Our crib saga

As is the case with many things in my life, getting the crib we wanted proved to be ridiculously complex and dramatic. It didn't help that I was especially emotional.

I've had my eye on a certain crib for quite some time. It was available at Target, Babies 'R Us, Walmart ... I figured I would have no trouble getting it when the time came (and for various reasons, I was opposed to getting it *too* early). But then it went out of stock on the Target Web site. And then I decided to wait to purchase it until after our baby shower, which was fortunate because while I was home I found out that a generous family member wanted to buy the crib for us as a shower gift. About a week before I went home, I had checked the Walmart Web site (where the crib was about $50 cheaper than BRU, and Walmart is located much more conveniently than our closest BRU) and knew the crib was still available.

I returned from Ohio and received word that the GFM (generous family member) had sent a gift card to cover the cost of the crib. A few days later, the mail arrived - and included a package from the GFM. Wheeee! Instead of waiting until that night or that weekend, I decided to order right then.

I went to the Walmart Web site ... and couldn't find my crib. But then I *did* find my crib. But it was "Online only. Out of stock online."

I was less than pleased. OK, full disclosure: This *might* have prompted an all-out breakdown, complete with me calling Tim at work and him not being able to understand me through my sobs of "crib" and "stock" and "order." The fact that this all came during the last week of my class and all I had been wanting to do for weeks was put together baby furniture and work on the nursery did *not* help matters. Tim tried to calm me down (after he finally figured out what I was saying), assuring me that we could still order the crib from BRU and it would all work out.

So after the tears had stopped, I hopped on the Walmart Web site and fired off an e-mail asking if they had any way to tell how long the crib would be out of stock. I received an automated response telling me that someone would get back to me within 24 hours (this never happened, by the way).

I headed off to work and went about my day ... which included periodically checking the Web site to see if things might have changed. Maybe someone had returned one. Maybe someone had found an extra shipment somewhere. Maybe they'd been out for two weeks and were fully back in stock. No luck.

A few hours later, I realized I hadn't stalked checked the Web site in a while. I went on and rubbed my eyes. THE CRIB WAS THERE. It didn't say "Out of stock online." I quickly scrambled to pull out the GFM gift card from my wallet - the gift card I nearly put in to our safe because I figured I wouldn't hear back from the Walmart people until the next day at the earliest - before it could go out of stock again. I placed my order, trying to subdue my inner shrieks of glee, and hoped that it wasn't a fluke.

Two days later, I received an e-mail that the crib had shipped to the store and would be available in 10-14 days. (I checked the Web site again at this time, and - shocker - the crib was out of stock again.) We waited until the carpet was installed and we had returned from our babymoon, and then Tim went and picked it up.

I then feared that the crib would be damaged or missing pieces, because that would be a) just my luck and b) awful considering that there appeared to be no more cribs in stock. But alas, it all worked out - I had all of the parts I needed, and it took a little less than two hours (mostly because I put it together while Tim was at work and it was a bit tricky to hold two pieces together at times or screw things in from awkward angles).


We're going to have the baby sleep in a bassinet in our bedroom at night for the first few months, but I wanted to have this all squared away sooner than later. I put the mattress in and now we're just about good to go on nursery sleeping space :) My near disastrous crib issue? Crisis averted.