A Nursery Away from Home

We sleep over my parent's house down the Cape a lot. At first when she was really little, we just kept an extra Pack-N-Play there and Maura slept in that in our room. Then when she got a little bigger, my mom borrowed a portable crib (which is the same size as a PNP but its built like a crib - with a mattress, slat sides, etc., except on wheels) from a friend and we would wheel it around to whatever bedroom was not being used that particular trip (either by Paul and I, the rest of my family or other guests) and she would sleep there. Recently though, we noticed a decline in her otherwise awesome sleep habits when we would stay over. She would wake up in the middle of the night crying and we would not be able to get her back to sleep for hours.

This was a problem that needed to be solved. For everyone's sake:) I think she just plain outgrew her sleeping quarters (she grew an inch and a half since her last check up!). Plus, she never really had a spot to call her own/consistency...only just the PNP/portable crib floating in the middle of whatever room was convenient at the time.

{Nursery Nook...before}

So, first off I knew we needed a specific space that we could convert over into a sort of nursery away from home. There was an odd/cute little nook in one of the upstairs bedrooms (that was created during this renovation) that wasn't really being used. We had an extra twin bed tucked in there, but since this bedroom also has a queen bed (right where I'm standing to take this pic), the twin became mostly a spot for you to pile your luggage, etc. Mom said it would be ok if we stole this area for Maura (thanks, Ma!). Here's what it looks like now:

{Nursery Nook...in progress}

Next up, I knew that if she was going to really be comfortable, we had to invest in a full size crib. I say invest because I'm assuming Maura will not be the last baby to sleep in this house. We'd like more children and maybe sometime down the line my brother and/or sister will also have families who will be sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's house (or "Pa" as Maura now calls my dad!). I didn't want to spend a ton of money though, so after some research, I headed out to Ikea and bought the Gulliver Crib in white and the Vyssa Spelevink mattress.


Coincidentally, it just fits in this little alcove here which left us enough room for this rocking chair (that my mom rocked me on). (Paul has to be careful when he sits up that he doesn't bang his head!) I brought one of her crib sheets from home as well as her original PB Kids Sophie bumper
(once she started rolling over and moving around in her crib, at home, a lot we took out the real bumper and put in one of those ugly but safe breathable bumpers from Babies R Us...so I just had this sitting in the closet).

{Mom made this pig pillow a long time ago...cute, isn't he?}

I grabbed a basket we weren't using and put some toys and books in it (to leave here) for her. There's enough floor space (and a small area rug we had on hand) in between the nook and the queen bed that we can play here too.


There's definitely a lot more we can do to this space to make it look and function better and make it feel more like hers. I'd love to add some art and/or wall/book shelves...maybe even ask mom if I can paint:) But for now, I'm psyched - we did this right before Thanksgiving and she slept much better then and during a few days over Christmas with no night time random wakings. Yay!

Have any of you guys with kids done this somewhere you sleep over a lot? Any tips/suggestions?