Make the crib inviting. First and foremost, invest in a good mattress (ie: organic. I'm not going to get into all the benefits of organic mattresses because that would need to be a whole other blog post, but trust me, go ORGANIC. We purchased a Naturepedic mattress for our daughter and I highly recommend it, but see what will work with your budget). Put a couple "friends", like favorite stuffed animals, in the crib and a spare binky. I've found pacifiers can easily fall out of the crib, even with a bumper, so having a spare helps if baby wants to soothe herself back to sleep in the middle of the night. For awhile, I also had a soft folded blanket (baby size) in there too so that she had something comforting to roll over and put her arm on since she's so used to having me next to her. Make sure the sheets are soft and that you cant feel the coolness of the surely waterproof crib mattress through them.
Room temperature--too warm will make the room stuffy, but too cold and the baby will wake up sooner and have a harder time going back to sleep because she'll be uncomfortable. I've found using a small cool-touch (VERY important, don't want baby to be able to burn herself) radiator style stand up heater in the nursery room works wonderfully.
No clocks allowed. Not having a clock in my daughter's nursery is wonderful. I can simply enjoy the time spent in there with her, without feeling like I'm on a schedule. When I relax her for bedtime at night, I love not having a clock staring at me reminding me that I need to make dinner or my favorite TV show will be starting soon or it's taking longer than usual to get her to bed. It will take as long as it takes and I'll enjoy having that alone time with my baby. No clock is probably the most important part to making the nursery an oasis for the mom. It helps keep the nursery a stress-free place. If you went to Hawaii on vacay, would you bring a clock out on the beach with you? No. You'd want to just enjoy the time spent there. Same should apply for a nursery.
Decorate the room much differently than the rest of the house. You would think that that would be obvious because it's a baby's room and most people would want baby decor, but I thought it should be reiterated. If the nursery fits in well with the rest of the house, then it won't be much of an escape to be in there. I found just painting the walls and having a cute bumper and skirt for the crib did the trick.
Stock the room with a few favorite toys. My daughter loves crawling into her bedroom from the rest of the house to play with the toys we've put in there. Don't do any ones that make noise and music because you'll be sorry when you bump into one while trying to get your baby to sleep.
Keep a good supply of books next to the rocker. My daughter loves being read to and it's a great way to relax her before a nap or bedtime. Plus, babies should be read to often. I keep only the books with cardboard pages in there because my daughter likes to turn the pages and touch the books. I don't want her getting any papercuts from the regular books.
Enjoy!
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| My daughter's nursery (taken while we were in the process of putting stuff away) |
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