One of the enjoyable tasks involved with having a baby is planning and preparing a warm and welcoming space in your home for your new addition. However, when you add the concerns associated with pregnancy to the challenges of redecorating a room, it can be difficult to know just when to begin preparing that special room. You should consider several factors when determining when to begin decorating your baby’s nursery. The most important is time, for anything you do while you are pregnant. You need to be able to finish the decorating before your baby is born, which could be anywhere from a few weeks before your due date to a few days afterward. To be safe, plan to finish your decorating project before week 36 of your pregnancy. Although you may be bursting with ideas for the baby’s room, it is best to avoid purchasing items during the first trimester. Many mothers feel comfortable purchasing items and picking out paint colours once they are over this critical hump. The first trimester is a great time to look over your budget and determine what your spending allocation will be for the nursery, and to create a checklist of basic items you will need to purchase. Once you are past the first trimester, all those big plans in your head can begin to be realized. Many parents begin by choosing a theme for the nursery. Bedding can be a source of inspiration for paint colour and furniture type. So when can you begin? Determining when to begin decorating your baby’s nursery depends on your chosen theme. If you have chosen a gender-specific nursery theme, you have to wait to begin decorating until after your medical team can determine your baby’s sex through an ultrasound. This can usually be done between 20 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. Needless to say, this narrows down the window of time you can spend decorating the nursery considerably if you want it to be finished before the baby arrives. One way to avoid having to rush through decorating is to choose a neutral colour for the walls and floor of your baby’s room. Then, when you know whether your baby will be a boy or girl, you can add gender-specific items, such as wall hangings, bedding or throw rugs, to the room to make it special. For those with tight budgets, begin purchasing nursery items as soon as you can. Consider that some of the items found in the nursery include a cot, bedding, a chest of drawers, a changing area and a feeding chair. Plan on having your completed nursery done about six weeks before your due date. Have the nursery entirely set up at least a month before your due date, just in case baby decides to make an early entry into the world. The first item to purchase should be paint. It is best to get the painting done while the nursery is empty. Once you start to fill the room with furniture, painting becomes more complicated and can involve moving large items around. Another important consideration is the safety of mom and baby. The mother-to-be should not be moving furniture or painting in enclosed areas. Be sure that your plans include a helper. Painting on ladders and moving furniture should be avoided. If you and your significant other or helper have busy schedules, be sure to set aside days to do these activities together. Shopping for one baby is stressful enough, but if you are expecting twins, it is even more difficult. Most parents may feel the urge to simply buy two of everything. This is not always the case. There are some simple rules to keep in mind when shopping for your newborn twins.Decide which items the twins can share Start with the most important furniture items- 2 x cots (although in the first few months, the babies will share a cot, they grow very quickly, and once able to roll, can begin to disturb each other, and when you realise this, and it becomes problematic, you no longer have a waiting time available to allow for manufacture), 1 x compactum- it is NOT necessary to purchase 2 x compactums, as you cannot stand at 2 units at the same time. A good quality, comfortable feeding chair, and shelving should be considered. The Chad cots (available at dream furniture) are ideal, as there are no gaps, and if the middle rails are lowered, the babies can then climb in and out of each other’s cots when it is “awake time”, however, they can also be separated from each other when it is “sleep time”. Designing your baby’s nursery needn’t be a stressful time, with the correct knowledge and planning, turning your baby’s nursery from drab to fab can be as easy as 1 2 3!