We thought it might be interesting to record some of our baby plans pre-baby and see how they compare to reality with baby.
1) Should we paint the baby room blue or pink?
Both of us decided we didn’t want to know if we were having a son or daughter ahead of time, but lucky for us teak is a very gender neutral wood making the baby room colour choice a non issue. However we did have to decide which room would become baby’s. We currently have two state rooms to choose from: the office/bunk bed room (currently known as the man cave) or the aft stateroom. In the end we went for the bunk bed room, for a few reasons:
1. The desk is a great ready-made change table
2. It is easier to turn the bunk into a crib with a lee cloth than the aft stateroom bed
3. It is the smaller room, leaving us with more space and the potential to have guests on board (assuming they still want to sleep on board….)
However, the soon to be baby den requires some small changes:
1. We are going to remove the top bunk for now. This just gives more space to maneuver in the room
2. We will also have to take out our office stuff…. Well the printer can stay, but the stuff in the drawers will have to find another home. This includes our files, so we will have to come up with some new storage places. We have plenty of empty storage place, so it is only a matter of thinking, planning and reorganizing. Given that baby will grow into small person, future small person deserves his or her own space!
3. Babies need to sleep on a firm surface, so the bottom bunk mattress may need an upgrade to a firmer mattress
2) But what about a bassinet?
We definitely don’t have room for a bassinet in our room. Well technically a small one would probably fit, but that would leave us without any room to walk. Current ideas for co sleeping at the beginning include a basket or box on the table in our room, or maybe a drawer. Clearly not completely sorted out yet
3) Where to put the nursing chair?
Although everyone we know who has just had a baby swears by a nursing chair, we don’t foresee this as being a very practical choice for us. For Kristine’s recent birthday, Kolby gave her a single point hammock. Sometimes we set this up inside by opening the hatch and hanging it off of the boom. The last time we did this it occurred to us that if we installed a mounting point inside the boat, the hammock could function as a boat version of a rocking chair: it can swing or rock, it holds Kristine in a comfortable semi reclined position and it is easy to get in and out of. But most importantly it can be unhooked and put away. And we already own it!
4) High chairs, baby proofing and other stuff.
The high chair was an easy one; ages ago we met a couple with their baby on board and they were using a high chair that clamped onto the table. Perfect!
Boats are already pretty baby proof, if you ignore the heavy machinery, 4′ bilges and the whole surrounded by water thing. What already comes standard is rounded corners, latched cupboards, and a built in jungle gym. We are still thinking about whether or not we will put netting on the lifelines. We have lots of time for that decision though!
In terms of toys and other bits like strollers and whatnot, we shall see what happens. Ideally baby will fit with us into the space, rather than take over it. We live more simply and with less stuff because we live on a boat. Baby will just have to follow suit!
