For a variety of reasons, we decided to keep Sam in his crib and buy a new crib for the new baby. For starters, Sam has never even tried to climb out of his crib and seems perfectly happy in it. I like that he is safely contained within the crib and can't get out! Second, it is a drop-side crib which have now been banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Although I feel that the ban is overly broad and should have been more narrowly tailored (sorry, but my lawyer side slips out every now and then), it does give me a moment's pause as to whether or not I want to pass along the drop-side crib to another baby. We don't use the drop-side function for Sam anymore and he's certainly not a baby, so I'm not worried about keeping him in it - and the ban does not require currently used cribs to be taken out of circulation immediately.
Anyway, so we went to Great Beginnings to buy another set of nursery furniture. We've told my parents about the amazing store and they wanted to join us, so we planned the trip while they were in town.
Brad and I were amazed by how differently we experienced the store as second-time parents. When we first went to the store while pregnant with Sam, we were completely clueless and overwhelmed by the hundreds of choices. It truly is the largest baby store in the country! Although we had thoroughly read Baby Bargains, Consumer Reports, and researched baby furniture - we still had no idea what we "needed." We asked the sales desk if someone could help us - and they sent us John.
As much as you learn growing up to not judge a book by its cover, let's be honest, we do judge. The salesman John was about 24 years old with spiky hair, an earring, jeans that were falling off his butt, and smelled of cigarette smoke. I gave Brad one rolling eye look that said it all - "Seriously, this is the punk who is going to help us figure out what we need for the baby? We've heard so much about this amazing store and this is their salesguy?"
But, we had no choice and so we unhappily followed John back into the furniture department. HOLY COW was I wrong! John was unbelievably knowledgeable, intelligent, and a true expert on all things baby - especially impressive given that he doesn't have any kids (and yes, he's straight). He had literally memorized every review, recall, ranking, etc from all of the major baby books and helped us contrast between the options and spoke with true authority like an expert. While we walked around the store, several other parents who had previously worked with John tried to poach him from us to come help them - but John stayed with us, despite my original misgivings. He even admitted that he is the store's "breast pump expert" and answered a number of questions on that subject too. Wow, what a guy!
Without John, I think my pregnancy hormones and I would have sat down in the middle of the store and had a good cry. I felt like he was our Moses parting the red sea so that we could survive the craziness of a baby store!
Fast forward 2 years and Brad and I went to Great Beginnings with Sam and my parents - and felt completely comfortable. We've been in touch with John via email for the past 2 years and although we were supremely disappointed that John wasn't working the weekend we visited the store, we knew we could tackle the store without him. I was also very glad to have my parents with us so that they could help with Sam while we made our choices. Sam was not in a great mood that day and while at the store we realizd why - he was starving. He's normally not a big eater and we try to offer him a meal or snack every few hours. For some reason, that day his appetite skyrockwted and that afternoon he literally ate 3x the amount of food that he usually eats in an entire day. My parents had the joy of feeding a small horse that afternoon!
Anyway, while walking around in the store we felt like we knew what we wanted. The models had changed since we bought Sam's furniture, but we knew that we were only considering the furniture that had received an "A" rating from Baby Bargains because those brands are the safest, most reliable, and durable (ie, Pali, Munire, Romina, Natart, etc).
We settled on Pali and here's what we chose:
The last picture is called a "flip kit" - which did not exist 2 years ago (we got it in the same dark cherry color as the other furniture). It is basically a wooden changing kit with a cushion that goes on top of the dresser/changing table but extends off the edge and allows you to change the baby while facing you - rather than placing the baby sideways so you're perpendicular to the baby. I would have LOVED this with Sam, what a terrific idea!
The nursery is painted a light sky blue and we plan to do a Noah's Ark theme - although we really haven't bought any of the "accessories" yet other than the terrific "touch" lamp that my dad bought for the nursery. He bought one for Sam and I love it so I asked him to buy another one. A "touch" lamp is such a brilliant idea for a nursery - so you don't have to fumble around in the dark for the switch to turn the lamp on, you can just tap any part of the lampshade, base, trunk, etc. - a quality that is very welcomed when you're running on very little sleep!
The nursery furniture typically takes 10-14 weeks to arrive, which was fine b/c we ordered the furniture when I was 27 weeks pregnant and we will have the baby sleep in a bassinet in our room for the beginning anyway.
Well, a few days ago I received a call from Great Beginnings informing me that the furniture had arrived and when could they deliver it? Some Jews follow the tradition of not having any items for the new baby in the house until after the baby arrives. We don't subscribe to that philosophy - however, I will admit that the timing of the furniture's arrival freaked me out a bit. The furniture is being delivered today - when I am 31 weeks and 5 days pregnant...precariously close to the worrisome 32 week threshold of when Sam was born. Brad has reassured me that the furniture delivery today is not a bad omen - but I'm still a bit nervous.
However, there's also a positive side to having the baby furniture arrive early. It will hopefully help Sam get used to the idea that his baby brother is arriving soon and this will be his room. Currently the nursery is empty, except for the bassinet which we borrowed from a friend. Sam regularly goes over to the bassinet and looks in it and says "baby!" He's very interested in babies, although I don't think he fully understands what is about to happen.
We will post pictures of the new nursery soon!
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