Goodbye Crib

I get attached to physical items.  I had a difficult time throwing out my old alarm clock that I had had since I was fourteen.  It was tough for me to finally part with a pair of silk boxer shorts that I'd had since I was fourteen as well (but land sakes alive those puppies were shredded beyond recognition!).  So when it came time to start talking about a toddler bed for Andrew, knowing we'd have to sell the crib was an emotional point for me.

That's been my babies' bed and home for the last six years.  I can still remember putting that blasted thing together, my pubic bone popping every time I tried to stand up.  I was 37 weeks preggo when I was doing it. That may have been my first mistake.

"Angels danced on the day you were born…"

Ready and waiting for a baby

I remember Katelyn's first nap in the crib (she slept in a bassinet at night for the first few months).

Snug as a bug in a little pink rug...

Katelyn slept in the crib until she was three.  Then we moved her to a toddler bed and now she has a double.  She sleeps with me most nights so her bed is really just for bouncing on.  Andrew started off in the bassinet as well for the first few months of his life.  When it was time to transition him to the crib, there wasn't enough room in K's room for a double bed and the crib so we made space in our room.  And that's where he slept every night until this past Friday when we sold the crib.  

Last pic in the crib together

Andrew's last sleep in the crib

I had ordered Andrew a Disney Cars toddler bed from Walmart a week ago.  It said it would be here on Friday.  Guess what? It didn't show up until this morning.  So Andrew has been sleeping on his crib mattress on the floor for the last four nights.  And it went surprisingly well! Once that boy is asleep, nothing wakes him up until he hears his sister up.  Until last night.  

Andrew decided he didn't want to be alone on the floor so at 2:00am, he came to my side of the bed and wanted up and in.  I laid him in the middle between Katelyn and I (and of course he had to bring his stupid giant stuffed monkey that's the same size as him so there were technically four of us in bed).  For the most part, it was an okay sleep besides the occasional foot in my butt or hand in my face. All went well until 6:30 this morning when I awoke to a crash and then loud cries.  Katelyn had fallen out of bed (our bed is waist high on me so that's a long way for a little one to drop!) and was crying about her head and her back.  Seeing what time it was and knowing there was no going back to sleep, I brought Katelyn into the bathroom to check her over.  Sure enough, large scrape on her back and OHMYGOD YOUR HEAD IS BLEEDING!!! AND THERE'S A LOT OF IT!! SHIT SHIT SHIT! Katelyn was crying for a band aid for her head but the cut was in her hair so that wasn't going to happen. I tried to clean it up as best I could to see exactly how big the cut was.  In all likelihood, she probably could have used a stitch a two, but with Mike at work and not home for another half an hour, I knew by the time we got to the hospital, the cut would be all dried up anyways.  So I gave K an ice pack to put on her head to keep any swelling down, gave her a shot of Advil to ward off a possible headache and set her up on the couch with the remote while I toddled off to make a much needed coffee.

But back to the crib…as I was cleaning it, I shed some tears.  This crib had been witness to my babies' growing up - the sleepless nights, the pacing back and forth while bouncing and cajoling a fussy baby, the lullabies sung in the rocking chair, the diaper changes, the learning how to roll over in the safety of its confines, the experimental "let's see if I can climb out of this thing" manoeuvers, the endless bouncing on the crib mattress, the fort building, the lazy mornings with a bottle and the iPad (that was Miss K)…it had been a part of our background for six years.  And suddenly it was dismantled, paid for and loaded into the back of the new owner's truck and gone in the blink of an eye.

And so it goes...