Nursery on a different floor

StephanieMJarvis

Hi! I was just checking in on here to see if there are any mom's who have had their nursery on a different floor.  We bought our home a year ago - and we are in the process of talking about having a baby.  At the time I didn't think about it - but the layout of our home may not be the best for this.  We have a 3 story home, with the 1st floor with an office & guest room, 2nd floor living room, 3rd floor is only the master bedroom and bath.  I'd think I'd plan to have the baby in our room at first just until they are sleeping through the night, and then consider having a nursery on the 1st floor and of course have a video baby monitor for night time.

We live in an extremely safe neighborhood, and our house isn't huge (1800 sqft) so we'd of course always have our doors open but I wanted to see anyone elses opinions on this or if anyone has had a similar situation.  A lot of my new mom friends have said that they with their bedroom doors closed, they rely on their baby monitors so it's not too big of a difference, plus during the day at nap time i'm only about 5 stairs away from the nursery if I were in the living room.  But of course there is a safety issue, so I wanted to see thoughts.

Thank you!

ss265

I live in Texas and it is very common for most houses to just have the master on the ground floor and all other bedrooms on a second level, if you have a 2 level house. Our nursery is on the second floor and our master is on the ground floor. I really like having the nursery on a different floor because after LO goes to bed, my husband and I can do things in the kitchen, watch TV etc. without worrying about making too much noise that will wake LO. We even had a party in our house over the weekend after LO went to bed and the noise didn't bother him too much.

However, our nursery is used just as a place to sleep. Diaper changes, clothing changes etc. all happen on the ground floor in our bedroom. We have a three drawer plastic container that holds the clothes that LO currently uses in our bedroom. We use a video monitor to watch him after he goes to sleep and we are vigilant about making sure it's plugged in to charge at night and that the sound is on. For the first few months, he slept in our room to make breastfeeding at night easier but we transitioned him to the nursery at 5-6 months once he was down to one night feeding. He only started sleeping through the night at around 18 months.

I think having a nursery on the ground floor is doable but I would be concerned if someone broke in, in the middle of the night since his room is on a lower floor. Of course, with our set up, a burglar could easily walk past our room to the stairs and access the baby room so maybe I am overthinking it. Do you have an alarm system or a dog for extra safety?

dufferoo

We have our bedroom upstairs and the nursery on the main floor, and it's not ideal but it works. When our son was little, he didn't sleep well in our room, so I ended up sleeping on the couch a lot so I was closer by for middle-of-the-night feedings. Now that he sleeps through the night, we feel fine and safe enough just using the video monitor. There have been a few times that the monitor went out in the middle of the night, and then I felt super-guilty when I woke up, even though he was totally fine in morning. (It is hard to find a video monitor that is 100% reliable. On our top-rated Motorola, the charging port has gone bad twice.) The other issue that I foresee coming up will be once our son gets old enough to open his door on his own. I don't exactly want him trying to climb the stairs in the middle of the night. The one other negative is that, with his nursery on our main living floor, we have to be extra-quiet during naps and after bedtime. Even lawnmowers, etc. in the backyard sometimes wake him. But all in all, it is what it is. You can't always buy a new house whenever you want one

ebp913

I think having your kids on another floor is about the best thing ever long term.  Our kids are upstairs and we are on the main floor and we can entertain, watch movies, have friends over, etc without waking them after they go to bed.  I love it so much.  Early on when they are really little going up and down is kind of annoying but that's relatively short lived.  Once they start really sleeping through the night it is great. We shut everyone's door in our house and have a video monitor that we love. 

EmmaD312

@ebp913‌ what's the video monitor you like?

ebp913

EmmaD312 said:

@ebp913‌ what's the video monitor you like?

I had literally 6 or 7 different units of the Motorola MBP 36 and had SO many problems.  They finally just issued me a refund and I got the Infant Optics DXR-8.  The range isn't quite as good as the Motorola but I haven't had reliability issues yet.  I've only had it a month or 2 though.  

courtd2

I've been thinking about the same thing. The way my house is set up, has the master bedroom in the basement, and 2 small bedrooms on the main floor. Our california king bed takes up 3/4 of either bedroom, so I would have to do some minor reno's before moving my bedroom upstairs. 

Not sure how I feel about being on a different floor then my LO. 

BC&LM

I don't have this setup, but I can tell you if end up having to have a C-section, you will NOT want to go up and down stairs unless absolutely necessary for several weeks, so I would get something the baby can sleep in for the master bedroom at least for the first month or so, such as a pack and play or bassinet. (You already said you were thinking about doing that; I would just definitely plan on it!)

deux

Here's my odd, biased take on it - when I was a baby, my older brother and I slept in our parents room because it was easier for everyone; the master was ground floor, other bedrooms upstairs. There was a house fire one night that started in the attic, and the whole second story was smoke-filled by the time they woke up and realized. Had we been upstairs alone, we might not have been okay. Smoke alarms did go off upstairs, but they weren't all tied together back then so it didn't wake up my parents for a while.

I've been in two more house fires since then, one major and one minor, the major one being in a new construction home. Anyway, it's enough for me to realize that those things do happen, and when they do you don't want to trek across your house to get your baby out. I understand my opinion is colored by my unlikely experiences, but in our house the rule is that until you can get yourself out of the house in an emergency, you sleep close, preferably in the same room as us. DS is 3.5 and sleeps in our room, but if he wanted I wouldn't have a problem with him going to his room since it shares a wall with ours, and he could probably actually open the window and get outside if we showed him how.

TuscanaBride2B

We live in a 4 level home and DD's nursery and the one on the way will both have their rooms on the top floor. The key for us is having a video monitor (we have a summer infant and love it) which means she can sleep and we can check on her without worrying. In fact I found the monitor helpful because not all sounds are the same. we could look to see if she really needed us or if she was just adjusting or dreaming. 

When DD first came home she was in a bassinet next to my bed for about a month but after that she slept in the crib and we've never looked back. Planning to do the same when DS is born in a few weeks. We also had the pack-n-play in our living room for daytime and for diaper changes - made life easier.

Oh and I had a c-section which did make the stairs hard for a first few weeks but eventually it was a non-issue.

AMarie101

I just posted a similar question! I had asked..... dd is 14 m and we are in the process of building a new home. Planning to ttc and will have lo around time home is done next fall. The home we designed has our master on the main floor, which we thought was a great idea for when we got older. The more I think about it, the more nervous I am about being that far from the kids. I will have a smaller guest room and bath upstairs I can stay in for a yr or two if I want. Should I redo the entire thing to move my master...if I do I will give up the nice master I have planned now (not as much room upstairs)? The other option to keep us all downstairs is is put dd in office on main floor and baby on my room for a year...that seems like a waste of floor 2. Does anyone have a first floor master and how is it?

ss265

@AMarie101, we have a first floor master and I really like it. Before we had kids though, we hardly used our second floor. Our master bedroom and bathroom are huge and I don't think we would be able to have as nice a bedroom if it was on the second floor due to lack of space. I also think you spend more time in the master when it's on the ground floor and it's easier to do laundry since our laundry room is on the same floor as the master.

I would think about re-sale value though, if you put your master on the first floor. Where I live, a first floor master is extremely common and houses with a second floor master are not as appealing to buyers. You might face a similar situation if it's not common to have a first floor master.

ltmacs

Our master bedroom is on the bottom floor, and 2 small rooms upstairs. But it is a raised ranch, so all the bedrooms are at ground level and our bedroom was on the other side of the house as the 2 small rooms.  when our first daughter was born we ended up moving her crib into our bedroom downstairs.  When we had the second baby we all moved upstairs and DD1 now in a room by herself .  My husband and I are in the other small room with DD2 in her crib.  I'm pretty paranoid and was too nervous to have the kids on a different floor. I would be comfortable with it if the kids bedrooms were directly up the stairs, but they they were very far.