for a bit with the baby.

I was planning on using a bassinet to begin and then a smaller crib since the baby will have to stay in our bedroom (not a big room).

Can anyone offer any tips or advice if you started off with a baby in a small place?

I am even having a hard time finding smaller cribs...

TIA!

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

I don't have any advice but just wanted to let you know you're not alone. DH and I will be in a one bdrm in the city until the baby is around 2. Haven't even started looking at cribs yet.

Have you looked at places in the city? Like Albee's on the west side, or the BBB in the city? I haven't yet but I would imagine they would have more options catering to nyc apt size stuff rather than going to a suburban store....

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

I'm in a similar situation, except we live outside of Boston.

I'm planning on using the bassinette in the pack n' play for the first couple of months. I figure that I will need the pack n' play later on anyway, so why deal with trying to fit 2 things into the apartment.

We haven't picked a crib yet. We can probably fit a full size crib, but it has to be simple and without any extra carving or woodwork. We're going to look in Ikea. There are a few other cribs I want to look at as well.

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

We are in a small 1 bedroom apt in NYC too. We were hoping to move by the time we had the baby but haven't been able to sell our apt yet. We're using the arm's reach co-sleeper, which should be good for about 6 months. I'm hoping we'll be out of the apt by then, but we'll see.

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

I was going to suggest the Arm's Reach co-sleeper too. There is a mini-version which is pretty small. They had it a BRU when we registered so you could hopefully see it.

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

We had the baby in a bassinet for the first 4 months and then his crib what we did was we pushed the bed to one side of the room and then put the crib on the other wall. its not that bad..... and my crib was from bellini and its a little bit bigger then standard size and we put the changing table/dresser in the kitchen...

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

If you go on the IKEA website, they have a whole section devoted to baby/parent room combos and how to make all the furniture fit, etc...

HTH!!

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

what? you rang? let me get the door (no need to get up! I can reach from my dining table )

we're soooo in the same boat as you!

OK, here's the lo-down. 1BR apartment in port jeff village (great place to live, wonderful building, but small for a family of 3). Nice sized EIK, very narrow dining/living combo, and 1 BR just large enough for 2 people. 1 decent bedroom closet (not a walk-in), and a small closet in the kitchen. THAT'S IT FOLKS!

So, we don't have much room.

Step 1: purge anything superfluous. clothes you or DH doesn't wear often anymore (be honest!) DONATE. Clutter (be brutal in that definition) PITCH.

Step 2: Figure out where a full-sized crib can go. (you may have to remove a storage chest, a night table, a chair to wedge it in... but we really think full-sized is better, especially when it converts to a toddler bed. then you're not FORCED to move in a couple years if you don't want to or can't.)

Step 3: get your own bedroom and kitchen storage under control. space bags are your friends... you likely just removed some piece of smaller furniture to make room for the crib (we removed 2 chairs for the crib, and gave up 1/2 of our large BR closet for the changing table... so we lost 1/2 of our hanging space!). All the off-season extras go in space bags under the bed.

Step 4: store stuff vertically!!! Ikea is your friend here. they have small-footprint furniture that is tall. we love their pax wardrobes. Our apt (and likely yours, has ceilings 10+ feet high, so up there is a lot of under-utilized space. think shelving / bookcases / nice storage containers...

Step 5: get to know modern decorating websites, since they cater to the urban crowd and their small spaces. ohdeedoh.com, apartmenttherapy.com... they have great storage ideas and products.

What we did in the end:
cleared out all non-essentials, bought a full-sized crib that converts into a toddler bed AND has a large storage drawer. We also bought 1 3-drawer dresser/changing table. All baby linens go in the crib, all baby clothes go in the dresser. All diapering supplies go on a small shelf near the dresser. Extra diapers and bulky stuff are high-up in the closet.

The major thing to watch-out for:
since we're small-living people, we can't have 3 strollers, tons of extra fluffy cute linens, 300 baby outfits, millions of toys. plan carefully. get only one good XXX.... not 2 or 3. Get a smaller swing, or replace it with a bouncer, and get a highchair that collapses. don't get a pack-n-play, unless it's kept folded and is intended merely for travel.

I won't lie, it took A LOT of effort to cram Scone's stuff into our seemingly tiny space, but city-folk have kids all the time, so it IS possible.....

good luck.....

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

OMG I love this thread and I am totally bookmarking it for the future that it is soon! Can you tell me what brand crib you got with the large storage?

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

Posted by sfp0701

OMG I love this thread and I am totally bookmarking it for the future that it is soon! Can you tell me what brand crib you got with the large storage?

Image Attachment(s):

Message edited 9/4/2008 6:00:12 PM.

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

I LOVE this thread too, especially since I am also living in a small space.

WANNABEMOM....I LOVED all your ideas! It is a great help!

You are always so helpful and I LOVE when you respond to threads.

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

Posted by shell

I LOVE this thread too, especially since I am also living in a small space.

WANNABEMOM....I LOVED all your ideas! It is a great help!

You are always so helpful and I LOVE when you respond to threads.

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

this thread makes me so happy! i am a total lurker and not even ttc YET, but one of our biggest worries is where we will fit a baby in our tiny 1br apartment....this thread definitely gives me hope! thanks to all for the great ideas!

Re: Pregnant & Small Apartment

Thank you so much for all the responses! It's very helpful...


Thanks again!