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What kind of work do you do?

Our son shares our bed and has always slept in our room (he didn't start sleeping in our bed until he was about a year old). I have always tried to think about what sort of a sleeping arrangement I would prefer myself, and sleeping in a room with a computer (or the radio) turned on isn't one of them. I would advise you to share your bedroom with your baby, but you might want to look for a place where you can store some of your clothes outside the bedroom. Babies sleep a lot of the time and if yours is a light sleeper, going into your room to find that scarf or top or whatever if one of you is going out might become a nerve wrecking task!
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I agree that your computers and office equipment might not make the best sleeping environment for baby - although maybe you could screen it off? Good luck.

share your room with your baby
you don't want office equipment in a nursery

We share our bedroom with our 7 month old son. I agree that it's easier to share a space that you don't need all day, because if your baby is a light sleeper, you'll continuously interrupt his naps by going in to get stuff.

Sleeping with a baby is not typically a long-term solution. Although some families make the choice to keep sleeping with a toddler and then a preschooler, others find that their young child never gets a proper night's sleep because all three sleepers keep waking each other up. (To say nothing of the effect of always having a child in the marital bed!) I think that my preference would be to fit the office into the bedroom, perhaps using an armoire office, even if your clothes have to be stored in another space, and give your baby/child his or her own space.

Buying a condo is a tough decision, and I personally would not purchase a dwelling if I thought that it would not work for at least five years.

My husband and I live in a one-bedroom co-op with our two year old in Brooklyn. We tried sleeping with the kid in bed, but found that not one of us slept well. Moving B to his crib and then to his own bed helped, but I still think B would sleep better if we weren't quite so close. When we go to others' houses that have a room for him to sleep in, we always sleep longer. But we have what we have and we can't afford to buy bigger in our neighborhood and don't want to move out of the one we're in.

So creative solutions. I have been researching different room divider possibilities and the one I keep coming back to is to install lattice panels with curtains hung on them. That will keep the airflow necessary (B's bed is near the window, therefore the air conditioner), but will give him a little separate space which I think he will appreciate as he gets older. I should say that the one bedroom is a nice, big size - it currently fits a queen bed, a twin bed, three dressers and two bookshelves.

Is this ideal? Maybe not entirely, but it allows us to live where we want and our foot print is pretty small. It works for us. Good luck.

I totally agree that you should do everything you can to give the baby his/her own space even if it means fitting your office in your bedroom or somewhere else. We originally thought the baby could share a room with the office but that turned out to be a joke! The baby slept in our room his first 6 months (but in his own crib, mostly) and then we cleared out what is now his room. If you want to establish healthy sleep habits and have access to your desk, you want them separate.

However, we have neighbors whose baby shares with the office and he naps in the pack'n'play while they work in the office during the day and then when he sleeps, they are aren't working so its no problem.

We don't live in a condo any longer, but I would be wary of assuming that your kid will sleep in your bed, even as a baby. I know lots of parents who do this and I myself looked forward to snuggling with a sleeping baby. Unfortunately, at about 3 months our munchkin decided the bed is a good place to be alert and poke and play with mom and dad. To this day (16 months) he will not even snuggle in our bed (although he will on the floor with our comforter) although he is more than happy to play. In other words, every once in a while you get a kid with a mind of his own and a need for his own space. Our son has always slept well in his bassinet/crib -- so if you combine rooms, I'd make sure that there is space for a full sized crib!

Perhaps the baby could sleep in the office at night, so that he has his own quiet space and so that you parents have privacy, but the baby can nap in your bedroom during the day when you are working in the office.

I've only posted on the site once before, but I feel compelled to share with you that I've read that it can be harmful to sleep close to electronic devices such as computers. It is recommended by some to sleep at least 3 feet in all directions from electrical outlets as well. Personally, I'd steer clear of having baby close to any ongoing source of power. Of course, you can research that on your own if you feel you'd like to do so.

My husband and I used an Arms Reach co-sleeper that attaches to the side of the bed and it was wonderful, as I could nurse in the nights without dragging my butt out of bed! Due to space limitations, we have now purchased wardrobes and made a dividing wall out of them to divide our room into two "rooms" for us and our son. We're still looking for ideas of how to create a type of wall on the back side of the wardrobes so we can hang some posters or make a chalkboard wall or something for our little guy.

Hope this is helpful! Good luck!

Thanks for all the input. To clarify, I'm a costume designer, so there would be a combination of computer and printer noise and art supply mess (paints, etc.). I really can't stand working in complete silence, either. Sounds like we maybe should wait until we can afford just a little more space, but maybe we can look for a two bedroom large enough to have one of the rooms have dual purposes. I don't think I could sleep with a baby in the bed, but maybe a crib on the other side of the room with a white noise machine in the room...?

i think more than anything it depends on the baby. some babies are "high needs", like my first, and if he didn,t sleep in bed with us, we would've had to take turns sleeping with him in the nursery. he was such a snuggly little baby, it was great. plus, no walking to another room & trying to feed sitting up. just roll over and put the boob in his mouth & we'd all go back to sleep without really waking up. thinking my daughter would be the same way, we didn't originally set up the crib, but she was actually fussier when she slept with us than when she was in her bassinet, so we moved her into our son's room with no problem or night wakeups!
there's no way you could combine the living space with your office, so you have the option of putting the baby with your or on his/her own?

Also consider what happens when your baby becomes mobile (my second just started crawling, so I'm in baby-proofing mode). Power cords and art supplies are all enticing, and your baby will find (and try to eat) any stray pins, thread, paper scraps, or whatever accidently hits the floor.

Yes, as a costume designer, I could definitely see that you need a good amount of space.

However, I'd say that you probably need to wait until you can afford some dedicated space. Perhaps a live-work solution could work well--you can always add walls, but it's not as easy to add square footage.

Also, just as a tip from someone who has two children; you cannot work while the baby is awake. So if you want to be a Work At Home Mom, you still need childcare!

We live in a 2 bedroom condo and I work from home. When our son was 6 weeks old, we turned my office into a nursery, and moved my desk into a corner of our bedroom.

For the first two years we had a nanny come to our home and take care of our son in the other room while I worked. But once he got old enough to walk, talk, and bang on my door while shouting "MOMMY!", it became too stressful on everyone the nanny had to start taking him to her place.

Finally, when he turned two we put him in daycare so he could be with other children and I could work in peace.

Like the previous poster, I found it impossible to work at home without child care.

I would second (or triple) that notion. The "work-at-home" while caring for baby is definitely a myth outside of nap time. I used part-time childcare to finish my degree when my son was little.

We did, however, have his crib in our room until he was 18 months, which is about when it started to get annoying. Then they can stand up, yell for you, not want to sleep, etc. I also agree that it depends largely on the temperament of the baby, which of course doesn't help you plan now.

The thing to remember is that you can always change the setup later. You can share the bedroom, keep your office and re-evaluate after a year.

I work from home while my daughter naps. We built a desk in our bedroom for my husbands computer as well as mine and my supplies. We created a nook in the dining area for our daughter. When she naps I retreat to the bedroom to work.
I can't imagine you working in your office while your baby is napping. Depending on what kind of sleeper they turn out to be you might be able to share your bedroom. After a few months in a co-sleeper we created the nook because we were all waking each other up. She rolled around loudly and cried out, and we woke her up trying to quietly slip into bed. I do have a friend who was able to share their bedroom with their son for almost two years. It depends.
Try sharing the bedroom first. If that doesn't work, move your office into the bedroom and make a nursery out of the office space.
Caring for a baby at home is a full-time job. Don't count on being able to do any work outside naptime. The good news is in the beginning you get two naps and later on if you're lucky you'll get one long three hour nap to get work done.

I worked from home part-time in our 2-br condo during my first's first year and then again during my second's first year (first as a librarian and later as an editor.) For me, working from home--relying on naps and on occasional child care--was doable for a while.

Then, I turned into an insane person. Because nap time and nights were often filled with my work, I rarely got much "me" time or time to devote to my husband. Also I did get some work done when the kids were awake, but we were all crankier when I did that. Also, I am not great at compartmentalizing and got stressed out about never being "done" since my office was my home. Eventually I quit, both times.

My advice in a 2-br would be to nap the baby in the master bedroom so you can use the office during the day, then have him sleep in the office at night. Or if he's a sound sleeper, put him in your room at first and then transfer him when you go to bed. I have done both! Good luck!