As a first time mom, the thought of putting together a nursery was exciting and daunting all at the same time. I spent weeks searching through stores and websites for the perfect decor, I even bought a decorators magazine to come up with the perfect room for my little baby. There are some things I wish I had thought of, some things I wish I had known and some things I wish I had not sacrificed for the sake of a perfectly decorated nursery. So for those of you wondering where to start and what you might need to know, here are a few tips from me a year later...
1. the crib.
This is the most important piece of furniture in your nursery... not the changing table, not the crib set, not the rocker... far and away you want to start with the crib. Here is what you don't do:
Don't...
.... pick out a crib based solely on its looks
.... pick out the most expensive crib thinking it must be the best
.... buy the crib online
.... don't buy a dark wood crib, no matter what your decor is going to be!! why? because guess what, when the baby is about a year old, can pull himself up & teething, he will eat your crib alive. seriously. the crib will have little bite marks and actually bite off pieces of wood. so if you are dead set on wood, go for natural wood color... but better off just getting a plastic crib.
Do....
.... ask the process for lowering the bed, some require you taking the bed fully apart to lower it. Your goal should be to get the safest crib, that has the simplest method for lowering. (you will lower the crib every 3-4 mths as your baby grows)
.... print out a list of baby crib recalls and refer to it before you purchase any crib... here is a list (this one includes all recalls for 2010 so you might want to take it along before you register http://babyproducts.about.com/od/recallsandsafety/a/prodrecalls.htm)
another really helpful link about crib safety: http://www.babycenter.com/204_cpsc-proposes-new-crib-safety-rules_10334570.bc
2. The bedding.
There is actually a lot more that goes into picking out baby bedding than what is the cutest. First you should read about crib safety & decide for yourself if you will opt for a crib bumber. If you don't know what a bumper is (as I did not) it is the soft lining that ties to the crib that the baby sleeps around. Kind of like a pillow for the edges of the crib, I got mine at Pottery Barn because I loved it:
However, the concerns with the baby bumper is that while they are learning to sleep in their crib they may press their face up against the side and suffocate themselves. The other concern as they get old is they may somehow figure out to pull it off and wrap it around themselves. The case with us is that I didn't know this about the bumper until Dylan had been sleeping with one for about 2 mths. At that point I knew that he had already figured out how to turn his head when sleeping and had the ability to change positions in order to breath. (at first when you put them down they dont' know to turn their head) - but Dylan had figured this out. Still, I decided to take out the bumper because I was scared, but then he began to hit his head on the bars so hard it woke him up and gave him bumps. So now its back on and I am not concerned about it being there. It really needs to be a well researched personal decision.
3. The decor.
I found my decorations at Pottery Barn, I basically loved the entire spread and bought the whole thing... from the bedding, to the curtains to the decals on the wall. I decided to go with a nuetral design scheme that would allow me to use it for our next child, whether it was a boy or girl.
However, I did pick out the colors based on theories about how colors effect a person's state of mind. You want your babies room to really be a relaxing place, because they basically will only spend their time sleeping in there. But I did want a suble element of stimulation for when he gets a little older and plays in his room...
Some research I used:
Depending on the hue, color can over stimulate or depress. It is usually in the tertiary colors that we find the right balance. The following is a list of attributes that are widely assigned to primary and secondary colors.
- Red: (think passion) stimulates, arouses, heightens awareness.
- Blue: (think water; the ocean) relaxes, calms, transfixes.
- Yellow: (think sun) recharges, energizes, revitalizes.
Secondary colors create gradations of the feelings attributed to primary colors.
- Green: (Blue/Yellow) stabilizes, balances.
- Orange: (Red/Green) cheers, orders.
- Purple: (Blue/Red) protects, comforts.
4. The Chair...
You are probably going to want a chair in the babies room, you want some kind of rocker for sure. However, I would advise against the popular choice of a glider. They are great and you think its an obvious addition to any nursery, however, you are going be spending a lot of time in this thing. The fact of the matter is that you probably will move this chair to another area of the house for the first couple of months, like the living room or bedroom. The reason is that you will be getting up every 1-2 hrs feeding and rocking back to sleep. The glider is fine for a little while, but if you are stuck in this thing for over 20 mins, then you can't recline and the arms and very baby holding friendly. My suggestion, really, is to get a recliner. We bought the glider first & then went out and got a recliner (actually we had to ask our parents to buy it for us, because we spent so much $ already on the other nursery furniture)... however I spent about 6 mths in this recliner. So if you can afford both, go for it, but if you can only have one or the other - I highly suggest recliner. You may not find it in the pages of Pottery Barn, but when you are on your 28th hour straight awake and stuck in a chair for 2 hrs because every time you move the baby wakes up.... you are either gonna thank me if you take my advice or wish you had.
5. Get it all done by your 6th month!
Don't let it all fester there in a room, unorganized and in boxes. We had showers up to 3 weeks before the baby was born and I was so immobile from being swollen and so full of a baby that I really couldn't move around a lot or bend over at all. So my husband and I had to get it all together in a weekend before the baby was supposed to arrive.
In your second trimester you will probably feel the most energized and ready to start nesting. Don't let yourself get wrapped up in the things that don't matter & try if you can to have all your showers done by the 6th month. That way you have plenty of time to organize the gifts & decorations before the baby is here and you don't feel rushed or overwhelmed.
6. Safety First (so not sure why I put it last)
Things to think about... if you have a video monitor, make sure you buy one of those wire covers to go from the video source to the plug. The source has to be near to the crib, so you want to make sure there is no possible way for the baby to get their hands on the wire.
Plug covers... you may not think its something you need to do right away, but go ahead and do it. Things happen in a blink with a baby, one second they are not crawling - turn around and look back and they are. So be prepared well in advance, it will bring you a comfort to know that you don't need to constantly be on alert for when you should go ahead and do that.
Don't put shelves above the crib. There are obvious reasons when you think about it, but you don't want to worry about the shelving falling or items from the shelves falling into the crib. Better just to skip that all together and go the decal route... or nothing at all.
7. The Window...
If you want to decorate the window with the cutest curtains you can find, go for it. But definitely get a shade for behind it. Nap time doesn't work as well when the room is full of sunshine...
I think the overall point is to try to go for functionality over trying to win decorator of the year. When it comes down to it you need a safe, dark, comfortable room for you and your baby. Be sure to ask other moms their advice on what makes a nursery all of those things, for me - its everything mentioned above.
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