Is a studio apartment okay to live in with baby?

[EssieJames]

Hi! WTT (ttc in July), but I'd love to stay in our big studio until the baby is one - its just so nice/reasonably priced/landlord awesome. Has central air, safe location, water/heat paid for, laundry etc..... Is it okay to live in a studio with a baby? I have no problem with it. We have a space off the living room that would fit a crib and rocker. Is it legal though? Not sure if there is any problem with it... I have friends in NYC that have studios with newborns no problem. Any ideas?

 

[ask86]

You do what works for you, just be mindful of the fact that you will not be able to have even 5 minutes to yourself! The naps my daughter would take in her room and I could sit quietly in the living room were the only moments of peace and quiet I had. Also we had to move from a 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom apartment when baby was 3 months because we disrupted her sleep - every time my husband would turn too loudly, or get up to pee baby would wake up screaming. Once she ha he own room she stopped doing that. Good luck in whatever you decide

 

[staralfur]

Why wouldn't it be legal?

We lived in a 600 square foot one bedroom apartment until my LO was 8 months and I wouldn't have wanted to stay any longer, though that was mostly because she was starting to gather more toys and clothes and the square footage was the issue. My LO was attached to me every second of the day and wouldn't sleep on her own anyway so there was really no need at all for her own bedroom.

I'd say if it's a small space you might find yourself getting a bit uncomfortable before the year is up, but if there's an end in sight it's probably manageable. If you've got a bit of space to grow into and the only problem is not having the bedroom, I wouldn't worry about it!

 

[MindUtopia]

You can absolutely do whatever works for you, and of course, it's legal (unless you were living in a very unsafe, unheated, dirty studio, but it doesn't sound like it!). The only thing I would caution is that it means that bedtimes will be difficult after about 3-4 months unless you can wall off a bedroom space. When babies are little, they tend to be less bothered by noise and distraction while sleeping, so you may find you can go about your evening with baby sleeping not far away just fine. After the first few months though, it gets a lot trickier. Up to when our daughter was 4 months, we always just wore her in a wrap and took her wherever in the evenings with us, carrying on our night, banging around making dinner, watching tv, etc. After about 4 months, she really needed to sleep somewhere a bit more out of the way where it was quieter, and there's no way we ever could have gotten her to sleep in the same room as we were making dinner, watching tv, talking, washing dishes past 6 months. In terms of overnight sleeping, it's fine. We bedshared and our daughter has slept all or part of the night in our bed since birth (she's 27 months now), so we didn't really need an extra sleeping room overnight. But it would have been really stressful to try to make dinner without waking her up, we definitely never would have ever been able to have sex, and we just couldn't have relaxed and enjoyed our evenings. That time in the evening was the only time I ever got to myself as I was with her all night and it was priceless. But I don't think that means you have to move, you may just need to modify your space so you can partition off a bedroom with temporary walls, which isn't hard to do.

 

[dgirl]

I think you would be fine. If you are worried about privacy maybe you could put up a curtain around a corner that could be kept pulled back most of the day. I had an office area like that in our old apartment.

 

[disneydarling]

My daughter just turned 2 and we are still all living in one room. It was fine until she was about a year though, nothing to worry about. Now shes a toddler we do but we don't have anywhere else to go so we are stuck here.