Baby gear: Furniture

When I started the baby registry process it was very overwhelming . . . registering for your wedding is fun! Everyone knows what a toaster does and that you probably need one - you just get to pick the prettiest to ask for. But how would I ever know what features to look for on a car seat or stroller? And what could be more important than the safety of a tiny new baby?? It took a LOT of research on my part and one of the key methods was to ask my friends who had recently had babies for their advice. So, thanks to Manda, Johanna, Kelli and Emily and I will include some of that feedback here, but mostly this is how we see it.

Furniture:

Crib - We had quite the debacle finding a crib, I could go on for a while with the whole story, and maybe someday I will. But for now, what we ended up with was a crib from Buy Buy Baby, brand: AP Industries style: Lollipop. So far we love this crib, it is a great size for our nursery which is on the small side, it is solid construction, it came in light wood that we wanted. We just lowered it down because Anna can now pull herself up and so far so good. She can't reach the top now so we have not had to worry about her chewing on it yet. This crib does turn into a toddler bed by just taking off the sides but I am not sure we would ever use it for that. Luckily we talked ourselves out of a drop side crib after reading several negative reports including Consumer Reports. There have recently been some major recalls concerning drop sides and we are able to reach Anna just fine with the stationary sides.

Changing Table - This also is involved with the long drama we had with furniture shopping. We ended up just getting a standard waist high dresser that actually is from the same collection as our spare room bed and night stand (so they can eventually be put back together as a set) and placed a changing pad on top. It actually works perfectly, it is a great height for both of us and we just keep the diapers, wipes, creams, etc in the top drawer that is right under the changing pad and the other drawers are Anna's dresser and hold her clothes, sheets, blankets, towels. I am really happy with this decision in the long run. So it isn't really baby related, but we got the dresser from Art Van.
Rocking Chair/Glider - We decided not to get a glider this time - our house is pretty small and it is a very short walk out to the living room to the recliner. Also there was really no space in the nursery for it. This plan has worked out pretty well, the only issue comes up when we have visitors and I want to feed Anna, sometimes I just have to go in our bedroom but that is pretty rare. I think if we had a multi-level or much larger house I would want a chair right in her room to rock and feed her but for now we are OK without.