I wish someone would have told me this when I was pregnant.
I always thought babies slept happily in cribs. I believed those movies that had babies come home from the hospital and lay happy in their crib. Oh boy! How naive I was!
The first thing I learned when I come home with my baby from the hospital was that my baby didn’t like her crib. She didn’t like to be on any surface, she just wanted to be held. I get it, she was in my belly for 9 months and this sudden change was probably not she wanted.
My husband and I looked at so many cribs before we decided on the perfect one. We also got a pack-n-play and once she was born and we realized she didn’t like those first two we got a co-sleeper. However, we didn’t use any of them because she hated them all. We wasted about $1000 that could have been used in more useful things but we didn’t know any better. We didn’t know the parents we would be. We didn’t know our baby.
After struggling to get my baby to sleep in a surface that wasn’t our arms or our mattress, and after lot of research, we decided to bedshare and we love it. I didn’t think we would bedshare but I just didn’t know what else to do and now I know it was the best decision for our family. I know all babies won’t be like this, but most babies won’t be fond of being apart from mom for a while so spending lots of money in a crib might not be the best thing to do.
My advice to all moms:
Look at cribs when your pregnant and chose the one you love but don’t buy it. Even if you end up using the crib you won’t use it during your baby’s first weeks.
Once you have your baby and you’ve figured out what works best for you, your baby and your family you can decide if you need a king bed, a crib, a bassinet or if your current bed is fine.
I don’t want you to regret buying a crib like we did. And if you do need one ASAP, there’s always Amazon. 🙂 So don’t buy a crib before your baby is born. If anything, buy a bedside bassinet until you’ve figured out if your baby will like the crib. And if you do get a crib, maybe get a convertible one will be your best bet since you know you can use it as a toddler bed down the road.
It wasn’t until I had my baby and started talking to other moms that I realized many of them didn’t use their cribs for this exact same reason. I wish they would have told me this before I bought our crib.
Did you use a crib with your baby?
Demiurg says
I ended up with a pretty bad tear during labor and was bound to the first floor of our home for 4 weeks. I had to sleep on a sleeper sofa and my baby stayed in Baby Home next to me. Since I could barely get out of bed, my mom had to change baby and give him to me for feedings. After 2 weeks, she was like a zombie and I took over night duties. After a second night, I started falling asleep with baby by my side only to wake up terrified that I could have squished him. After few more nights, I ditched the Baby Home because I realized that I am very aware of my baby. Anyway, I was too exhausted of picking him up and putting him back to the his little bed (any extra movement was tough for me). We did buy a crib and a glider chair. What a waste of money! I breastfeed still, and at 9 months old, we are using the rib a sidecar. Even though, I wish we had just put our mattress on the floor and bought a firmer mattress. I had no intention of co-sleeping with my baby but it turned out to be the most natural and easy solution.
Carolina says
Wow! I’m so sorry. Sounds like it was rough. It’s funny how things happen. The thought of co-sleeping never crossed my mind until I had my baby. I remember also being scared of rolling onto her but quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. I’m glad you found a way to make things easier for you, especially with such a rough recovery.
Amber Bates says
We are actually big fans of our crib 🙂 It’s a hand-me-down and all three (soon to be four!) kids have slept in it. We coslept with my daughter when she came home for bonding (she was adopted at 14m old) but eventually had to move her to a crib because she flailed so much none of us could sleep. My older son hated co-sleeping. He only seemed to be able to sleep by himself so he slept in a moses basket until he outgrew it and then moved into the crib, and we did the same with our second son.
I absolutely agree with you that you should go with the most inexpensive option until you know if you’ll actually use that costly crib. We were lucky to get hand-me-downs and plan to pass them on to help other parents save money.
Carolina says
That’s impressive that your kids liked the crib. I’ve heard of that before, I think it really depends on your kid.
We are getting a side cart crib this time and hoping the baby likes it. 🙂
Amy says
I’m so glad you put this out there….to wait before buying a crib! We did the same thing…thought we needed one…picked out a pretty one…and that’s all it was. Pretty. He slept in a bedside cradle for a few weeks then our bed at 6 weeks until now. We ended up selling the crib to a friend!
Carolina says
I’m glad you were able to sell your crib. We still have ours hoping it’ll be used some day. Haha! Which we highly doubt.
I’m going to try the bedside cradle this time, I’m glad to hear it worked out for you for those first weeks when they are so tiny.
Vivian Lotz says
When he was really small, he slept on one of those inflatable baby pools, over a lot of blankets. After he was too big for those, I bought one of those big playpens and a foam matress to fit in it, so he can roll around as much as he wants. Both the pool and the playpen we can easily take with us anywhere, way better than a solid wooden crib or even a small foldable one.
Carolina says
Those are great ideas! I’m glad you found such a good solution for your baby. 🙂
Lindsay says
Both of my sons slept in their cribs the day we brought them home. I think getting them use to the crib day one helped with sleep training and has made them fantastic sleepers. Both sleeping thru the night by 6 weeks. No sleep regressions either. Of course everyone should do what’s best for their family but I would recommend getting your child use to sleeping on their own in their own bed sooner rather than later. Can’t hurt to have a crib ready. Also think convertible cribs are great. Get lots of use out of your money!
Carolina says
It is definitively different for every baby. From my experience most moms don’t use the crib from day 1 but a bassinet or cosleeper, hence the recommendation of getting that first before buying a crib to see if your baby likes it.
Thanks for your feedback!