[ks01]

we're having our homestudy done next week but haven't converted our spare room into a nursery yet. Is it necessary to have the nursery set up for a home study?

we live in NYS

[cocomfs]

I don't know about NY but we just had our home visit and I have NOTHING for baby and my house is in way babyproofed and our CW had no problem. Our agency actually suggests not even setting up a nursery until your matched.

[redhedded]

ks, laughing with you. We had our nursery painted, decorated, furnished and stocked before the homestudy home visit when pursuing adoption the first time. Clearly our social worker thought it unnecessary and chuckled at us; she did comment how much she liked it though. Of course, when she returned for the post placement visit she found the crib moved into our bedroom. When we had our homestudy before adopting our son, who is 13 months now, we did no nursery and had no crib set up. All they want to know is where the babe will sleep; is it safe, comfortable, etc.?

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[jheald]

We sure didn't. The caseworker simply wanted to know what space we were planning to use as their main goal is to make sure you do have room.

Main advice about the homestudy.. don't fret. They don't care that your home isn't spotless. They just want to see you in your environment and make sure the house is safe for a child. The one thing we had to get after the study was a fire extinguisher. Believe me, they have their checklist of what they need to know.

Janet

[srusse24]

We have been told to just make sure there is a room available for the nursery.

We have also been advised to let baby sleep in our room, in a bassinet, for the first couple of months. Therefore, you shouldn't really need the nursery set up until then.

[Poleczech]

We didn't have our nursery set up at the time of our homestudy. (It is ready now though, and we are still waiting.) But they don't expect you to have a room ready, they just want to know that there is enough room for baby and that your baby will be safe there. They also don't exect your home to be babyproofed yet, since you don't have a baby yet, and even so, it will be months before baby starts to crawl and the need for babyproofing really doesn't start until then.

Just be yourselves, don't worry if you forgot to catch a dustbunny under the bed, but do be sure you have smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors if you have gas heat, if you have guns, make sure they are safely locked away and that the ammo is also safely locked in a separate place, and just be prepared to tell them your plans for where baby will sleep. You'll do just fine!

[Kymom2b]

Don't worry! Our agency was interested in seeing the room that would become a nursery, but didn't expect to see a finished nursery. Dh and I decided to get the room painted, get border up, etc. just in case we had a fast placement. We only bought the absolute necessities (basinette, carseat, a few unisex outfits) just in case. It turned out to be a decision because we got a call about our little girl on a Fri. and brought her home that Sunday.
Don't know what's required in your area, but you should be fine regardless. Good luck!

[Lovebug]

Don't want to beat the horse, but we didn't have the nursery set up either. And our SW was a little freaked out about how clean my house was and commented if I did it all cuz she was coming. I have a little OCD...lol...so it is always pretty much very tidy, even now with a 2yo. Important thing is to try to be as calm as possible and be yourselves.

Good Luck!

--Renee

[ks01]

Thanks to everyone for the advice!!!

[traceyk]

We had ours done and I am glad we did because we got DD with in 2 weeks of signing with our placement agency. The only prob. our SW had was that it was on a different floor than our room which is unacceptable in CT. But we told her that DD would be co-sleeping atleast for the first year and she said that was fine because we would be finalized way before then and it wouldn't matter to the state then.

[NJNative]

We barely had time to get the room ready for the baby, nevermind the social worker! She only wanted to see where we would be putting the nursery once we had the baby. In our case, we cleaned like lunatics and babyproofed everything in advance, which she was glad to see. (We were adopting a 10 month old who could already crawl.)

We never even did a "nursery" because of the speed of the adoption (40 days start to finish). We just took out the guest room bed and put in a crib and a rocking chair. It was fine because the walls were painted pale green with a pretty border of tulips anyway. We re-painted the room and re-did everything when our son was 2 and needed a bed. Then I got to do the kiddie room!

Robin

[JLyle]

Originally Posted by jheald

The one thing we had to get after the study was a fire extinguisher...

Lyle scribbles a note to himself: Be sure to check fire extingushers before social worker comes for home study.

[blessedbybug]

IMO, no. The homestudy should be a time for the SW to determine your readiness for parenting and that your home is adequate. We didn't even start converting our spare room until after the homestudy visits were done and we were on the waiting list.

[joskimo]

our "nursery" was the catch-all room, so not only was it not set up, it was a wreck. Even after the homestudy I didn't set-up the room until we'd been matched. The homestudy is really more about you then your home.