Baby in a one bed flat

zimm143

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience or advice to offer on this one. Myslef and OH and would very much like to start a family and really don't want to wait any longer. The problem is our flat is almost certainly in negative equity as we bought in 2006 on 100% mortgage. The situation is not dire as our area of the country is holding up well house price wise (comparativly speaking) but I would estimate it's worth about 20k less than we paid. So we're not going to be able to sell for a while.

How bad would it be having a baby in a one-bed? I mean we've got a least a year before the baby actually arrives and then a year when he/she would be in our room anyway. But if we still can't move after that we may have a problem. Our mortgage provider won't give us permission to let the flat unless we fit very specific criteria, which we don't. Moneywise we are fine, it's just the not being able to issue.

Any advice gratefully recieved.

Z

skylight

You'll get used to it. I promise!

Is the bedroom splittable?? A fake wall to create a small room for a Junior Bed and toy box??

And the absolute worst case scenario is that you leave the baby and wardrobes in your room, and you and OH move onto a sofa bed. Worst case though.

(From a Mum with 5 kids and OH in a 2-bed.)

sooz

It's perfectly possible - as you say baby should be with you for the first 6 months to a year anyway.

How big is the bedroom? Any chance of splitting it up, or rearraning the furniture so you could divide the room with (say) a wardrobe to give a little privacy?

Other than that, declutter as much as possible before the baby arrives, & sort out lots & lots of storage (floor to ceiling if poss ). Then don't buy too much baby crap - you don't need half of it anyway.

Other than that, consider a sofa bed in the living room, either for you to sleep in full time, or just for atleast one (alternate!) of you to have a quieter place to sleep before baby sleeps through fully.

nadnad

if you wait for the perfect circumstances to have a baby you'll never do it. think about it carefully - is your bedroom a reasonable size? would you fit a cot into ok? is the living room a good size? room for baby stuff? though actually the more room you have the more you tend to fill it up with.

if you dont go for it now, like you said it could be 2 years or more before you sell your flat and do you want to wait that long? who's to say what way house prices will go - you could be waiting longer than that! you wouldnt know any different so you'd get used to it and use the space wisely.

it might be a little bit tough, no space to get away and have a break to yourself, but only you know if you could deal with that.

zimm143

Thanks everyone for your replies, really helpful. I'm not sure we could split the bedroom, although maybe if we took out the large fitted wardrobe. Could certainly get a screen at least. That's the difficult thing about this recession, suddenly life really isn't going the way we planned! I guess babies don't remember anything before they are 3 or so, so it's not like they'd remember their cramped start in life! No doubt our various parents will think we are mad....although we have much more cash then they had when they started out, but just fewer rooms! Sofabed is another good idea - can you get ones that are suitable for sleeping on night after night?

lolababy

Hi we brought our son into the world in a one bedroom tiny flat. We managed fine until we bought our present home when he was 14 months old. Try to have a declutter before the baby arrives and get shelves. We had a bed that we could store stuff under and every nook and cranny had a purpose.
We were very tidy, not now though,. more room more junk lol. Id say that you can get away with the arrangement until the toddler stage.
In the old days family was large and people brought up children in two up two downs so it can be done.

skylight

Clic Clac style are apparently good sofabeds. Also try http://www.wallbed.co.uk/Wallbeds-in-Studios.php for something different!

globalds

We had our kids in Japan and tthe apartment was one room with a sliding door as bedroom .
We used a Futon which is a bed you can roll up in the day .
The kids loved having us all together easily within arms reach if they woke in the night.
We moved when the oldest was four so don't really know what it would be like as they get older ,But I reckon it makes life easier .

jaffacat_2

as said previously declutter and dont buy all the baby stuff,you really dont need it. Can you go into the loft? If so you could store stuff up there whilst you dont need it/declutter. It is perfectly possible I no several couples that have done this in the past and 1 even had 2 babies (2 travel cots that fold away at night - bit of a faff but worked for them)

zimm143

Ooo those wallbeds look very cool. Just shown OH the one table one, very clever and excellent idea if we need to stay here. No loft but are lucky to have lots of cupboards and could always store stuff with the in-laws.

becs

I'd say it isn't ideal because you would need your privacy as well as a child gets older. Of course it is perfectly possible but if you're young enough to wait a couple of years you may well be able to move into a more ideal situation. What would it be like if you had twins for example it's not just about where they sleep at's everything that comes with them too! Alot of my friends have struggled in small 2 bedroomed houses so I imagine that it would be even harder in a 1 bedroom flat. Have you got a garden so at least in summer months you could have more space with baby or toddler in the garden?