Tips for Setting Up Your Nursery

Currently pregnant and getting ready to plan out their nursery? Keep reading for more tips on how set up your nursery to make it safer and more functional!

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You will remember I shared Brielle’s Pink, Grey and White Nursery way back before little Miss arrived. You can see the original orientation in the photo above. While it looked super cute all decorated and waiting for her late arrival, I didn’t think some things through and realized changes were needed once she was home. I hope you’ll follow along and find this helpful for you or someone that will be expecting so they learn from our mistakes!

• Consider where you put the crib. I stood at the doorway to take the photo of our original room orientation above. This is fine for a baby that doesn’t move much. But once she started being a rolly polly, having long drapes near her became a safety issue. I also didn’t like how she could look all the way down the hallway simply by standing up and leaning against the railing (which she did often). I wasn’t to be able to sneak in and check on her, if needed, as she’d always see us come and go. Solution: We switched the crib and the changing table.

• Have easy access to the sound machine. We LOVE our Cloud B Sleep Sheep on the Go, especially since it has a Velcro strap to attach to things. Once moving her crib, we hung the sheep on the door which allows us to walk up and press the button to activate the 45 minute cycle without having to walk in her room and disturb her. (UPDATE: We later upgraded to the Dohm white noise machine that stays plugged in and I HIGHLY recommend adding this to your registry instead!)
• Make sure baby can’t lock you out! Opening and closing things is a favorite pass time for babies. With a quick pool noodle hack seen on Pinterest, we were able to make sure Brielle isn’t able to close any of the doors and lock us out. They aren’t the most fashionable accessories but it works!

• Hang the video monitor high and secure the cords. Once moving her crib we needed a spot to hang the video monitor nice and high to get a full view of her crib. We could see if she was just playing or honestly awake from her slumber. By adhering a Command Medium Hook to the wall and using White Cable Clips, we secured the electrical cord along the molding all the way to the outlet to minimize her pulling on anything and it falling. The monitor isn’t shown here (for Internet safety reasons) but you can see where our hook is hung and how the cords run along the molding.
• Consider your lighting. It was pretty obvious when we first brought her home in the pack and play in our room that we needed more lighting to see her for night diaper changes. We purchased a little night light from Walmart and have it on each night so that I could see her, not for her “fear” of the dark. That cute lamp that I made has never been turned on since we have a dimmer in her overhead lighting when we do nighttime storytime.

• Have a spot for mom’s accessories. In the original configuration, there wasn’t much space for my water bottle, Kindle, tissues or an easy spot to grab a pacifier when I was rocking her in the chair. Once we made the switch I used the ledge of the dresser for all those things and life was a lot easier. Tip: Keep more than one pacifier in this spot. Occasionally Brielle will spit out her pacifier and it will drop on the floor out of reach but we luckily could easier grab a back up right within reach with extras on this ledge.
• Move medications and lotions out of reach. Originally I had the books on higher shelves and lotions and baby items on a secondary shelf. Once she was mobile we made that switch quick so they were out of her reach! Seems obvious now but I didn’t think of it at the time. Learn from my mistake before it’s too late!

• Get a humidifier to help with stuffy noses. This was one thing I didn’t put on the registry as I wasn’t sure that we needed it. But when she has her first bout of congestion, we got one right away. We keep it on the toy chest in her room so that it’s somewhat close to her as she sleeps and she can actually get the benefit of the machine. Plus it has a subtle bubbling noise that I think acts like another sound machine as she sleeps when her 45 minute sleep sheep setting has gone off. We’re lucky that she isn’t super interested in it but if you’re concerned put it in a higher spot where they can’t grab it.

UPDATE: If you’re interested in to hear what other babyproofing items have been used in our home (FOR FOUR YEARS NOW as we used it for 2 kids!) go ahead and read this follow up post!