Your crib will arrive by your child's 3rd birthday

Cindy and I have been a little behind in getting all of our baby gear set up and in order b/c we've been completing our house renovations. I've been on a work deadline (which thankfully ends this week) and Cindy, too, has had a bunch of work. It's now time for me to lay the baseboards and get the carpet installed so that we can complete Chicklet's room in time for her arrival.

One of the major components to completing her room is getting the crib. I've been a bit of a pain in the department, as I've nixed nearly every crib I've seen in favor of a more modern designed crib. I figure that there's no reason for our (or my) tastes to be pushed aside just because nearly every crib has some sort of ornamental scrollwork or overly ornate wood trim involved. Unfortunately, though, most modern baby cribs are pretty expensive. I was in love with the Oeuf Sparrow crib when a coworker told me he might be able to get it for me wholesale (his wife is in the industry and is getting one for their soon-to-be baby), but that fell through. That one goes for about $650. Every other modern baby crib, save for the Netto Cub Collection ($550), is even more expensive. Keep in mind, this is just the crib - dressers and other furniture are additional, and are usually even more expensive than the cribs themselves. This tug-of-war between modern and typical ultimately hinged on price points - a lot of others could be found in $300 price range which allowed us more room to buy the dresser and changing table. Today we became more fully educated not only about the price of baby furniture, but also when you should purchase it.

We took a visit to USA Baby here in Austin, and even though it was nearly impossible to find (b/c S. Lamar turns into Westgate Blvd., but who knows that?), we found that they had a pretty good selection of cribs and toddler paraphernalia. Don't think about asking the help, though, if the paint is non-VOC or if the crib is made of hardwood vs. veneered particleboard. I think the extent of their knowledge is price and color. Anyway, we learned that pretty much any crib of any quality starts off at the ~$500 mark. This was a rude awakening. We were thinking that this was only baby furniture, after all. But I guess furniture is furniture, and if you want something quality, you're going to have to shell out a little bit more. Once we adjusted to that, we discovered that pretty much all quality dressers/changing tables start at pretty much the same price point. This put us right back into the price range of the modern baby cribs that we had been balking at. Our lessons for the day were not yet over - we also learned that if you want to have that crib in place by the time the baby is born, you had better order it about 2 years before you even try to conceive. Seriously though - lead time for the crib we were interested in was 8-12 weeks. 3 months! Man, were we off the mark - Chicklet arrives in 6 weeks! Ultimately it won't be too big a deal as Chicklet will be sleeping in our bedroom w/ us for at least the first few months, which gives us enough time to order and set up the crib. It did make me a little sad knowing that her nursery won't be fully set up when she comes home, but them's the breaks.

So - today's lessons:

1. order your crib when you're 6 months preggers, otherwise it may arrive after the baby's born.
2. don't be afraid to spend a little bit. you may not spend it on yourself, but you don't want your baby breathing in particleboard VOCs from a cheaper crib, nor do you want lower-end construction that might not last.
3. order your crib when you're 6 months preggers.