Abe’s crib is the Sundvik crib from Ikea. As I’ve mentioned before, this selection was motivated primarily by price. The crib is $119, and I like the way it looks just fine. It has clean simple lines that fit in well with the nursery. It’s not flashy or exciting, but it does its job without drawing attention to itself. I wasn’t interested in spending more on a crib for a few reasons: 1. Cribs rarely excite me, no matter how much they cost. I just….don’t care that much about cribs. They aren’t like chairs. 2. I had no idea whether Abe would actually USE his crib much at all. Ari loved the crib. Milo hated sleeping, but didn’t much care where he was doing it. Gus HATED the crib with a fiery passion and slept in bed with us until he was three. So, you know, I’m pretty open minded about baby sleeping arrangements. I just want everyone to sleep; I don’t care where it happens. 3. Even if babies sleep in cribs, they don’t do it for very long, relatively speaking.
Abe’s my last baby; he and some kid from Craigslist are the only ones who are going to use this thing. I’d rather save my money for something that will stick around longer. So those are all my reasons for buying the crib to start with. When we put the crib together, my only concern, looking forward, was that the directions made it look like we’d pretty much need to take the whole damn thing apart again to lower the mattress down once Abe started pulling up on things. But, of course, at the time, that seemed too impossibly far off to even worry about. But then, somehow, he got bigger. Big enough to start trying to pull up on things. So, a few weeks ago, we had to undertake the daunting task of lowering the mattress. I thought I would report back on this process to make my Ikea crib analysis complete. Turns out it was pretty easy. We didn’t have to take the whole crib apart; we just had to take one end off and then slide the bottom that the mattress rests on out and put it back in the lower position.
When we went to this, we learned that we had brilliantly thought to store the instruction manual AND the allen wrench under the mattress so that we’d be able to find them when the time came to lower the mattress: Our minds were so sharp back before we had a fourth kid! We opted not to put them back under there once we lowered the mattress, by the way, lest Abe somehow figure out a way to pry up the mattress while sitting on it and pull the choking hazard tools out from under there. Better safe than sorry. (note to future self: they’re in the top drawer of Abe’s changing table/dresser) We turned it on its side like so. Unscrewed all these little things. And put the bottom back in at the lower position (there are only two positions). This part–fitting the little things into the little thing places–was the hardest part. I would say the whole process took the two of us 20 minutes? With a baby crawling around distracting us. The sad part is that we had to retire the crib skirt I made to match the curtains.
I was going to just use heavy duty double sided tape and tape it farther back on the mattress board…but once the board was lowered the gap between it and the side of the crib was too tight to wiggle the fabric through. I might have been able to do it had I been willing to spend more time and get more frustrated. Instead, I’m thinking of making a couple of pillows or something. I took this picture of it all folded up to commemorate it: So my take on the crib after eight months of use and after the arduous mattress lowering? Yep, still good with it. And I can even still reach to put Abe down when he’s asleep. I was worried I’d have to just drop him the last half a foot or so. And that might wake him up. My arms are just long enough! (okay, I stood him up there. But this was maybe a month ago. He’s pulling up on everything now)Moonlight Slumber Little Dreamer Crib Mattress Mattress is 2-stage sleep system, featuring an extra firm foam infant side, and the a softer, plush toddler side Fabric is non-toxic medical grade nylon Flexible and weighs just 8.2 lb. Edges and corners are squared White exterior Mattress interior is 100% foam and features a natural internal fire barrier Hypoallergenic and waterproof Measures 52" L x 27-1/2" W x 5" H This mattress satisfies federal flammability requirements without the use of chemical flame retardants
Small Space Crib Review: The Stokke Sleepi My husband and I decided we'd allow ourselves one splurge purchase for our baby. We had admired the Stokke Sleepi crib, but decided it was just too expensive - not just for our budget, but in principle. But when we started trying to figure out how to incorporate a crib into our home office space, the smaller Stokke started looking better and better. Our office doubling as a nursery was all fine and good at night, but what about naps during the day when, ostensibly, one of us would need to be working? And once we started looking at full-size cribs we realized they were kind of huge! We were already downsizing our desk, but we'd have to eliminate another piece of office furniture in order to make a standard crib work. So we took the plunge (the $1200 plunge no less!) and bought the Sleepi. At first we were embarrassed to tell our family and friends how much we'd spent, but now we count it as perhaps our smartest purchase (and we like to think of the price pro-rated over our own and my sister's future children).
If you're not familiar with the Stokke Sleepi you can see it here. Although you can buy just the large oval crib, the "system" comes with a smaller bassinet that later expands, like adding a leaf to a table, into a larger crib and later (with kits you can purchase separately) into a toddler bed, twin-size bed and, finally, two chairs. Since this is a major purchase, I wanted to give you my first-hand review. Feel free to ask questions in the comments if I haven't covered something. I think it's a really beautiful crib. The wood and construction quality are excellent. The slightly smaller overall size (4"-5" shorter in length than most standard cribs) and oval shape allows it to fit snugly into a corner at an angle which frees up more space for our office furniture.They are larger and sturdier than other crib wheels I've seen (and they can lock into position) so it's very easy to roll the crib into our bedroom during the day so our son can nap while we utilize the office.
When he was a newborn we frequently rolled the bassinet down the hall to the living room while one of us was zonked out in the bedroom. The smaller size means it fits smoothly through our doorways. It has a built-in canopy rod which we used to hang a mobile until our son was old enough to stand in the crib (and pull on it). Now we use a fabric canopy to make it a darker spot for sleeping. (The canopy rod came with ours, it may be extra depending on where you purchase.) Most stores we called quoted anywhere from 4-12 weeks before delivery and, characteristically, we had waited until near the end of our third trimester to make the crib decision. (Luckily, we got it in about 2 weeks here.) Although the smaller size is a plus in one sense, I sometimes wonder if our very active 10-month-old wouldn't prefer a larger crib. Oh well, he'll deal. Oval sheets designed to fit the Sleepi are pretty expensive. I ended up recruiting my mother to sew bassinet sheets which took all of ten minutes and we've been using standard crib sheets tucked tightly for the larger size mattress.