Crib/Toddler Bed Update

It is a long story, but I will not bore you with all the details.

Boil down:
I am extremely disappointed with our Babies R Us as it took me speaking with four reps, either on the phone or in person before I learned what I needed to know. You would think they would know what they are talking about. I have spent plenty of hours doing customer service. I know the job can be tedious, but, come on, people…

In the end, we own a $380 “lifetime” crib and yet our child is sleeping on her mattress on the floor while we wait for a $75 convertible crib rail to show up in the mail. Kind of ridiculous, if you ask me.

What I learned from this whole ordeal: some “lifetime,” “convertible,” or “three-in-one” cribs are not all they are cracked up to be. If you plan on getting one or already own one, do the research sooner rather than later. Do not wait until your child climbs out of the crib and assume that you will be able to take care of it the next morning.

Everyone tells you to keep your child in the crib for as long as possible, at least age 2.5. The older the child is, the easier the transition will be. However, once the child is 35” tall (or even 33.5, like Ari!), he/she might be able to climb out. At this point, even if the transition is tough, in my opinion, there is no choice. You need to do it. It is a safety issue. Better to deal with a hard transition than with a broken arm.

Some cribs turn into a toddler bed easily.

In some cases, you need to buy a kit to convert your crib into a toddler bed and it is a special order, so you will be told that you must wait three months for it to arrive. Yeah, I am still shocked about that one. Makes no sense to me.

In some cases, you remove the front of the crib and buy a rail from the manufacturer of your crib. The purpose of this new rail is to keep your child from rolling off the bed, but to give her/him the ability to climb in and out of bed independently.

In some cases (our situation), you remove the rail and use the crib as a daybed, so a crib with only three sides. If you, like me, are concerned that the child might roll off the bed, you need to buy a generic convertible crib bed rail.

I just ordered this today:
http://www.amazon.com/Convertible-Crib-Rail-KidCo-WHITE/dp/B001U8CWSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1251167447&sr=8-1

I hope that it arrives soon. I hope that it works well for us. I am still annoyed at the fact that we had to spend another $75 after our in-laws paid $400 for this crib because we felt it was a wise, long-term investment. You would think I did not bother doing any research. I could have gotten Ari a decent toddler bed with $75!

The cool thing about this: Ari thinks sleeping on her mattress on the floor and being able to jump on it is the coolest thing ever!

Daddy thinks there is absolutely nothing wrong with her sleeping on the floor! Boys! So, clearly, the only one mythed in this home about the crib issue is me!