When I had my dd, I slept on the futon in her nursery for months. When I had my ds, the futon was no longer comfortable to me (go figure), so he and I camped out downstairs for months on our ultra comfy sofa.

I love the first nursery pictured plus I think this is an awesome idea. I totally agree that this has to be the best solution. When I have to turn my guest room into a nursery I don't plan on getting rid of the bed but just adding a crib. Thank goodness I have the space.

We kept our guest bedroom and combined it with the nursery items (crib, changing table, etc) and it worked out great for us. We found that Mom, Dad and baby all got a little extra sleep this way. I'm very glad we kept the guest bed in the nursery. Most of our houseguests are the grandparents, and they have all been thrilled to share a room with their only grandbaby (go figure). 9 times out of 10 she sleeps like a rock and wakes up laughing, so it is usually a really pleasant "bunking" experience.

It also works really well for having our friends with families over (they have older children), so we can put them all down for a nap or bedtime in the same room without having to prep anything - it is ready to go anytime someone gets sleepy.

We took this idea and ran with it when things got grim around eight months - gave away the crib, sawed the legs off a cheap double bed Ikea frame, and that is where she sleeps in her room.

If a night turns grim, we crawl in beside her and get the maximum rest possible. One vacation earache with her using a toddler bed made it crystal clear how her bed has helped us be a sleep-maximizing machine around here! Oh for somewhere to lay down...which I now realize, we always have.

I would get a twin if I was doing it again, though! And yes, we get flack on our atypical bed choice. We have rules about when we curl up with her - the first two nights of being sick, after the third wakeup, period.

i had a twin day bed from ikea in my sons room. he was my first born and every little noise i was there to see if he was ok. my second would not sleep unless i was holding her for the first month or two. then i moved her to her swing chair to get a few hrs sleep while she slept there. now she sleeps great waking once a night. i highly recomend the bed in the same room for the first three months at least!!! but eventualy you need to move back to bed with your husband :D

When we had our first daughter, we had a twin bed in her room (DH's childhood bed). It wasn't because we were so smart thinking we might want to use it one day, but because we had the bed already, we were in a 2-bedroom apartment we knew we'd be in for the next 5 years,and that we'd have at least one more child while we were living there. That bed came in handy when she was sick-- she was so good at going down one her own in her crib that taking her to our bed didn't work anymore after about 3 months old.

Then, when she was two, and I was 5 months pregnant with our second daughter, she moved to that twin bed without a hitch. Her sister went in the crib (which we never dismantled) at 6 weeks old.

Now we have a third daughter, and a 3-bedroom house, and that same bed is in the nursery once more.

Since I come from a culture where co-sleeping is a given, my sister got a bed made that was HUGE and fit for her, my brother in law, her two n half year old AND an 8 month old :) The kid slept in their crib right next to the bed till they were around 6-8 month old and then moved over to the bed.

Agree that a bed, or at least a comfortable sofa, is a must in a nursery. We initially put our futon in the nursery because we simply had no other place in the house... and it quickly became a critical addition. We'll definitely plan on having a sleeping space in the rooms of future children.

Can anyone comment on the wisdom or feasibility of having the nursery and master bedroom be one and the same? We will be having a baby soon and moving to DC around the same time. Given the high rental rates, we will have to choose between a one bedroom apartment in the city near my folks, or a two bedroom much further out. I hate the idea of living in the burbs, but will we go nuts sharing a room with an infant?

sshutterbug . . . I raised 4. No one slept in our bed. Parents need their space, so do little ones. If one was sick, I slept in his or her room - on the floor! Everyone is now a well-adjustment, happy adult. We are still a happy couple. If the 1-br city is what you want, use some of the creative ideas on this site to create some kind of a separate space in the 1 bedroom - at least visually separate.

Sshutterbug-- it's even more practical to have a 1 bd with a baby. The reality is, it's often easier to have them in the same bed as you or as close by as possible. It's rotten to have a baby in a room at the other end of a large house, so a 1 bd is just downright practical. Sometimes baby is in your bed, sometimes baby is in his bed.

In the old days, babies and toddlers slept in the same room--or in a nursery right off the master bedroom--for years, like three. It's SO EASY for nursing.

I've known city dwellers that turned larger closets into en suite nurseries for their new babies, or simply had a smaller scale crib in the same room. It's just a lifestyle change, and with a new bundle completely upending your old life, a shared bedroom will be the least of your worries.

Enjoy the city life!

We had the crib in our master bed room, it was the only room big enough to fit it. My son was colicky so sleep was a big issue for him. My husband and I would take turns sleeping in the master bed to watch him. The other would sleep undisturbed on the futon in the den. Getting the straight 4-5 hours of sleep helps with the sleep deprivation.

Unless you already own an extra bed, it makes sense to me to at least buy a bed that would also work as a bed for the child once it leaves the crib - it seems a waste of money not to.

As far back as I can remember, the youngest babies in my family almost always shared their parent's room at first and wound up getting a room at about one or two years of age. I don't have children yet, but I'd probably want to keep them in my room for the first few months and then settle on them having their own room. I need my privacy too!

Bed in the nursery was a lifesaver for us!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3471583&l=61ab53022b&id=721741135

the answer for us was one giant bed until each kids asked for their own bed, around 4 or 5 years old. Now they come sleep with us occasional mornings, but it was a totally natural transition. This is only OK if you are down with co-sleeping, I am not advocating for it as general principle but it worked well for us. I have recently heard co-sleeping described as a "nightly slumber party with your favorite people"

We only need privacy for one thing, and that one thing is usually more fun outside the bedroom anyhow :P

We have a twin bed in baby's room that will be his bed when he moves out of the crib...it's been fabulous for falling asleep nursing and (occasionally) for sleeping with him when he's inconsolable.

My husband takes sleep meds and can't wake up at night with baby...it's awesome to have a place to sleep if I choose without having to worry about waking him. I strongly believe that you need two rooms with a baby---one to be quiet in and one to be loud...because someone is always asleep!

Ditto the author. So few people I know get (or can create) children who sleep well by themselves and so many people I know wasted time, money, and much-need shut eye on ideal cribs & toddler beds. These things may work for some, but using a bed with enough space for an adult with my little dude was the difference between sleep and no sleep for us. It comes in handy now when he gets sick or has sleepless nights...one of us just bunks in!

I've been seeing this idea (bed in nursery) pop up on so many of my favourite design blogs recently. It's such a no-brainer to me, and will definitely be something I do when the time comes. Not sure if I'll do a daybed that I can move to a different room later, or a real bed, but will definitely be doing one of the two.

My parents put a double bed in the nursery when I was born. My mother spent many nights in that bed when I was a newborn. Then, when I was 3 or so and had outgrown my crib, I went straight to the double bed. It made so much more sense than buying a twin only to upgrade later.

Should have also noted that in the very early days (anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months, depending on the child), we always co-slept. No way did I want to get up to go nurse 3-4 times a night! But the bed in the nursery did come in handy after the baby moved out of our room.

Our son's room is tiny. No room for the daybed I'd hoped for. But we settled on a small sofa from ikea. Perfect for family story time and as it turns out perfect for nursing lying down(admittedly I am not very tall. 5'4" on a good day). I could curl up next to my little guy with him against the back of the sofa. It is not plush at all so no fear of squishy sides but still quite comfy. One of the smartest decisions I've made although unexpected.

I think it's kinda logical to have a bed in the nursery... we currently have a double/full bed in our 2nd room we currently call the 'guest room' - we just found out that we are expecting twins so the guest room will be a combined nursery come guest room and therefore we still need the full bed in there because we live overseas and have visiting parents... so I have been thinking about how to fit a full bed and 2 cribs in there as well as a 'nursing' rocker type chair... my solution: when there is nobody staying (most of the time ie it will be a nursery) I am turning the bed in to a 'daybed' with lots of pillows etc up against one wall where I can feed the twins very easily, nap if I need to and have a separate sleeping space set up away from our bedroom... it also eliminates the need for a rocker and means we have a back up 'guest room' option ie we can just move the twins to our bedroom for those short stays...

@princesspea - You're my hero for that comment. I live with a couple and their daughter and they co-sleep with her. She's just shy of a year now, and they'd had to sleep sideways on their full-size bed to fit everyone. Now, they've got a toddler bed at the foot of their bed, and the only difference is a little bit of a dip before it. She's actually transitioning quite well and, if need be, the bed is rated for 150 lbs., and her momma isn't that big of a lady, so they can either share the toddler bed, or Bean can crawl back in to bed with her Mom and Dad.

It works out great to co-sleep, from what I've seen.

@kellyw - I sincerely hope your guests don't take your twins bedroom away, and instead elect to sleep on the couch. Better to have one guest get an okay nights sleep than 2 babies get a terrible nights sleep because they were unfamiliar with where they were at.

We came up with a 'cred' a crib/bed that I can lie down and nurse my kid to sleep in and sneak off once she's asleep. Well that was the idea, I often spend all night asleep in there too. It's a Aosom wooden play yard which we cut up and arranged and bolted to the wall to form a crib around a twin mattress:
<img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/steppenpunk/IMG_3635.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

bodicegoddess... I plan to sleep them together in one crib until they get too big to be in the same one and will have them sleep in our bedroom some of the time and in their room some of the time as well so they should be used to sleeping in both rooms... I will eventually need 2 cribs at some point so I can have a crib in each bedroom while they are still sleeping together and very small - should eliminate them being unfamiliar with different spaces

We had this by accident. Our third bedroom was large-ish and was the guest bedroom, so when baby #2 came along I turned that room into the nursery and just kept the double bed in there. I figured when we had guests (my mom comes to visit a lot) we would sleep there and give my parents our room. I kept it made up horizontally, so it looked more like a daybed than a bed stuck in a baby's room. What I didn't anticipate was how wonderful it was to have that bed in there! This is where I nursed by daughter to sleep for months. She also woke in the night once to nurse till she was nine months old, and I would just flop into bed after that rather than go back to my own bed, which is downstairs. It also allowed both of us to sleep later, since my son is an early riser. It was really perfect and if I were ever to do it again (though we're not having any more children) I would have a bed in the nursery in a heartbeat! We don't cosleep and she always slept great whether I was there or not, but the convenience factor and comfort for me was huge. When she is ready for a big-girl bed, I will just have her sleep there and we'll get rid of the crib.