This weekend was a lay low kind of weekend. I had three extra classes to teach and i hadn't napped in weeks until saturday. so i was feeling like a bum, plus max has been running around quite a bit himself. and he's going to be gone essentially all week starting tomorrow. so we didn't make big plans.
but we did plan to do some baby shopping, because eventually Babe is going to need somewhere to sleep in this house. Right now her room as a queen bed, and while she may be a princess, she does not need a bed quite that big just yet. so we decided to do some crib hunting. what was funny to max about this was that it felt SO suburban couple to spend our saturday driving around looking at baby furniture. like in old school when Frank is telling the kids at the first party that he can't drink because he has 'a big day planned' doing things like returning wedding gifts, and when he says they go out to olive garden and it's so nice. max thought we were totally Old School. and i had to remind him this is our new life, totally...
The crib hunting actually started a few weeks ago when we went shopping for baby stuff for the shower for friends. we went to the mega Babies R Us store to get what they wanted. but Babies R Us is seriously a baby superstore. slightly overwhelming. we spent sometime checking out cribs and for the most part were not impressed. first the style was all off for us, but the biggest complaint was that they seemed like they were all made out of particle board and would fall apart with a good kick. i don't know if that is actually true, but that's what it felt like to us.
On saturday we carefully avoided Babies R Us and checked out other spots around town. so, i don't know if you're up on baby furniture these days but the new RAGE in cribs is to buy convertible beds. they are taller on one side than the other and eventually the taller side is used as a headboard and the smaller side as a footboard on a double bed for the child. here's an example:
in theory a good idea. buy one piece of furniture that lasts until he/she graduates and moves out. but for us it just doesn't work. first of all, what if you want more than one child. then do you go buy ANOTHER crib or do you go buy a child bed when #1 is kicked out of the crib. second of all, max is not a fan of footboards. i don't know why, no wait, he said it's because he likes to run and jump on the bed and do flips and stuff. third of all, i don't feel like my 3 year old needs a double bed that takes up the whole room, i'd rather have the floor space for her to play. plus eventually the room will have to hold a desk for homework and a dresser and/or wardrobe for clothing, a double bed seems like too much. and finally, i just don't like the way they look. totally my opinion here but i hate the high side and low side thing and in general the style isn't what i have in mind.
so we were kind of in a bind. most of the cribs we saw were these convertible things and we didn't like them. the rest were totally country or victorian and neither of those will work for us. blar!
when we got home we decided once again to go online since it seemed that we would not find what we liked in stores. At Target we found a cute modern style crib, relatively inexpensive, by DwellStudio. we really liked it until we read a reviewer who talked about toxic fumes (that's not a good idea)
finally we ended up back at Modern Nursery and Modern Tots. Finally something more our style. whew. and right now we're loving three cribs to choose from:
Oeuf Classic
Oeuf Sparrow
and the Hiya Crib
of course the price tag is higher (dang!) so we'll have to weigh that. but at least these are made of actual wood (!) and they don't make me gag when i look at them. eventually i'll post nursery pics and you can see how it all turns out.
2 comments:
hmmm.... cribs. You know, we bought a nice convertible crib for Cillian, since my nesting instinct insisted upon the ideal nursery. When he was an infant, I put him in there rarely to watch a mobile or to change a diaper. When he was a toddler, we converted it to the toddler bed, and he used it to throw his stuffed animals in. Right now it is in storage, and I am not sure what we are going to do with it. After Cillian outgrew it, we bought a larger toddler bed, in which he has taken one nap. The best thing we ever did was buy a king-sized mattress, since that is where we have all slept since Cillian outgrew his bassinet.
If you think you might at all consider a family bed approach, please think twice about spending money on a crib, any crib. Luckily, ours was completely gifted to us, so I was not angry at having spent the money for it ourselves.
Just to let you know, before Cillian was born, I never thought I would want to have a family bed, but after his birth, it just felt right to us, especially with all of the nursing of a young infant. All of the attachment parenting techniques just felt like the best course of action for us.
For this baby, since Cillian is still sleeping with us, I bought an Arms Reach mini co-sleeper to keep by my side until the baby is old enough to share the bed with the rest of us, probably at about 1 year of age.
It is really hard to know what kind of parenting style you will have before your baby is born, though. I know that we are definitely in the minority about the family bed, though, so I just thought I would give a shout out with our personal story. Good Luck in making your decision!!
Those are really fun! I like the Hiya. I ended up buying a convertible only because I couldn't find non-convertible! And it was actually at Walmart, with solid wood, and a kind of funky design, for $100! I never thought I'd get a crib from there, but you never know. Ikea has some interesting ones that you guys might like, but then you'd probably have to drive to potomac mills, huh?
Also, like Shannon, we have found that sleeping with Sawyer is working for us. I don't think we'll do it for much longer than a few months, so we will use the crib, but for now, I feel much better snuggling with him next to me, even though I also said I'd never do that. I think for these early months, it's great for him to have personal touch and warmth and comfort at arm's length. Plus it makes me happy and I sleep better, which is funny.
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