The Day I Gave Away My Crib

Yesterday, my friend came over and helped me take apart my beautiful white crib. We lovingly packed the headboard and footboard between towels and stowed it in the back of my van. We wrapped the custom bumpers and coordinating bedskirt in plastic. and tucked it my hall closet.

The crib was going to a new home to provide a sanctuary foranother grand baby whose parents needed a weekend or a few hours on a Saturday night to take in a movie. I had put off taking the crib down for almost a year. My two youngest grandaughters were already 3 1/2 and had been in their own beds for over 10 months. I knew there would be no more grandbabies, but I stillwasn't ready to give up my crib.

Twelve years ago, when my husband and I moved to an apartment, I made sure there was a room for a crib. Eleven years ago when my daughter announced that she and her husband were going to have a baby, my whole face lit up and all I could think of was how was I going to decorate my nursery. what kind ofbaby beddingwould I use.When she went shopping for a crib, I bought one for her and one for me. The crib became my favorite piece of furniture.

I remembered that my own mother 41 years earlier had bought me a simple white crib with a red and blue clown for $100.00 for my gender neutral nursery. Then she went to an inexpensive baby store and bought the least expensive lightest weight crib that she could find and tucked it in her storage closet. I remembering protesting slightly and teasing her about what did she think she was doing with a crib.

But Mother knew best. Soon after my daughter was born, I was begging for a place to leave her for a few hours or a few nights. She and my dad would go downstairs to the storage closet; put the crib on a luggage cart and ensemble it in the bedroom of their tiny apartment. My daughter spent many happy nights in that inexpensive crib that probably wasn't up to today's safety standards. I never worried, because my mother was right there beside her watching through the night.

My crib, however ,was going to be different. It was not going to relegated to a storage closet: it was the featured piece of furniture in my guest room.I decorated the entire room around the crib.When I had acustom quilted sea green and pink floral bedspread made for the antique double bed.I bought an extra six yards of this outrageously expensive fabric from Brunschwig and Fils for the crib bumpers. I bought coordinating stripe green and floral striped fabric for the Antique double bed's dust rufflefrom Scalamandre .I bought another extra six yards for my custom crib's dust ruffle.I didn't care what sex the first grandchld was going to be. I knew there would eventually be a grand daughter and in the meantime, this was my room to enjoy. I had such fun painting the walls a pale green and finding a 12 inch wall paper border to put near the ceiling.

Five grandchildren slept in that crib with custom green and pink floral crib bumpers with extra long ties over the course of nine years. And in the beginning I slept next to them covered by my matching custom quilted spread. I listened to them breathe and wandered at their tiny hands and fit. After I founded Namelynewborns, I added sheets from Caden Lane to my crib and bought one of the beautiful Tyler baby bedding sets in pink and brown . I rationalized that the crib was now a place to shoot my baby bedding and my personalized stuffed animals. But my children kept reminding me that the crib was taking up valuable space in the room that the grandchildren liked to gather in and that I needed to find another home for my crib.

It was hard to give that crib up; Once the crib was gone it was final; I had to admit to myself that I would never have another tiny grandchild to hold and to marvel at their smallness. But now the room has space for the play kitchen and the plush stuffed animals and books that I can read to oldergrandchildren as they drift off to sleep in the antique double bed with the pink and green quilted bedspread that once matched a beautiful white crib.