“Infants are tiny, right?”  That was the question I asked my husband.

Then why do they need so much stuff? And why the heck is it all so big? Their cribs are massive. I think I could fit comfortably inside of one.  Wait, no, I don’t think, I know I could get at least a solid eight hours in the crib you see below.  The dressers?  Don’t get me started.  The dressers hold four times as much clothes as the dressers I had when I went to college.  I actually think the crib is bigger than the stupid bunk bed in which I slept at Merrow Hall in URI.

I thought babies were kept in little cribs, like they are in the movies.  Perfect for our city apartment. Nope.  Their stuff is huge.  Which, I guess is a good thing because the truth is, my Itty Bitty won’t be tiny forever. He’s going to get stronger, bigger, and so will his bedroom needs.
He’s going to become Spider-Man one day, and will learn how to crawl out of his crib. If he’s anything like his tall mom or even taller dad, then he’ll need a big kid bed when he’s six months….well, maybe not six months but you know what I mean.  The kid’s probably going to be huge just like his furniture.

Shopping for nursery furniture was hard. I walked around in a daze, looking at different colors, heights, and headboards.  White, black, espresso, brown, maple, oak, ash, metal, adult bed rails, toddler rails, bumpers, organic mattresses, mobiles, ugh, it was stressful.  I felt like Julia Roberts when she went shopping for the first time in Pretty Woman.

My head was spinning, and I knew I needed a break. I just needed somewhere to rest my feet and my head.
That’s when I found the glider room.

Ah, the heaven that is the Glider Room.  I thought it was a mirage at first, an oasis full of comfortable, soft, plush chairs. As I sat down in the first one, I realized that, no, Dorothy, I wasn’t dreaming. These chairs were real, and I was going to get one.  My oasis was real.  I half expected some palm trees to sprout and a pool boy to come over to serve me up a virgin Pina Coloda.

It was really cool.  I felt like Goldilocks, trying out all of the different seats around the room. Some were too hard, others too soft, and most weren’t tall enough for me to rest my head back. I kept thinking to myself “is this what I would like to sit in at 3am when my kid is crying hysterically?”

I’m not going to lie, when I found my favorite glider, I sat there for quite some time and closed my eyes. I was still overwhelmed.  I realized though that I  wasn’t overwhelmed because of all of the different crib choices. It was because this whole situation was finally real. A tiny baby is on its way into my world, and I need to prepare for it. A third person will be living in our city apartment, and I need to make sure he is safe, comfortable, and taken care of.  I also need to make sure that we, as parents, are taken care of. Steps like furniture shopping make the entire idea more concrete.

Then, for whatever reason, I knew I could do this!  I could nail it.  This kid is going to be taken care of!  It was like a Jedi mind trick.

I got up from my mini-nap/vacation/enlightenment/Obi-Wan moment and walked back out to the main furniture room. I was confident, and decided to head home.  I was going to bring my hubby back with me that weekend. Smiling, I walked by the sales woman.

“Don’t worry honey,” she said, reassuring me, “it usually takes parents two or three times to decide what they want.”  Then she followed up with, “when are you due?” while taking a peek at my belly. Keep in mind that this is my first child, and I am on the taller side. That being said, people often think I am not as far along as I truly am.

“I’m due in late April,” I replied, beaming with a smile.

“Oh no! You were supposed to have ordered your furniture months ago!” Was her response.

So, remember when I said I reached a great moment of calmness and enlightenment? In other words, I was Yoda? Yeah, well that went out the window.   I went all Darth Vader and I marched to my car, with a big puss on my face. Immediately called my husband.

“Infants are tiny, right?” I asked.  Why did I ask this of my husband?  Well he needs to realize that our Itty Bitty Baby might be spending a few nights in an itty bitty drawer.  Merrow Hall style!

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How soon did you purchase your baby’s furniture?