Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Baby's Got a Brand New Bed

Yesterday at lunch, I popped over to Babies "Я" Us to pick up our crib. On Monday evening, Evelin decided that she was comfortable getting the crib, and that she wanted the Babi Italia Isabella Lifestyle Crib. The side doesn't drop down, but it is sturdy and will convert to a standard bed once the baby gets to be a child.

I figured it would be pretty easy to get the crib home. I knew it would be big, but I thought we could break open the box and the store and get the pieces to fit in somehow.

I should have known I was off base when the salesguy asked: "Are you driving a big car today?" I was driving the only car we have, a Hyundai Elantra. He was skeptical, but I thought we'd be able to figure out a way to get the crib into the car.

After paying for things, I pulled the car up to the front of the store and the salesguy started opening the box. We tried the big headboard piece first. It wouldn't go in the trunk or the back seat or across the back seat diagonally into the front-passenger seat.

Part of this was because of how Hyundai designed the pass through from the trunk into the main part of the car when the back seats are folded down; part of it is because the crib was bigger than I thought.

We then tried the footboard. Again, it wasn't fitting into the car. Happily, the mattress spring, crib sides, stabilizer bars did fit.

The headboard and footboard, however, ended up tied to the roof of the car with some of the original packing material used to protect the roof and the crib pieces.

Given the forecast for late afternoon rain (plus, as my car would be sitting in an open parking lot, I didn't want to leave a crib strapped to the roof all day), so I flipped back by the office to grab some files and headed home.

It was a slow ride home (angering at least one or two people on I-395 as I headed across the 14th Street Bridge and garnering a few close looks from the phalanx of police manning the roadblocks by the Capitol), but uneventful.

Once I started unpacking everything, I discovered that, according to the parts list, a toddler guardrail should have been packaged with the crib. After call to Babies "Я" Us and a fax of my instructions, I received a fax of a new instruction book from the U.S. representative of Babi Italia that said "toddler bed guardrail sold separately." According to the cover letter: "Unfortunately the incorrect instructions were packaged with your crib. ... Please accept our deepest apologies for the confusion."

While waiting to hear back from Babies "Я" Us, I managed to assemble the crib with the only leftover bolts being the ones for the toddler guardrail.

Now we just need a mattress. And some sheets. And a lot of other stuff. I think.

1 comment:

mlizzel said...

I have to laugh at the previous comment... I have a similar question. I recently purchased the crib/toddler rail/full size rails, etc. from someone on craigslist. We were given hardware - but not for the crib or the toddler rail. For those, the pieces were either totally absent or there were similar looking pieces that did not fit anywhere. So I ended up shelling out a nice chunk of change for a bunch of random pieces I can't assemble. :( And the major disappointment is that I'm in love with the crib! I wanted to see if by some miracle you still have the crib, etc. and would be willing to sell me the hardware. I know this is a LONG shot - but I can't help but dry. I've had the pieces in my garage for months, waiting to put together. So it was a MAJOR heartbreak when I couldn't assemble them. And I contacted Baby Italia - and they can't even get the hardware anymore. :( Please E-mail me @ lose.this.life@gmail.com if you can help. Thanks so very much!!! Liz :)