When you first bring home your baby, items like comforters, quilts and pillows aren’t necessary.

You will also have to make a choice of whether to use a bumper in your baby’s crib. There’s mixed information available. Educate yourself and make a choice.

If you do decide that a bumper will protect your child, go with a thinner design. Thick, fluffy bumpers are much more of a suffocation hazard than these thinner ones.

The essential items for the first year of your baby’s life are sheets, a mattress, and maybe a crib skirt for a better look. You want to avoid fluffy or heavy items in the crib that could suffocate your baby.

However, you might be concerned about your baby staying warm at night. For that purpose consider using an organic blanket or sleep sac to swaddle your baby in. If you wrap your baby snugly you will avoid the risk of suffocation.

So, what do you do with the comforter or quilt that came in the baby bedding set? They make great accessories for your baby’s nursery.

You can hang the quilt over a rack designed for it, or simply mount it on the wall.

Purchasing a complete baby bedding set in the beginning may also save you money in the long run, as the set can be used for your child throughout the toddler years as well.

If you’d rather keep it simple in the beginning with just the sheets and such, purchasing a bedding set later will allow you to give the nursery a fresh new look.

If you are in a place where you need to shop for a crib for your baby, it can be very easy to get overwhelmed. There are lots of things to think about, after all!

You may also want to consider your design preferences for your baby’s nursery, other people that might need to access the baby in its crib, like grandparents, the available space, and your budget.

Let’s go over the different types of cribs available:

First, there’s the Standard Crib. This is the kind you are most familiar with and have seen in many places. Standard cribs typically have a single or double drop side. This means that either one or both sides of the crib can be lowered to provide easy access to your baby.

Only get a double crib when the crib is going to have both sides open to the room; it’s pretty useless when you are looking at a crib that is shoved against the wall.

One great way to save money in the long run is to look into the convertible crib. These cribs are a great way to save money because they will eventually be converted from a crib into being a toddler’s bed. Though the initial outlay of cash is going to be more substantial, you’ll find that it will pay for itself down the road. These cribs might turn into a day bed, a toddler bed or even a small full sized bed.

This can be accomplished by purchasing a simple conversion kit. Oftentimes the head and foot ends of the crib, can then be used as head and foot boards for the full-size bed. Something else you may want to consider when purchasing a convertible crib is to choose a more universal design, so that the crib can keep up with the decoration changes in your nursery / child’s room.

Want to add some elegance to your baby’s nursery? Then, you may want to choose a Canopy Crib. They typically have posts on all four corners of the crib to allow for a canopy frame on which the canopy will then sit.

You can either purchase fabricated canopies to go with your crib, or might even decide to design your own, using fabric you already used elsewhere within your nursery decoration. Canopy cribs may also be a viable choice if you keep your baby’s crib in your bedroom, or the baby shares its room with a sibling, as they provide a way to achieve privacy for your baby.

Another great design that we are only going to be seeing more of is the Round Crib. A round crib is exactly what it sounds like. It allows your baby to sleep in any direction that he or she pleases, and the drop side will let you reach in and scoop your baby up whenever you please. These cribs have no concussion points, unlike traditional rectangular cribs and they will not endanger your child’s safety. This can be a great way to give your baby a 360 degree view of the world around them.