Please know that I tried hard, as I shared the story of Catie’s crib that we gave away this weekend, to make a play on words with the rapper slang, crib. Sadly, I don’t have enough jive talk in me to make an outdated term like ‘crib’ from 20 years ago sound remotely like something I’d say. If you’re better at 90s rap slang, feel free to substitute in your own word play.
About eight years ago, when M and I found out we were pregnant, we began searching for a crib. Of course, back then, we had more time then, less familiarity with the awesome-ness that is Amazon Prime, and some real questions about what a crib should do.
Obviously it should hold a kid, we knew that. But we were first-time parents, scared, and didn’t want to miss out on any WonderCribs available that would make our new baby sleep 23 hours a day.
So, we shopped, and debated price, and structure, and functionality, like we were buying a house we would live in forever (maybe THIS is the place for the 90s slang).
We finally agreed on a convertible crib that would “grow with her.” It changed from a crib, to a toddler bed, to a full-size bed.
Both M and I were skeptical. I couldn’t imagine a crib outlasting the abuse of a kid that long. M was skeptical of the price. But we both had had enough of discussing it, and were anxious to get back to our taxing life of 2004 that included going out for long, leisurely dinners and drinking lots of beer.
We set up the crib several months before Catie arrived and spent many hours rearranging bumper pads and decorations and sheet combinations. Actually, this was probably just me. But I do remember dragging through the scenarios with me.
But finally, Catie was here and home from the hospital. I’ll never forget the first time I set her down in her crib. It was huge! She was tiny!
So we brought her into our room with us and she slept in the bassinet for the next couple months. She eventually learned to love her crib, stand up in it, take long, blissful naps in it, hate it, crawl out of it, puke in it, pee in it, and generally abuse it like we had guessed she would. (We were so wise!)
When the twins came along, and needed far smaller cribs so we could cram both of them and their stuff in the nursery, we converted Catie’s crib into a toddler bed. That worked beautifully. It was cute and functional and cheap. M rigged it up with a side rail and she slept peacefully in it for a couple years. Once she GOT to sleep. Catie is programmed with the inability to get to sleep without at least ten hugs from both M and me. If you do the math, after seven years in this crib/bed, she’s probably stood up in it tens of thousands of times, begging for ONE KISS, PLEASE! JUST ONE! Maybe not tens of thousands, but I’m not good at math.
Right after we moved into this house, we converted the crib into a huge full-size bed with a new, comfy mattress. Catie’s room overlooks our backyard and the pool. Her new bed was tall enough that she could see the bayou and she had the best view in the house. Ever passionate about anything related to her sleep, she often would hug her bed and announce she was TAKING IT TO COLLEGE!
But, then came Operation Kura Bed. I explained to the girls that if they wanted to share a room, they’d need some kind of loft situation to allow enough room for their bed and stuff. Elisabeth shared my vision for this. Catie still hugged her bed and talked about how she would bring it with her into marriage. BUT, as soon as she saw Elisabeth’s assembled bed (see yesterday’s post) she asked M to disassemble the bed SHE WOULD LOVE FOREVER to make room for her Kura bed. She even cut the curtains for it.
For a couple weeks, Catie’s disassembled bed sat in our gameroom. M and I talked about putting it on Craigslist. I thought about keeping it for Catie’s kids to use one day.
But then we got a phone call from our neighbor. Her nephew and his wife (21 and 20) had a four-month old. They were driving up from San Antonio to get Nate’s high chair we had promised them. Could they come today to pick it up?
When the couple stopped by to get the high chair, they were as sweet as can be. Their daughter was huge and had outgrown her bassinet. She was sleeping in their bed because they didn’t have a crib for her. M and I quickly realized that giving her Catie’s crib made a lot more sense than trying to sell it or save it.
But there was one stumbling block: Catie’s emotional attachment to that bed.
We asked her what she thought. She looked at the big baby in the young mom’s and realized that family could really use a bed. And she said yes. What a blessing!
Later that night, as M tucked her in and complimented her on being so mature, she pointed out that she didn’t really have a choice, since the PEOPLE WERE ALREADY HERE.
But he told her that he was still proud of how she let her bed go.
And she said, “Thank you.”
And then stood up and reached out her arms for another kiss good night.
