One of the first things you'll undoubtedly want to have organised as Birth Day arrives is the nursery. The unpredictability of a baby's emergence into the world means you never quite know when you're going to have to have a room ready.
The good news is, you don't.
While bub is so teeny tiny they don't need much stuff - just some nourishment, a clean dry bum, some clothing and a place to lay their little heads.
BASSINET
I chose to use a bassinet and for the first 23 weeks and 4 days (that's about 5½ months) of her life she slept comfortably in the bassinet right next to my bed. It meant during those restless nights, all I had to do was reach out my arm and pat her to settle her or if she needed feeding or holding, I didn't have to get out of my bed.
Pure, utter laziness on my behalf. No regrets.
After copious amounts of research (Choice magazine, Australian Safety Standards, ACCC, productsafety.gov.au, Product Review websites and word of mouth recommendations), I decided on the Tasman Eco Amore bassinet. It was from either Baby Bunting or Baby Mode. I liked the clean design and the castors so that I could effectively "rock" baby to sleep if required. It was portable and could easily be moved from room to room. I bought two fitted mattress protectors for the bassinet, and two cotton fitted sheets.
Baby was happy in it until she started flailing her arms around and rolling onto her tummy to sleep. Then she needed more room.
COT & KING SINGLE BED
Although baby was about 5½ months old when she started sleeping through the night in her cot, she started having day time naps in her cot much earlier at about 3½ months old. The cot was in her own bedroom.
I chose the Tasman Capri Cot and latex mattress. If you choose this model, be wary when buying sheets because cot mattress sizes differ. In 2014, the Boori and Tasman were slightly bigger cots and Target fitted sheets only just fit on the mattress. Big W fitted sheets were better on the cot mattress.
The Tasman Capri cot apparently turns into a toddler bed but I didn’t realise that until after I onsold it. I had absolutely no intention of ever using or buying a toddler bed. I couldn't see the point of having to transition from a cot, to a small bed, to a bigger bed within such a short space of time. I'd already bought a King Single bed (with matching dressing table and bedside table) from Snooze, for the baby's room which would act as a refuge for me if I was tired, and it would later become her "grown up girl" bed.
Even as a baby, she would lay on the King Single with me for story-time before I transferred her into the cot for bedtime.
Toddler beds just seemed to be an unnecessary cost in what is already an expensive exercise.
CHANGE TABLE
Sticking with the Tasman Eco theme, I opted for the Tasman Eco Turin Changetable.
I loved it and would go so far as to say, my back wouldn't have coped without my changetable. It was on castors so I could wheel it to the kitchen where I bathed bub and wheeled it back to her room while she was wrapped up in her towel. I bought one thick changetable mattress plus two fitted change table covers from Baby Bunting. I used it until Miss Lu was about 3 years old - to change her into a night time nappy, before going to pullups.
There was adequate space to store nappies, wipes, creams and much more on the two tiers below the table.
GRO EGG ROOM THERMOMETER
I never thought to buy one of these until months after Lulu was born. It's certainly not a necessity, but has been one of the more useful gadgets and money well spent. It is particularly handy during summer and winter to monitor the room temperature.
More importantly, It’s also a nice night-light. If you can get one with a clock as well as the temperature it’d be perfect. We still use ours 6 years on.
SNUZA HERO BABY MONITOR
This was a good buy for peace of mind. I was particularly terrified of the risk of SIDS so this calmed my anxiety whilst I got used to being a first time mother. The Snuza is a small apparatus that clips onto baby’s nappy and monitors their tummy movements for breathing. If there’s no movement detected for 20 seconds, it vibrates to awaken bub and if there’s still no movement it sounds a loud alarm. It was nice to know that bub was being monitored throughout the night. However it did have a tendency to come loose on my baby because she rolled around so much. That meant lots of false alarms.
At about 7 months old, I took it off her and it was retired then onsold.
D-LINK BABY MONITOR
I bought this baby monitor because it has an app for use on iphone and ipad. The D-Link drops out if there’s no wifi so it can be a pain in the arse. When it does work, it’s great to see what your baby / toddler / child is up to. It can also be used as a kind of CCTV monitor when you’re not in the house! Perfect for busting the babysitter when they’re not looking after your child properly. (Yes - it did happen and did result in a prompt dismissal).
However, the vision quality is poor when you’re used to seeing broadcast quality.
I would suggest shopping around for a better monitor, but definitely recommend some kind of monitoring device in baby's room.
There are a bazillion nursery items available but my advice would be just stick to the basics. If there is one thing that I may have found useful in a nursery and didn't have, it would have been a nursing chair. However, we got through without one and the King Single bed doubled as extra room to relax with baby. Happy shopping!
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