Our new little crew member is due in only 5 days! Given the limitations onboard, we can’t go crazy with lots of baby products. We’ve carefully chosen a few key items that we think will meet the baby’s needs, yet work well with Kosmos’s space limitations. We’ve already covered the sleeping arrangements in another post. The other basic needs are feeding, diapering and bathing. Here is what we have done:

All the baby books claim that a glider chair and/or rocker are must haves for every nursery, both for feeding and for soothing a fussy child. So when one of our friends offered to give us her used glider and ottoman, we jumped at the opportunity. Most Nordhavn 43s don’t have room for such a large piece of furniture, but when we ordered Kosmos we decided to remove the port side settee and replace it with cabinets. Yes, we lost some seating, but it made some of the juiciest storage space on the boat even more accessible and gave us more floor space. We’ve always been glad we made the choice to eliminate the settee. But when the glider came into the picture, we were more happy than ever about it!

Much to our amazement, the glider and ottoman fit exactly perfect in the space available, and the glider’s wood is the same color as Kosmos’s! Yes, the blue upholstery clashes with Kosmos’s red and gold color scheme, but we can easily have the chair re-upholstered if we desire. The glider is also much more comfortable than the settee would have been, which will be important given how much time we anticipate we will be sitting in it. We assume most of the feedings will take place in this chair.

Another must have according to the baby books is a diaper changing station. Traditionally, most people buy a changing table, but in recent years, changing tables have lost popularity. More and more people instead buy a contoured changing pad, which has raised sides so the baby can’t roll off the pad, and simply place the pad on a dresser in the nursery. Of course, only having a changing pad is perfect for Kosmos.

We’d planned to keep the pad on the desk in the forward stateroom, with a basket of diapers, wipes and other supplies on the desk next to the pad. However, the pad was bigger than we had anticipated, so we had to move the diaper station to the bed, instead. The little bit of green you can see behind the pad is a bag of diapers and next to the diapers, barely visible in the photo, is the basket of toiletries, which includes stuff like baby wipes, deoderized plastic bags to wrap the diapers in, diaper rash cream, etc. (As an FYI, the changing pad is Babies R Us brand. The brown, soft textured cover and white waterproof pad sitting atop the cover are both made by Boppy.)

Finally, here is our cute Mother’s Touch Baby Bather made by Summer Infant. It fits on the seat in the master stateroom shower. All we have to do is strap him into the chair, stick the chair in the shower, and carefully wash him down with the hand held shower head. (The hand held shower head is standard on the 43, and it is another feature that works out extraordinarily well for baby care.)

When not in use, the chair folds up and can be stored under the sink. (Just in case you are wondering, the green case under the bathing chair is oxygen.)

This is Part 2 of a series on Outfitting Kosmos for a Baby. Read Part 1: Bassinet, Stroller and Carseat here and Part 3: Miscellaneous Useful Items here.