From: krages@ohsu.edu
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Baby Stuff: What are the Essentials?
Date: 14 Dec 92 20:44:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: ohsu.1992Dec14.204455.4420
Organization: BICC - Oregon Health Sciences Univ

Please help!  I am 36 weeks pregnant and still trying to figure out exactly
what baby furniture and paraphenalia we really need. Here's my problem: we live
in a very small house (1200 sq. ft.).  It is a raised house with the carport
under the building.  The main floor has an open living room/dining room area
with one table (for eating), a sofa, a lounge chair and a few end tables.  On
the main floor is also a small U-shaped kitchen and a bathroom.  We also have a
bedroom on the main floor which right now is full of two desks, a twin bed,
many bookshelves and filing cabinets.  EVentually that will be the child's
room.

Upstairs (or two flights up from the ground) is our master bedroom with a
walk-in closet/bathroom/laundry area off it.  And that's it!  So far we have
purchased a crib and mattress, a dresser, a car seat and a stroller in terms of
large size baby stuff.  We are planning to put the crib up in the master
bedroom with us and have the baby sleep in our room for at least the first few
months.  The dresser is already up in the master bedroom and I have a changing
pad that can go on the top of that.  We also have a rocking chair on order
which will go on the main floor in the living room area.

But now that I am getting so close to the birth I am starting to wonder if I
should be getting more baby stuff, for example, a bassinet or cradle, an infant
seat, a play pen.  At this point I don't really have anywhere on the main floor
to put the baby .  I was thinking of using the car seat also as an infant seat,
but is an infant seat a lot better to use?  I was trying to save money and just
have a crib and not a bassinet but that means there is no place for the baby to
sleep on the main floor.  And now some people tell me that a crib seems so
large for a newborn.  

Here's part two of our problem: we have three dogs, all over 10 years old.  My
husband doesn't think there will be a problem but I am still concerned.  I
don't think I can ever put the baby (as a newborn) down on the floor because of
the dogs.  We haven't gotten a playpen/portacrib yet (which I would like to
have) because my husband thinks the dogs will tear up the mesh netting.

So I guess my questions are:
1) What baby stuff is really essential and what is optional?  What kinds of
cheaper things can be substituted for the real McCoy? (For example, I have read
that you can use a laundry basket or a drawer instead of a bassinet - has
anyone really done that?)

2) Where and in what kinds of things do people put babies (i.e.,
newborns/infants) while they are in their general living area - when you want
to put the child down but he/she isn't sleeping?

3)  Has anyone dealt with dogs and babies and how does that affect where you
can or can't put the child?

4) How have people in small houses/apartments managed with babies?

Thanks in advance for any advice.  I really like my house; I just wish it were
larger.  Sometimes I feel bad because we don't have a "real nursery" for the
baby but I think it's just peer pressure and expectations getting to me.  My
mother-in-law is coming to help with the baby the first two weeks so we can't
turn our extra bedroom into a nursery because she needs a place to sleep (and
we also don't know where to put all the desks/books/filing cabinets that are in
there).


Kathryn Pyle Krages
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland, OR 97201
krages@ohsu.edu
4 weeks to go!