The Essential Nursery Hacks You Need For Your Baby

You’re expecting a baby. Congratulations! As a mom-to-be, it is fair to say that you are probably overwhelmed by the excitement and the preparations. There is a lot to prepare at home before you can welcome your bundle of joy. The nursery room is typically the last thing that future parents get to work on. Indeed, some parents are keen to use the typical gender decor and colors in the room – typically, you find out during your mid-pregnancy ultrasound, however, if the baby isn’t in an appropriate position, you might find out much later. Even gender-neutral decors are generally left until the last trimester. Call it superstition, but many parents-to-be are worried that finishing the nursery room too early might bring “bad luck”. Besides, it is fair to say that, if you’re working full time, you don’t have the opportunity to work on decor and preparations before your maternity leave. 

The nursery room demands a lot of attention. It serves a double purpose, as it is both a bedroom and a utility room in which you can feed and change your baby. In other words, you will find yourself struggling to create a list of everything you need to fit in there, from the crib to the changing table. We’ve asked experienced moms what they wish they had in their nursery room. 

 

Picture source: Pixabay - CC0 License 

Don’t trust the nappies

Whether you choose sustainable and washable ones or the traditional disposable model, you will rapidly learn a harsh truth about nappies. They don’t over 100%, especially during the first few months of nursing. Indeed, most new parents have experienced the loose nappy situation, in which they accidentally don’t put the nappy on correctly. Such accidents are prone to occur. After all, babies move a lot, and it takes time to learn the proper gestures! Additionally, the baby’s intestines are also going through a long learning process to digest food – remember that during the pregnancy, the digestive tract is not in use. To put it plainly, there will be a lot of explosive poos, diarrhea, and other unpleasant surprises that can squeeze out of the nappy. As your baby gets older, that side of things improves significantly. But in the meantime, you need to make sure nappy incidents don’t ruin his bed – the Newton Baby waterproof crib mattress is an essential nursery bedding item. Make sure to always have plenty of wipes at the ready when you get to clean your baby. 

Help those little lungs to breathe happily

Breathing is an entirely new activity for your baby. Babies are highly vulnerable to congestion because their immune system is not yet used to dry air. During the colder months of the year, your baby is more likely to catch a cold or a respiratory infection as a result of indoor heating. Indeed, your heater creates an unnatural dry environment at home, which can facilitate stuffy noses and dry sinuses among babies. The addition of a humidifier in your nursery can make a significant difference to the health of your baby. You have a choice of warm or cool humidifiers – many doctors recommend the cool alternative to prevent burns among toddlers and pets. Ideally, you should also keep an indoor sensor that monitors air humidity in the nursery room. 

Something soothing you can take everywhere

Without a cute mobile, your nursery is incomplete. However, more often than not, parents opt for a crib-mounted mobile. While it is a simple option, it’s also worth noting that you may not be able to take the mobile with you when you travel. Babies and toddlers find reassurance and soothing in the use of a mobile at night or before nap time. Traveling to visit relatives or go on holiday without a mobile alternative can affect your baby’s sleeping pattern – and results in crankiness for everyone! It’s a good idea to buy a cute fan-attachable mobile from Fandangling for the nursery. Indeed, you can rapidly set it to any ceiling fan – it only takes a few minutes to secure – and use it to put your child to sleep anywhere. For new parents who travel a lot, this is a life-changing gadget! 

A bookshelf for you and your baby

Reading to your baby is the perfect way of introducing new concepts and building their memory and vocabulary skills. A lot of pregnant women also choose to read aloud during the last months of the pregnancy to encourage the baby to recognize their voices. You need to make room in the nursery for a bookshelf where you can keep suitable books for your baby. You can read a story to soothe them to sleep, for instance. Making it a habit to read aloud actively encourages your child to learn more words and understand the world around them. Additionally, you have to be prepared for long and sleepless nights as a parent. Young babies need feeding several times throughout the night. New moms and dads go through exhausting months before their baby can sleep through the night. You should keep a couple of books for yourself on the shelf, to keep you company as you soothe your baby to sleep. 

Everybody loves music

Listening to music relaxes the mind and lifts your mood. In babies, music greatly contributes to their sensory and cognitive development. Experiments have demonstrated that fetuses that were exposed to 70 hours of classical music show advanced motor and linguistic skills within the first six months of their lives. For young babies, music only affects their emotional development, helping them to relax and sleep, for instance. You may not want to build a stereo directly in the nursery. However, you could get a voice-controlled assistant such as Alexa or Google Home to tune in to your baby’s playlist on-demand. It’s a good idea to create a variety of playlists, including lullabies and nursery rhymes, classical music, jazz — which can be highly relaxing –, and even a few child-friendly pop songs! After all, the world of music is varied. Why limit yourself to only one genre? 

You might want to buy that teddy twice

Babies can form an obsessive attachment to a soothing item in their nursery room. Whether it’s the teddy bear they receive when they were born or the small blanket you bought for their Christening ceremony, the item can become an essential part of their everyday life. The attachment can appear within the first six months and continues well into toddler’s age. It is perfectly normal. More often than not, your child will grow out of the habit in their own time. In the meantime, the old teddy provides a sense of security as they begin to explore the world. Unfortunately, small soft toys and blankets are very easy to lose when you’re taking your baby for a walk in the stroller. You might not even notice that the beloved teddy has fallen at the bus stop or on your way to the park. Therefore, you should be prepared and always have an identical replacement at the ready. Buying two soft toys or small blankets will not break the bank, but it will advert many emotional crises! 

Keep the walls washable

Do you remember when we said that babies are learning to digest during the first months to years of their lives? For anybody who requires a clear translation, it means that you’ll have to go through a lot of cleaning, from diarrhea to vomit. It’s unpleasant, but new parents have to be ready for it. You can’t afford to wear anything that isn’t easy to wash when you have a baby. More importantly, you have to think of the nursery decor in terms of washability. If you can wipe the walls with a sponge to remove unwanted stains – did we mention that babies can expel food in the most explosive manners? – you are going to struggle to keep the room clean. 

You need a few sneaky snacks

Caring for a young baby is exhausting. Your body needs to recover from pregnancy. However, you can’t spend the day relaxing in bed. You need to look after your baby, and that includes staying up late in the middle of the night to feed him and soothe him back to sleep. You might need a boost to stay up. A smart mom has chosen to keep a few snacks in her baby’s room, so she can fuel her body while she’s nursing. You might want to take inspiration from her genius tip and prepare for yourself a small drawer of healthy energy bars. 

The indispensable chair that makes everything better

Breastfeeding moms can struggle at first. Indeed, breastfeeding is not easy to learn. It might take you several weeks before you and your baby feel comfortable with it. You can, however, ease the process if you pick a chair that helps you to maintain a cozy position. Your breastfeeding chair will be a formidable ally as you feed your baby. Indeed, babies are heavy; therefore, padded armrests can be a life-savior if you want to still feel your arms after 20 minutes! 

Hopefully, this little guide has helped you to fill the gaps in your nursery room decor. Remember to enjoy every minute of your journey as a parent. But, making it less stressful is the job of a well-designed nursery room.