Last week, we acquired (mostly by chance) a 2nd hand, really quite lovely converting crib. It's the sort that changes to a day bed, and even a full-sized, eventually, if you buy the extra parts. The original owner's parents picked it up for her from Sears. LittleJohn's Daddy has been prowling for a crib for a while now. He, apparently, was on the brink of picking up whatever cheap model they had at Wal-Mart (the thought of which horrified me, to be honest.) So, if I was going to be forced to move my bouncing baby boy into a crib, I wanted it to be a nice one, and I'm quite pleased with this model. In fact, it's the Safety 1st 'Carlisle' 3-in-1 Convertible Crib - Sears | Sears Canada, which is totally cool (though wouldn't have been my first pick, if I had been buying new. I would have wanted the one that had the toddler-bed-with-rails option in between "crib" and "day-bed.") However, since we were (apparently!) in a rush, I'm happy to have this one.
After calling every single furniture store in the city and discovering no one carried crib-sized mattresses, my hubby reminded me that they carry them at Wal-Mart, so we ended up there, after all. They only had two models (which is better than zero, right?) and I was pleased to find that one of them was the fancy-dancy "flip-able infant-to-toddler" sort. Once that item had been secured, it was just a matter of some banging around in the bedroom and some fancy work with an alan key, and wow! A lovely crib stood at the foot of our king bed, taking up nearly the length of an entire side!
We wrapped our exactly-the-right-size snugglewool crib pad around the mattress, transplanted LittleJohn's favourite stuffies and his blankie onto the spacious pad, and introduced him to his newest environment.
He was pretty impressed! He laughed and smiled and cruised all the way around the railing. Then he discovered he could bounce!
Oh yes! He enjoyed his "new" crib immensely. And then he got tired, and decided he wanted out of the crib so he could go to sleep. Two bottles and an hour and a half later, he was still struggling against sleeping in the crib, and he eventually launched into a crying jag, so I pulled him out to calm him down.
Even his Dad, who is insistent that this crib is the natural next step in both LittleJohn's and my life, agreed at that point that I should lay him on the bed with me to get him to go to sleep, and then he'd lift him into the crib later. Later came and went, and there was another crying jag (that ended in puking.) Daddy said to set ourselves up for bed like usual, and we'd make another run on the crib another night.
Now, in all fairness, our stunning lack of success can be blamed largely on poor timing. Last night was the first night of a new cold, and LittleJohn was cranky and having trouble breathing, so he wasn't really in the mood for anything out of his usual routine.
So, we have a really lovely crib standing at the foot of our bed, and it will stand there empty until this cold passes, and then we'll try again. Yes, I let LittleJohn play in it a while today, though sick-and-cranky baby did not want to be left in it even long enough for me to step across the room and change my clothes! I am sure he will eventually transition to it without too much trouble, once he's well. Because it runs almost the whole length of the bed, I'll be able to lie "next" to him, still, which should make the change over easier, once he's not hyper-sensitive due to being sick.
And, for what it's worth, it'll make the transition easier for me, too, to have him so nearby still. Our only problem at this juncture is that I'm too short to pull him out of the crib if he's lying down! DH promised to try adjusting the heights to see if it can be set to a more comfortable spot while still being safe for LittleJohn, and I'll be reporting back next time we try!
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