If you don't have the ideal living situation

sasky · December 2013

Whether it's bedrooms (number or arrangement or size), square footage, lots of stairs, etc. How are you going to make it work with multiples, or how are you doing it currently? Do you have plans to address your concerns, or will you stick it out?

I'm increasingly stressed about our bedrooms. Our house has 3 BRs, 2 up and 1 down. We are in one of the upstairs bedrooms and our almost 4-year-old is in the other. We'll have the babies in our room for the first few months or so. After that I'm not sure what to do. We've talked about moving our boy downstairs, but that BR is a little far away for my comfort. We're also in serious talks about adding on, I'm just very concerned about costs and timing.

Also, I love our house and the location, but one of my biggest pet peeves is all the stairs. There's a stone stairway from the driveway up to a walk way, then a wooden one up to the main entrance. The thought of lugging two babies up them is keeping me up at night.

I know people make it work in a lot tougher situations, so I apologize if I sound whiny. I'm pretty sure DH thinks I do.

Rynleigh · December 2013

I have four kids and we live in a 3br. DH and I are in one, my girls are in one, and the boys are in one. However, all of our bedrooms are on the same floor - I'd imagine it would be stressful having to have one of the rooms on another floor... because of my anxieties, I prefer to have my room between the entrances to the house and my childrens' rooms - so if the entrance to the home was on the ground floor, I'd move DH and I into that one, and have the children upstairs. If the downstairs was a basement floor and the entrance was on the top floor, I'd go ahead and move the 4yr old downstairs and keep myself and the babies on the upper floor. Stairs are something you're going to need to deal with, whether it's at your home or elsewhere. If you can afford to add on, it might very well be worth it just to have all the bedrooms together and not be so stressed about it.

ks3pink · December 2013

We bought a house. We were living in a 3 bedroom single wide trailer and bought an 1800 square foot 4 bedroom modular home. We had planned on buying in a couple of years but moved things up with some help from my parents with the down payment. It's nice and definitely enough but we'd like more room in the future just for our benefit.

carrotcake06 · December 2013

We currently rent a 3br 1bath, 1000 sf row home/townhome. The third bedroom can fit a single bed and not much else. I'm pretty sure people have walk in closets bigger than this room.

We have H and I in the biggest bedroom, the babies share the next biggest bedroom and my oldest has the small bedroom. We just switched the kids' rooms when we set up the second crib a few weeks ago (the twins sleep in RNPs).

We will be buying a house as soon as one comes on the market that meets our many, specific criteria. We're insanely picky and okay with waiting...for now.

Honestly, the size isn't as much of a deal breaker as the location. We're in a crappy school district and with a move less than 5mi away, we're in one of the best in the state. So we have to be out by the time our oldest hits K, which is fall 2015.

BabyCarryingVessel · December 2013

@sasky, you described my home, except two rooms downstairs and one upstairs, which is our master bedroom. I just wanted to tell you that we put the girls in their downstairs room starting around three months (they sttn at that point). At first I had some anxiety sleeping on separate floors, but now I feel perfectly comfortable with video monitors.

sjirishgirl · December 2013

BabyCarryingVessel said:
@sasky, you described my home, except two rooms downstairs and one upstairs, which is our master bedroom. I just wanted to tell you that we put the girls in their downstairs room starting around three months (they sttn at that point). At first I had some anxiety sleeping on separate floors, but now I feel perfectly comfortable with video monitors.

This is pretty much our situation. Except the twins are not here yet. I plan on having them with us till 3 mo like I did with dd.
I'm a huge fan of video monitors.

24karat · December 2013

We're making do with our situation since a move isn't possible for a while. When we bought our house (a 1,100sqft single story home with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom in a perfect location) we only had one baby...then we had a surprise pregnancy that ended up being twins. Needless to say our perfect starter home is now quite cramped. DD has one bedroom while our boys share the master bedroom with DH and I. Unless something changes and we're able to buy a different house soon, we're planning to either section off part of our bedroom for our twins or squeeze all three into DD's room. It's just barely big enough to fit two cribs and a toddler bed so the dressers etc will have to be in our room if we do that second option. Either way it's going to be tight so we'll just deal till we can afford an upgrade.

JocelynB0911 · December 2013

We have a 5br home with two of the rooms downstairs. We moved dd down there while I was still pregnant and it was nerve wracking at first. It got much easier after a couple of weeks.

MrsP419 · December 2013

We live in a 1300 sq double wide trailer with three bedrooms. The issue for us is not the bedroom sizes (as they are very nice), but the fact that besides the bedrooms and bathrooms, the whole rest of the house is one common area. There is no separate space for storage, office, toys, etc. Right now, my husband and I have the master bedroom, my son and daughter share a bedroom, and the third bedroom is a playroom. I intend to keep the babies with us for about 5 or 6 months (same length of time I had my other two with me), and then I guess make room in the playroom for two cribs somehow. It will be tight, but I am sure we will be OK until we are able to move. In the meantime, I am trying to purge and conserve space as much as I can!

yinyang124 · December 2013

We still live in a (pretty large) one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. We just find ways to make it work.

ShannonSky · December 2013

We are moving. We are currently in a 3br, but my DH works from home, so he needs one of the bedrooms for an office (we don't have any other rooms with doors). So right now we have our older girls in one bedroom, DH has his office, and we're in the master. We're trying to figure out if we should move before the babies are born or after (before would be better, but we're not sure we can sell our house for what we need that quickly). If we wait until after, they'll just have to be in our room until we do move.

Mama-Bear · December 2013

We moved. We lived in a 2BR 1BA 864sqft starter home. We always planned to have 2 kids there and the kids would share. To our surprise #2 turned into #2 and #3 and it really wouldn't have been possible to fit 3 kids in the tiny 9x11 nursery. We moved in our new house when I was 17w (we listed our home when I was 11w).

SamanthaJoD · December 2013

Love this discussion, so interesting to see how others are managing with tight spaces. We have a 1200 sq ft townhouse with three bedrooms. Besides the small size, the other downside is we live in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood. It was pretty easy to convert one of the rooms to a nursery when we found out we were pregnant, but with two growing kids I think we will outgrow this house pretty fast! Also, we are using mini cribs which were much easier to fit in the smallish nursery than the standard size. I would rather not move for as long as possible...small house = small mortgage = comfortable budget and savings/investing. We'll reassess the situation in a couple of years.

Dena526 · December 2013

We are in a one bedroom apartment in Queens, NY. We started looking for bigger places, but some rents are so high (we are right on the ocean so people pay for the beach I guess)... We have realized that we can make it work for a while. We are going to rearrange living room and bedroom furniture, I am giving up one of the hallway closets that I used for my clothes - I have my closet in the bedroom also - we are clearing out an area in the apartment where we have our bikes and other things... The apt is a decent size, it will be tight, but we can make it work

not letting it stress me out.

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