My pre-baby self said, “No, no I don’t need a changing table. We can change her on the floor or on the bed. We’ll just buy a portable pad and move it around the house as needed. We don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’.” I was living into the less-is-more-so-we’ll-rough-it fantasy of baby-rearing.
But after three months of hunching over my living room furniture, where the ever-moving pad had become permanently affixed, where pee had started to seep through the portable pad, and where I never got to sit anymore, I caved in.
Our bathroom is a bit more squished now, but our living room is back for living and my back is already feeling better.