I forgot to post that I got fed up with waiting for that part from Once Upon a Child. Several days had gone by and I hadn't heard anything so I called them and
then they said they would call the manufacturer. Two or three days later, they call me and tell me that the manufacturer needs a
different model number. I could not come up with a different magical number from my ass or elsewhere because the same number on the instructions was the one on the crib, so there was no possible other model number. I even gave them the manufacture date (November, 2006--how hard can it be for the damn company to figure out which model it is?).
Another week went by so I took the effing thing apart and loaded it up in the car (at this point I was pretty mad because we wasted another two weeks, I spent over an hour assembling the crib, and OUAC didn't seem to understand that it's not safe to use a crib with a side that can detatch--that's the whole reason why the other ones were recalled). I also went online and found other people with this same crib who had the same broken plastic part on theirs. I then read a mother's post saying, "Don't use this crib; my baby died when the side detatched". That was enough for me.
Anyway, to make a long story short, Friday I was in the staff breakroom and talking to a co-worker. She was talking about this rummage sale she is having next weekend and she's selling all of her boys' clothing. I, half-kiddingly, asked if she was selling a crib too, because I had just gotten done venting to another co-worker about my crib dilemma.
"Yes", she said, "and you can have it. It's older and it has some scratches on it, but we are getting rid of it". I told her I'd give her something for it, but she didn't want anything.
So, we picked up the crib after work yesterday. Rob and I put it together right when we got home while Andrew tried to "help" by taking the screwdrivers and running with them (this problem was somewhat fixed when I put in his
Clifford DVD). I then cleaned the crib up good with my
Orange Plus natural cleanser, and it looks really nice! The crib is old (wow, 1988 is the manufacture date), but the old adage is true: the just don't make things the way they used to. No plastic parts on this. The parts that are plastic on today's cribs are metal on this one. Rob even replaced the four screws with some Allenwrench ones so that he could tighten them easier. The drop-side system from the 80s used metal rods instead of relying on the weight of the crib to be held up by plastic tabs. It is much safer and I think there were less recalls in the 80s and 90s. Why they ever went to the newer system is beyond me, but if it was to save $.50 by using plastic parts, that is pretty pathetic. When babies are dying from being entrapped, it's time for all of the manufactuers to re-think their process. The only cribs I found online that were created solidly were $800 and more. If you could get your hands on an Amish-made crib, they're super nice, but will set you back $1200.
I promised a pic, so here it is! Not bad for free!
Last night was Andrew's first night in it, and he did cry more than normal, but it's because he's had a month of going to bed with Mom and being nursed to sleep. I took him out once because he was just going nuts and I thought he was going to sweat to death. One more nursing session and back in the crib and he was asleep within 5 minutes. He had his little stuffed birdie ("Bird-suh") and his toy power drill in his hands, but he was asleep. Very cute!
