Getting ready for the arrival of our first grandchild
You know I am about to be a granny, right? That we are currently getting ready for the arrival of our first grandchild in May? We are counting down the weeks, and chalking off the midwife appointments as the due date approaches.
And of course with the imminent arrival of our first grandchild comes the need for us to think about baby-proofing our house, and maybe turning our smallest bedroom into a nursery. I fully intend to be a hands on granny and cannot wait until we can have sleepovers to give tired mum and dad a break. As I say though the spare bedroom is tiny and once it is cleared of all the rubbish currently in it we want to make sure we make the best use of the space so it serves us well for a good few years. Thankfully we know that this baby is going to be a girl so we can narrow down the soft furnishings and not have to hedge our bets with yellow.
First job after emptying it is to paint the walls as they are still blue from when the room was Jonnie’s when we first moved in (until Caity moved out and he moved to her room). Since then it has been a bit of a dumping ground for suitcases and other stuff we dont really know what to do with, along with a couple of wardrobes that are now falling apart. Oh and there’s a silver blind where half the slats are bent. It’ll all have to go. Not that I mind though, who doesn’t love a bit of interiors shopping?
Once those have all had a lick of paint (we are thinking a nice neutral warm beige (absolutely not calling it magnolia) and some thick curtains with a black out blind, we will then start on the furniture, though the room isn’t big enough for too much furniture so we will need to be a bit clever with the space. We have been looking at small cabin beds from the Children’s Bed Shop as we think this will be the best use of space. We know baby M won’t be in the bed for a while but we want to make it feel like a little girl’s bedroom from the outset.
We have decided to rip up the old carpet too as it is the original carpet and we want to make sure that have a nice new clean floor for her to be sitting and crawling around on. After lots of discussion about carpet vs other types of flooring we have decided to go with engineered wood flooring because it is hard wearing, easy to clean and will be timeless. It will also mean we can create a lovely reading corner for a bedtime story with beanbags and a small rug.
We will organise a side sleeper crib for her which will be beside the bed in the spare bedroom, mimicking the arrangement that Caity and Dan will have at home for the first few months but we want something more permanent in the spare bedroom. We figured that if we get one of the cabin beds with a play area underneath it then we can use it to put toys and bits and pieces so they are out of the way when it isn’t being used. As the little one grows (and hopefully more grandchildren arrive over the coming years) we can then adapt the bed and space as needed. Though I am sure the area needed for toys will also just grow and grow. Honestly, how can small people just need so much stuff?!
We also want to get a small chest of drawers with a changing mat on the top, so that again this can be adapted and when nappies are no longer needed we still have the chest of drawers. If anybody has seen one that is slightly unusual, and already painted do let me know. We have only seen white ones so far and we want something a bit more unusual.
And I also want a rocking chair because I remember sitting for hours with my three when they were tiny in the middle of the night, rocking them back to sleep.
Roll on May!
Image of bunk bed, courtesy of Shutterstock