Playing the System

When I was pregnant, I was convinced I wouldn’t co-sleep. Actually, I specifically remember my Bradley Method teacher recommended we look into The Baby Book and attachment parenting. She was explaining what they were all about and the only part I didn’t agree with was co-sleeping. Yes, I even told her that. I was convinced I would roll over on my baby because I move so much in my sleep.

Then Peanut is born and she wakes up Every. Time. I. Try. To. Put. Her. In. The. Crib. The few times I do get her in the crib, I lay there awake because I forced myself to stay awake through her feeding and falling deep enough asleep that I could transfer her over. Did I mention I have problems with insomnia too? Yeah, that whole crib thing just wasn’t working for us.

For a while we used the crib as a side-car because babies aren’t supposed to sleep on pillow-top mattresses, but after a while she wasn’t even really sleeping in the crib because she would just roll towards me. Actually it became a hazard because she would work her way down to the bottom of the bed and roll off the side (because the crib wasn’t as long as the bed). So we decided it would be better if we just pushed the bed up against the wall.

So there our crib was, just sitting there gathering dust. I figured there was no point in selling it for a fraction of the price. Maybe we’d use it in the future? It does convert to a toddler bed (which is way too high off the ground may I add). Possibly we’d want to side-car it again for the next child? Every time there was a recall, I’d joke “I hope it’s our crib!” because I thought it would be great to just return the thing to the store and get our money back.

Lo and behold, there was a recall of our crib—over a year after buying the crib.

Target allowed us to return the crib for a full refund. We decided to use some of the money (gift card since we didn’t have the receipt anymore) to buy Peanut a cutesy little toddler bed. We’re still co-sleeping, but decided to put her in her own bed while we’re not in the room (i.e. naps and before we go to sleep). I was paranoid that she would fall off of our bed even though she hasn’t done it in months. It’s pretty high up because the pillow-top and I don’t want to put it on the floor because my husband has hip issues, so it’s difficult enough for her to navigate getting off even when she’s fully awake and can see what she’s doing.

We couldn’t get the toddler bed to work out, so I plan on returning it (90 days is what’s allowed) and buying her a twin-size mattress instead. I think that after a year of pillow-top that she’s not used to the hard crib mattress. Either way, we don’t have a crib that we hardly used sitting around taking up storage space and that alone makes me a happy mommy.

So if you have one of the recalled cribs—even if you’ve already ordered the replacement part—and don’t want it anymore, try returning it. Worked out great for us!