It’s such a great feeling to set up the nursery for your new baby. If you’ve found out whether it’s a boy or a girl, you can even plan ahead and ready the nursery and baby furniture accordingly, and stock the room with baby toys to give the baby a grand welcome home for the first time.
Dressing up a nursery is great fun for most expecting mothers – especially all the pink paints and decorations for a little girl. Most mothers secretly hope to conceive a girl.
So how do you give the baby a safe home and the best possible sleep environment? Until now the norm was to decorate the nursery with stimulating and contrasting colors like black and white in the hope of developing the baby’s eyes faster. Off late this trend has lost favor with parents figuring out that it doesn’t really benefit sleep!
You need to ensure that the crib adheres to safety guidelines and that the mattress is nice and firm. Keep to softer pastel colors – blues, greens, pinks and yellows. Any color you like is good, although some, like blues and greens, are more restful.
A great ideea for nursery decor is to put the baby names on the wall – either painted or using big stick-on letters which you can buy at baby stores.
Make sure the bedding and the entire room is clean and fresh. Until your baby is at least a year old, a quilt or comforter should be for decoration only. You can buy specially made quilt clips to hang it on a wall. Your baby’s bed needs to be unobstructed by blankets, pillows or sheets, so that her face is clear at all times and there’s no danger of obstructing her breathing. You might want to have a small foam wedge that’s positioned to keep the baby from rolling on her stomach. You should also keep stuffed animals or other toys out of the crib until the baby’s older. In addition, you may want to purchase a baby monitor to hear your baby throughout the night. These days, some monitors actually show your baby on a screen or video, amazing!
Make the room a pleasant one. If you use a scent, like lavender, keep it light. Nothing overpowering. Keep it as dust-free as possible to avoid sneezing and stuffy noses. The nursery should feel like a safe and cozy place that your baby associates with restfulness and security.