Moving soon after baby is born...

[meresal]

Has anyone done this.

We are building a house and I am accepting the fact that we are not going to be in the house before the end of April. We are currently in a 1200 sq ft, 2 bdrm apartment. If we do get into the house, it is going to be a miracle.

How did you handle everything?

Did you set the crib up, or just use a bassinnet until getting to the permanant place to set everything up? Most likely I am expecting the house to be done before our little one is 2 months old.

I am having a hard time going out and picking things out, because I know that we have no where to put any of it right now.

 

[phoenixgirl]

I think the crib depends on what you envision your sleeping arrangements will be like. Do you think you''ll want the baby in the room with you right at first? If so, you might as well use a bassinet in your bedroom the first two months and wait for the new house to set up a crib. Many parents wind up keeping the baby in with them for longer than they originally planned, so this might save you some trouble.

Will you be hiring movers? If yes, then you could set up the crib just to give yourself more flexibility. If no, then I''d probably save yourself the trouble and just assemble it in the new place.

We moved Claire from her Cosleeper in our room to her crib in her room at 4 weeks, FWIW.

 

[Burk]

We''re in an almost identical situation. We''re building a house and while we know for sure we won''t be in when the baby gets here, we''re still not certain when we will be in. Most likely we will be moving into our new house when the baby is around 3 months and so I am pretty certain he will be in his crib by then (T was in hers by 6 weeks). We currently live in a 4 br home and so we made a nursery in this home for now. I didn''t go crazy and paint the walls or change the curtains (it was a guest room before and had white roman shades that work fine) but he has a room. And, not really on topic, but what is your new house going to be like? Are you excited for its completion?

 

[mrssalvo]

I agree that what you choose as your sleeping arrangements will help you to decide. I didn''t move Jake into his own room at night until he was 6 months so I wouldn''t bother setting up the crib if you are going to have to take it down to move it by 2 months. But, if you are going to have the baby sleep in their own room early on than I would go ahead and set it up.

 

[Mara]

hmmm i would just use a bassinet or pack n''play or something portable to start until you know more about if and when you will be moving. the eddie bauer bassinet someone gave us rolls between rooms and we have hardwood so i really like that idea for portability. and i think they left their kid in it for 1-2 months, ours will be primarily sleeping in his crib but the bassinet will come in handy for when we are in LR or similar. babies don''t NEED that much to start which is great.

 

[drk]

I couldn''t care less when our crib arrives, not that we''ve ordered one yet. (Mom said she''d get it for us). I''m planning on putting her in the uppababy bassinet from our stroller for the first couple months anyhow, and intend to have her in the room with us for a while. We''ll see how she likes that. If not, I may be stashing her in the PeaPod I ordered for Christmas until we move her into her room and into a crib.

Personally, I wouldn''t even have it arrive before you move into the new house. One less thing to drag along!

 

[steph72276]

We moved the first time when Andrew was 5 months old. It wasn''t really a planned move, because it was for job promotion. We did have his crib all set up, but we also had movers that took it apart and reassembled it, so it wasn''t a big deal for us. I would probably also just get a bassinet at first to see what your sleeping arrangements will be. I had planned on having Andrew in the room with us for the first 6 weeks or so, but he was in his crib at 2 weeks due to him waking up every time we would move in the least. If you wait until then to see, at least you will know more about the progress of the house...they often take a lot longer than planned as I''m sure you know!

 

[janinegirly]

I went through this exact thing a year ago. Baby born in NYC while we were living in 650sqft apt. Stayed there about 1-2 mo''s and then moved to my mom''s for space/help. Moved to our house when baby was about 5 mo''s. We closed on the house when the baby was 3 mo''s btw.

in the apt we had a bassinet. There really was no room for anything else. PNP was too bulkly and heavy. I did have a crib in my mom''s house but the baby still did not go in there till 4mo''s. When we moved to the house we took the crib with us. It was exhausting (not to mention the dead of winter) but it''s doable!

 

[Blenheim]

We moved when George was 7 months old. We moved from Michigan to Virginia and not just across town, so some of what we did may seem extreme for your situation and you certainly can pick and choose if you want to do any of it, but what I''d recommend is just buying things for the newborn stage. That''s it. You do not need a high chair until the baby is 6 months or so, and we stretched it out to 7 by feeding him on the floor. You do not need an exersaucer or jumperoo before 4-5 months (we stretched this to 7 as well). You do not need many toys at all for a 2 month old - maybe a couple of rattles. You won''t need need a crib - worst case is pack and play in the nursery for a month or whatever. I didn''t want to have to acquire stuff and then move it.

You''ll need a bouncy or a swing or some place to put baby, but you probably won''t need both. If possible, put this off until after baby''s here because some babies really prefer one over the other. Our bouncy chair folds flat and took up very little space in the move. You''ll need an infant (or convertable) carseat, maybe a snap and go, some clothes (but not a ton - people love to give them as presents so I wouldn''t buy any), receiving blankets, diapers, baby carrier, bottles/pump/formula/whatever you need to feed. We focused on absolute basics. You can get the rest as you need it.

Gotta go, George just woke up.

 

[janinegirly]

oh and in terms of all the "stuff" (crib, dresser,etc) we put in my mom''s/parents house for storage until the move. Since I was there a few months anyway, it worked out. But we really didn''t need that stuff the first few months. Do you have any family who could let you store things?

 

[february2003bride]

We built a house while I was preggo with DS #1 and moved into it when he was 3 months old. We were renting a tiny 1000 sq. feet 3 level condo during the year we built our house. All I had set up for DS was his bassinet in our room, a changing table in the hall, and I had a bouncy seat in the family room. Once we moved into our house it was like Christmas opening up all of our boxes! We had stuff from our wedding and then the baby shower (DS was born exactly 9 months after our wedding

) that we hadn''t seen in ages! Babies really don''t need that much stuff in the beginning. It''s when they get a bit older that the house gets cluttered!

 

[janinegirly]

Date: 12/17/2009 3:31:54 PM
Author: february2003bride
We built a house while I was preggo with DS #1 and moved into it when he was 3 months old. We were renting a tiny 1000 sq. feet 3 level condo during the year we built our house. All I had set up for DS was his bassinet in our room, a changing table in the hall, and I had a bouncy seat in the family room. Once we moved into our house it was like Christmas opening up all of our boxes! We had stuff from our wedding and then the baby shower (DS was born exactly 9 months after our wedding

) that we hadn''t seen in ages! Babies really don''t need that much stuff in the beginning. It''s when they get a bit older that the house gets cluttered!

ha, same here except for us DD was born exactly 12 mo''s after our wedding (1 year anniv)!
I agree bassinet, stroller, bouncy seat and bath tub are main essentials (other than diiapers, feeding items and clothes of course). Diaper changing table is nice but not necessary, you can use the bed (we did in the apt).

 

[meresal]

Thank you so much everyone!

I think that we will just change our sleeping plans based on when we get into the house. I won''t have a problem with having the bassinet in our room, I just worry about DH''s alarm going off in the morning. I guess I can always fall alseep on the couch if I think that the baby will sleep past DH''s alarm in the morning.

DH''s parents have 3 storage facilities, and they are letting us borrow one. It is currently filled with wedding gifts that we won''t open till getting in the house, and will soon be filled with baby furniture. I like the idea of going ahead and getting everything, and then just having the moving company deliver all of it unused and NEW to the house.

I just wanted to make sure that not setting up the crib and all the bedding was going to be ok. Thank you for your reassurance! Now just to figure out what to do with my mom since she will be staing with us the first couple weeks... Guess it''s the pull out in the spare bedroom for her, or we can go ahead and replace the couches in there with a new daybed that we will use in the houses 4th bedroom.

Burk- I''ll be excited for the completion once I can be excited about the start! lol They haven''t done anything to the lot yet, and DH and I are getting increasingly frustrated. We first signed the purchase agreement the last week of September. It has been almost 3 months, and absolutely no house progress has been made. Everytime we get frustrated though, it seems that something new gets done, miraculously.

The house will be about 2100 sq ft, 4 bdrm, one story. I can''t wait to be living in it!
What type of house are you building??

 

[janinegirly]

meresal: it''s defiinitely ok and actually a better idea (not having full crib set up for baby), since it''s likely to gather dust! But it is good to have it chosen, purchased,etc. so it''s one less headache for when you are ready! You''ll work it out once the baby''s here--either the baby will already be up when your DH''s alarm goes off, or you can have him use his phone as an alarm--I did that since I also woke up for work. Put it on vibrate under my pillow. Whatever works, right?

 

[Burk]

Frustrating that they haven''t made very much progress in that amount of time!! I''m not sure where you live, but will weather slow the process? That''s our problem. We have had our lot since last May but chose to wait to break ground for construction for various reasons so we won''t be breaking ground until the end of January at the soonest because it''s really cold here with a ton of snow on the ground.

Ours is 2600 square ft. levels 1 and 2 and 1200 Sq. ft in the basement. Master on main floor, 3 BR up and 2 BR down. It was designed to look like a Craftsman style home and we''re very excited to see how it turns out. Have you made a lot of the design decisions like paint colors and flooring yet? That stuff made my head spin!

 

[Pandora II]

Mer, we moved while I was pregnant, but due to legal battles etc we had done nothing to the house at all. Daisy has a room, but it is still a junk/office storage room - but has a changing table and chest of drawers in it.

She has an Arm's Reach mini Co-Sleeper in our room that she grew out of at around 6 months, but she's been sleeping in with us pretty much since she was 10 weeks. We have a bath or shower together in the morning (and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day if we are really bored!) so the baby bath was redundant pretty early. DH always uses the changing mat, but I tend to just change her on my knee.

IMHO all you need is: a sleeping place of some description whether that is your bed, a P'NP, co-sleeper, moses basket etc; changing mat; stroller; carseat; carrier (I have a Baby Bjorn, a mai tei and a Tricotti sling - if I was starting again I would just buy the mai tei); lots of blankets, terries (great burp/spit-up cloths), towels; toiletries and somewhere to put clothes.

- The mini co-sleeper has a section underneath that is great for storing sheets/towels/nappies and side pockets for wipes/diaper cream/pacis etc which is really useful.

ETA: Good advice on waiting re: bouncer/swing etc - I bought D a bouncer and she has always hated it, she loved a friend's swing that we tried her in (when she was 2lbs off the weight limit

). Small babies are also un-interested in toys till about 6-8 weeks when rattles are useful. Jumperoo/Exersaucers are good from 4-5 months+.

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 12/17/2009 12:37:01 PM
Author:meresal
Has anyone done this.

We are building a house and I am accepting the fact that we are not going to be in the house before the end of April. We are currently in a 1200 sq ft, 2 bdrm apartment. If we do get into the house, it is going to be a miracle.

How did you handle everything?

Did you set the crib up, or just use a bassinnet until getting to the permanant place to set everything up? Most likely I am expecting the house to be done before our little one is 2 months old.

I am having a hard time going out and picking things out, because I know that we have no where to put any of it right now.

We didn''t purchase a mattress for her crib until she was about 2 months old

Here''s just my opinion: the most important things are feeding, diapers/wipes, and a place for him to sleep. All of the other stuff is extra and can wait. Even a changing table/area. We change Sophia''s diaper wherever.

Re: the alarm, this is going to sound weird but Sophia was used to it. I don''t know if she just got used to it from being in the womb or not but it would go off and not wake her. What would wake her is me putting my arm under my pillow