apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We ended up with a nice hand-me-down that all of my siblings' children had used, but we never put our son in it because we could never bear to hear him cry in it. It became a place to store stuffed animals, as he slept with us and breastfed on demand. I was surprised, as it never occurred to me that we wouldn't use it at all, so that would be the "something you might want to think about that the experts above didn't address." We gave it back to my sister and didn't even bother putting it up when our daughter was born.

Cribs can be handed down. A relative is going to use one that has been in use in her family for about 15 years. We use one at our in-laws that is 7 years old. The key thing is that the slats be narrow enough that a child's head can't go thru them. And of course make sure the wood is well sanded and painted or finished with non-toxic materials. We bought a crib for our apt. from Schneider's for about $350 including the mattress. Been using it for 3 years and #2 is on the way. Clean design and ironically it turns into a toddler bed not that we had a clue or bought the extra kit at the time. It also has a drawer underneath which I wasn't so keen on but it is a great place to store bedding and all those baby blankets.

Things to look for in my opinon-make sure that the crib has adjustable levels and the lowest is low enough so that you can use the crib once baby can stand. Ours, at it's lowest level is 27 1/2 inches from the frame to the top of the crib rail. thsi seems deeper than other cribs that I have seen. Again we stumbled on this feature but a high rail to mattress ratio really helps if you have a climber on your hands. Also make sure the crib side goes down. That feature is a must as you lower the crib. That is about it all I can think of in terms of musts. Anyone else?

The WalMart crib that you featured is a good alternative for the very expensive modern cribs. Just not sure of the quality of the wood. I have heard that at some of these large discount stores (WalMart, Costco etc.) you get what you pay for.

I love the Oeuf design but I don't have $1000 to spend on a crib, plus I'm not a huge fan of the materials used in the crib (MDF and birch stained to look like walnut or cherry) so I just built one myself that is almost identical to the Oeuf. I paid close heed to crib safety standards (slats no more than 2 3/8" wide, no raised corner posts, etc.). After many weekends spent in the basement, I have a sweet modern crib built out of cherry, quarter-sawn oak, formaldehyde-free birch ply and zero-VOC finishes. Building my kid's crib from scratch is one of the most satisfying things I've done, though I'll probably make him sleep in it until college.

I live in the wilds of northern Mi. not alot of places to go crib shopping up here-after looking at a ton of cribs and deciding I did not want to spend 800$, I went to wal mart. I hate wal mart. But, I got a wonderful sleigh bed style crib with the premium serta matress for around 250$. (it looks nearly identical to one in Pottery Barn) It's been almost 3 years and it still looks new. I have taken it apart 3 times and moved from room to room as we have been renovating with no issues.
One thing you want to make sure of is that you can lower the side of the crib with one hand or a hip. Most can do that now and it comes in very handy.

Has anyone had any experience with the Ikea cribs? They are tantalizing in their small/compactness, but what about for toddlers who are all over the bed in their sleep but not quite big enough for toddler beds?

We ended up buying the Stokke crib/bassinet. Given our small space it was our only choice. We also plan on having another child so we can use it twice. It seems like all the furniture these days are scaled for McMansions!

The crib was the biggest waste of money for us. Thankfully we only spent $50 on one from craigslist. My son would.not.sleep in the crib, no matter what I did. We co-slept for about six months, tried to "crib train" him, and it just was not happening. Rather than continue to let my whole family go sleep-deprived, I put the crib in storage and brought in a full sized mattress and box spring and put those on the floor in his room. Now my 10-month-old will sleep through the night as if he always has, and if I need to nurse him at night, I can rest next to him, and then I can ditch him if I want to. Which I usually don't :)

IKEA cribs are great. They were the only decent ones on the market before the modern nursery movement started (circa 2002), and they still hold their own today. The design is simple, clean, understated, and the quality is totally fine for the price (my Gulliver went through two babies without a scratch). I also like their lower profile: most cribs in this country tend to tower at a ridiculous height.

PS- Jeannette, their size is standard - they just LOOK smaller.

Hi I'm from Europe, (Spain) and I don't understand why everyone feels compelled to say "I really hate walmart BUT" and then say that what they bought was great and miles cheaper than anythng else... What's so wrong with walmart? (never been)
I bought my cot-bed at mothercare for about 300 Euro, it was more expensive than at IKEA (where I loove the cheap prices, no need for any excuses) but somehow looked more solid.

you know, co-sleeping is an even cheaper option than any of the above. and more space efficient.
some might say more pleasant as well.

me, i'd be scared to suffocate my baby

I can't even co-sleep with my cats since they keep me awake. I can't imagine co-sleeping with the baby. Also, what does it do to your sex life?

Burton, I'd really like to see photos of your crib!

I have found awesome cribs on Ebay made by Mamas and Papas but they are in the U.K. and too heavy to ship!

With our budget, it looks like we'll be getting a superstar slotti from Target and repainting it (safely) but I'm waiting, hoping and praying that someone comes out with something sheik and cheap before we're due in July.

:) sheik, huh?

anyway, we got our crib as a family hand-me-down just this past weekend. the sides lower and it has different levels depending on the size of our kid (i'm due in three weeks). my parents bought us a new mattress for it so it feels brand new to me. i hope that i can get our daughter to sleep in it! i have no desire to co-sleep. it took quite some time to get used to sleeping with my husband in the same bed.

Co-sleeping is definitely an option but it is a choice to be made independent of whether or not you can find a good affordable crib. For those that hope that their kid sleeps in a crib, it is a matter of what your sleeping choices are. If you want your baby in the crib, you work on it-start with a bassinet or moses basket first as it is smaller and more cozy and work your way up to a crib by say 5 months old or when baby can sit up on their own. If you prefer to co-sleep you work on that. If you end up having to do the mattress on the floor option but already bought a crib you can always use the crib mattress to start. And crib mattresses are much softer now than they were even 3 years ago. Just choose what is best for you and your baby. There is no one size fits all in parenting and babies.

We are currently struggling with the crib decision, which we have kind of left to the last minute given that I am now 30 weeks! We live in a studio apartment (though thankfully will be upgrading to a 2BR soon after the baby is born) so space is really an issue for us. Co-sleeping with the baby in the bed isn't really an option since we only have a full sized bed and there really isn't enough space.

We had originally thought about the arms reach mini co-sleeper, which gets good reviews, but it didn't seem practical to have something that only works when attached to the bed. I'd rather have something that is a little more versatile and can be moved into a corner when necessary.

I've recently stumbled across the smaller sized cribs offered by Community Playthings (http://www.communityplaythings.com/c/BabiesToddlers/Cribs/index.htm) and am heavily leaning towards their Dewdrop crib. I like the nice, clean minimalist design (even if not as drool-worthy as the Oeuf), the dimensions are smaller than a regular crib but still give the baby room to grow, all of their stuff is made from solid hardwood maple, they have a 10-year warranty, and the price is right ($320 including mattress)! We might bite the bullet and order today, though I'd be curious to know if anyone else has used it.

We, too, wasted money on a crib. (thankfully, it was a gift from my in-laws.) BUT, there was no way of knowing that Jack would never spend a night in his crib. He slept in his Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper (GREAT product!) for several months, then migrated into our bed once I got the knack of nursing while laying down/sleeping. It was AWESOME! All the middle of the night feedings were effortless and natural for us. The three of us really bonded nicely together. He slept in our bed for almost a year. Then, when he started to get a little big and "roll-y" we moved him to a twin bed.... so I could lay with him and nurse. It was perfect!
The crib wasn't a TOTAL waste... he napped and played in there when he was little. It just wasn't his BED. I'm very glad that we didn't spend a ton of money on a piece of furniture we barely used.

CoSleeping wasn't our plan, at all, but it just sort of naturally happened and was the right situation for US.

We give 6 "thumbs up" for the http://armsreach.com>Arm's Reach Co Sleeper

We got the Community Playthings Dewdrop crib when our son was born and we had very little space. It worked very well for us for about nine months (initially we put it right next to the bed; he never liked sleeping in bed with us -- he'd scream and kick -- and we got very tired of hearing co-sleeping advocates blather on about how we were wasting our money and abusing our baby, but admittedly we lived in Berkeley at the time).

However, our son is very big and became uncomfortable in it before he was a year old, so we ended up getting a full-sized wooden Jenny Lind style crib ($200 plus mattress, so about the same cost as the Dewdrop), and he's a lot happier in that. It's not stylish but the look is basically inoffensive, it's made of solid wood and has a nearly silent drop side, and the price was right.

The Dewdrop hasn't been completely useless since then; it made a good playpen between 9-12 months and because it folds up we use it on short trips. We also hope to have another baby before he outgrows the new crib, so I don't feel it was really a bad purchase, but I'd give serious thought to the possibility that if you get the Dewdrop, you'll ultimately end up buying two cribs, and weigh the cost accordingly.

Our crib was handmade by a friend who enjoys making furniture. Talk about luck. The nice thing about cribs is you're done with the crib anywhere from a year and a half to two so now that beautiful crib is unfortunately in a closet.

Now he's in a hand-me-down twin that I had no remorse spray painting a crazy shade of blue. I'd love to get him a cool platform bed but all I can think about is the fact that he's two which means eventually that bed will get red crayon or something on it.

dnd - "Just choose what is best for you and your baby. There is no one size fits all in parenting and babies."

Amen to that! When I saw this post today, I was afraid this would turn into a crib vs. co-sleeping debate. Our son co-sleeps with us and that choice was right for us. For those who choose a crib, it is nice to have a post that gives them information on which crib is best.

As parents, that's all we want -- information on our choices.

We went for the Stokke crib because of the compact size, and I have to admit that style was also important to us. However, I absolutely love it and do not regret spending the money. It fits through our doorways easily, so when our daughter made the move from our bedroom to her own room, we didn't have to disassemble anything, we just rolled it down the hall. And when we have our next baby, we'll just roll it back to our bedroom.

My only regret was getting the bassinet conversion. I found it useless, and of course we had to take the time to take it apart to reassemble into the regular crib size.

In considering the co-sleeping thing, you need to keep in mind how important issues of personal space are to you. I think giving a baby its own space teaches an important lesson about respecting boundaries, and co-sleeping tends to erase those boundaries so your child considers your bed to be public property. That's fine, if you're comfortable with that.

Just yesterday I was online looking for nursery ideas and came across a website devoted to the Montessori nursery. My mind is currently blown with the idea that I don't even have to have a crib! I feel so free!

http://montessoribaby.blogspot.com/2006/10/self-actualization.html

Robin, I love that site! I am a BIG follower of the Montessori method and I have my son's room with his bed -- which is a mattress on the floor -- ready for him when his little butt is ready to get out of our bed.

What's cool about the mattress on the floor is that it gives a child the freedom to get out of bed if they want to.

Here's a picture of my son's bed:
http://tinyurl.com/27xo25

Sofia -
google "boycott Wal-Mart" and you will be able to find some information regarding why some folks don't put the store first on their list.
Li -
co-sleeping doesn't necessarily interrupt intimacy. With a simple bassinet or moses basket nearby, baby can be moved when necessary ;] For me, the times when I really needed to co-sleep were when I was too exhausted to even THINK of doing anything else!

I can see both sides of the debate. I have had a lot of time to enjoy snuggling with my baby in my bed, and now I have the choice to sleep with my baby or on my own, which I've found to be the best of both worlds. It's just a matter of trial and error, in my opinion. You just gotta find out what works best for you! We tried so many different things before coming to our current solution. And if we hadn't tried different things, we wouldn't have known :)

We used a portable bassinet for the first 6 months (one of those you can carry around with a folding stand). My friend, who had a caesarian, swears by it as it enabled her to to change the baby without bending over. I loved it. It was convenient and we could bring it to parties and family gatherings, set it up in the corner, and plonk the baby down to sleep.

After much angst, we bought the Stokke cot. I'm a bit meh on the craftsmanship. The pieces didn't all line up exactly and for the price I paid, I expected perfection. They did give us an extra mattress when I complained. Space-wise, it's not that much smaller than many others out there. The shape is funky, but I can't buy a spring mattress to fit so the baby had to make do with the foam mattress that came with the cot. Our baby/toddler generally slept well in it. I loved the thought of converting it into a junior bed but we're having more kids now so they'll be using the Stokke and my toddler is quite content with his much cheaper plastic and metal Winnie the Pooh bed!

We also bought an Amby baby hammock. That was lovely for daytime naps. Also lovely when the baby was being testy as I could put him in and rock the hammock with my foot while attending to other things.

Kat, I am not sure what was wrong with your Stokke crib but the craftsmenship on mine was stellar.

The mattress is not as thick as American baby mattresses, which makes me think that might be why America has a higher rate of SIDS than Europe.

As for co-sleeping, right now my son is sleeping in his bassinet in our bedroom and I am looking forward to moving so he can have his own room. No one ever told me how loud babies are when they sleep. For all you co-sleeping parents out there more power to you if you can sleep through the night with all that sound (in addition to the snoring spouse)!

With no judgement one way or the other, sleeping in the same room also counts as co-sleeping. There's lots of info available on attachment parenting. My plan is to take what I need from the ideas and go from there.

Crib design, beyond safety, is for the parents. My husband and I are both design-y, but we also decided to wait and spend the money on furniture that would last longer than a couple of years. And so ended up with a crib from Babies-R-Us which is not totally lovely, but not offensive either, for about $80 plus $50 for a mattress.

"They" say don't buy used cribs, but as near as I can tell this is about recalls and safety. Which means, if you check the recalls and make sure you can shake the crib pretty hard without it falling apart, you're probably fine.

I did read that there was a study that tied hand me down mattresses to SIDS. Take that as you will, but we chose to buy new mattresses, both for the crib and the family hand me down basinette.

And the plan is to go from a crib to a twin bed and skip the toddler bed thing.

m, the pieces just didn't align perfectly and the finish didn't seem even to me...and that kind of bugged me. When I e-mailed the supplier about it, they gave me an explanation about wood, the manufacturing process, etc. But still, if IKEA can do it... One other thing I later regretted was the lack of a drop rail, which meant we did a lot of back-bending and couldn't change the baby in the cot.

But as far as I could tell, the baby seemed to be quite comfy and the cot was definitely photogenic!

Vanessa--get the arm's reach mini co-sleeper! It does NOT need to be attached to the bed to work. You can use it as a regular bassinett, with all four sides up. That is what we did, and it was great. Good storage on it, and great to take baby's bed with you when traveling. One of our favorite things we bought.

For crib, we went with Baby Bargains recommendation and cheaped out with the Child Craft Lana crib sold at Buy Buy Baby for $200. Our daughter sleeps fine in it, but it feels like a lightweight piece of garbage, and pulling the side up and down is so difficult that I just don't do it. I wish I'd spent a little more or found something better made.

we tried to go the hand-me-down route, taking a crib from a neighbor that i tried to paint plain white to mesh with the rest of the nursery. disaster! i stripped and sanded and then painted 3 coats, just to find that the paint chipped with the lightest of scratches! i was 37 weeks and i broke down! so we went out and bought the nurseryworks crib (like the one pictured). i spent too much, but i love the crib. it's gorgeous and my 7-month old is sleeping through the night, so i can't complain.