So we had two bedroom apartment, and one bedroom was my husband‘s office. At the beginning we had a twin size bed and her crib in his office, and then the full-size bed and the bassinet in the bedroom. That worked out really well for us. We put a little changing pad on top of the dresser in our bedroom, and then we had a tiny bucket of changing stuff and would use the foot of the twin bed in the office as a second changing area.
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Gonna up my diaper caddy request to 2 lol.
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Oh and the bonus is that now we use the twin size bed as the bed she moved to after being in her crib. We didn’t have to buy anything new for that. Skipped toddler bed.
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It is so so nice not to have to wake up your exhausted partner to change a diaper, and not try to scramble for finding stuff.
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Seeing SO many crib-to-toddler beds on Craigslist in my area, so I’m not without options there!
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So we had a convertible crib, but we actually skipped that option. Because she still rolls off the mattress sometimes, so we wanted to be able to put the mattress straight on the floor. Kids definitely learn not to do that when they’re elevated, but we just didn’t wanna deal with the lack of sleep. Easier just to start her out on the floor so there’s nowhere to fall 
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I love it. That’s Montessori style anyway, right??
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Meowlet is almost 4 and still sleeps in his crib. Its now set up as a toddler bed and he can get in and out independently, so I highly recommend the convertible ones. also helps transition to bed as an idea in general. For us anyway.
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Montessori style is independence, basically. So yes floor beds are Montessori but if a kid can get into his bed that’s Montessori too! But I’m not a good Montessori parent 
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Ahhh I see! That’s a good way to summarize it!
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Chiming in to agree with others. We actually skipped the bassinet all together and went straight to the crib. I also had a csection but without a hard labor leading up to it and an easier recovery. Spouse lifted baby in and out of the crib for the first few days and then I felt fine to do so. I never nursed in bed so I was getting out of bed anyway from day one. (Our bed was too squishy and was up against the window so it wasn’t supportive enough to nurse it combined with my high anxiety about safe sleep and not wanting to risk her being in that squisy bed if I dozed off)
Upstairs: one bedroom with just a bed, one bedroom with a bed and a crib. Easy to switch off which parent slept it which bed (with earplugs) when someone really needed sleep.
Downstairs: pack 'n play for a second sleep area.
Honestly starting at ~2 weeks old my kid stopped falling asleep anywhere other than a dark quiet room* so we really didn’t use the pack 'n play except as a safe spot to leave for a few minutes for bathroom breaks etc.
*I envy people people who say “oh, I just pop them in the stroller! Oh we just baby-wear and they fall asleep when they need to! Oh, cars are great for naps!”
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Truly every baby seems so different you don’t know which flavor you’ve got til you’ve got it!
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I’m laughing so hard, I need to prop myself up with the multiple car seats we tried to see if that would help her stop screaming every single instant she was inside a car ever until 18 months old 
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I hope Pipsqueak and Latte can meet someday and bond over their similarities.
When Pipsqueak was 3 months old we almost moved permanently into the parking lot of random city half way between my MILs house and our house one night because she kept screaming so hard she would choke. It didn’t seem worth it to try leave there ever again.
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We only just, this weekend, at over 2.5 years old did a drive of 2.5 hours to a relatives house, for the first time since our last horrific attempt at 6 months. Same vibes, pipsqueak, same vibes. Happy to report it went much better this time.
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One baby never slept in the crib, not once. (Probably related - she never slept through the night until she turned 2yo, not once.)
The other two slept in the bassinet until they were maybe 2 months old and then slept in the crib almost always.
The little boy slept in the bassinet and then in the crib, and then not in the crib and now he’s 6 and starts in his own bed but doesn’t stay there.
Summary - who knows? Not me.
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parenting truths, right here.
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I decided that baby would sleep in the cot (crib?) In our room. Why get another sleeping place?
It was too “big” and he was constantly searching for comforting walls. I bought an arms reach cosleeper while sobbing from sleep deprivation at 4 weeks postpartum. He continued to be a shit sleeper but not a truly awful one after that. He went to the cot at 5mo when he outgrew it/ my friend had her baby and we lent it on, and we had also practiced some naps in the cot by that point. Ours was an ikea convert-to-toddler bed. We converted about 18mo? 2yo? When he tried to climb the walls. A few months later I bought an extra cot mattress for the floor next to him so I could sleep there while putting him to bed at night. Very cuddly kid, he is. Moved to a low single bed (twin?) When he outgrew cot + baby 2 was definitely on the way, about 3.5 years.
So, uh, have your options ready. You don’t have to have them on hand but knowing where to get them is important- butt if you’re planning on second hand, that takes more time than new so I’d get it before baby arrives.
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Yeah, options are good. Backup plans are good. Layout and rooms and help are considerations. I lived in one floor and slept on the couch for…a month(?), and used a bassinet in the living room for nights and naps. Then we had pack and play in my room for a few weeks for nights and still used the bassinet for naps.
Then set up the crib at 7 weeks (I had it for months, but didn’t have the space for it in her room until then) which she used for naps while pack and play in my room was still for nights. Moved her to her crib in her room for nights between 4 and 6 months, where she was until a few months ago, when I made a joint bedroom and she climbed out of the crib during a nap.
So now we co-sleep at night and I’m getting a twin bed to basically enlarge the sleep space with an eye to eventually having separate beds again (with or without separate rooms). Which in all my envisioning of parenting never expected. But also (clearly) am not opposed to.
Basically plans change, situations change, children change, and preferences change, so keeping options open and flexible (dealbreakers aside) will help immensely.
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This right here is the reality of parenting (or possibly just motherhood/primary 3am baby feeder).
You should budget like $300-500 dollars for 2am purchases in the four weeks post partum. Most of these things will be items that promise to help your baby get back to sleep faster (swaddles, bottle warmers, maybe even a snoo!)
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