[KingOfJericho]

We had both of ours in their own room and crib on day 1. It wasn't planned that way but we found that EVERYONE sleeps better when the kid is out of your room. Every little noise is going to wake you up or keep your wife up. For the sanity of everyone involved, it's the better bet. For that reason, we didn't use a bassinet.

Pack-n-play - We actually used ours a ton, even from the start. When you're running around the house, it's hard to keep an eye on the kid all the time so we kept them in the high setting until they were sitting up and then we just lowered it. It's also very handy to bring to a friends house if there's a nap coming up but you want a life. Set that thing up and put in in their bedroom and everyone is happy.

A few mistakes my friends/family have made:

Room-darkening curtains - DO NOT GET THEM - My brother and his wife did this. Their kids now can't sleep a wink unless they're in literally pitch black. They can't go anywhere around nap time because the kids require total darkness. Total pain in the ass.

Loud noise machines - White noise machines are fine but I see people cranking those things up so loud that the kids now can't go to sleep when it's quiet. My brother made this mistake as well... same result as the curtains fiasco.