Bye Bye Baby

"She's a big girl now". If I were a song writer I'm sure that would lend itself to a cute little ditty. Today I put the crib and dresser set all my girls have used on Craigslist. The picture was taken right before it was disassembled and stuck out in the garage.

I can remember standing in the showroom of the baby furniture store in Ft. Worth, pregnant and so excited to be making the plans for our first nursery. We looked at all the cribs they had to offer, shopped at several different stores, and came back to this model that was "perfect" for our first little baby. Mike's mom AKA "Granna" bought the crib and we purchased the matching dresser. Mike went to go pick it up when it arrived and had it all assembled when I got home from work one day. He was as excited as I was. We posed for a picture at Christmas in front of the fully made (gender neutral!) crib, in the almost completely equipped room, all ready for the baby that wouldn't arrive for another 4 months. Such is the work done for a first child.

I remember the first night when we put Anna down to sleep for the night in her crib. All by herself, all the way across the house from us. (Never mind that the house was only 1600 square feet and we could hear her slightest cry without the supersonic monitor we installed in her room!). She was five weeks old and she felt so far away. I remember getting up several times that night just to look at her and make sure she was ok. Now don't get me wrong, she had napped in there, I just wasn't ready to let her stay in there all by herself all night yet.

Anna was bumped out at age two to make way for Sarah's arrival. She was so excited to sleep in her big girl toddler bed in the same room as Sarah. However, Sarah didn't actually sleep in it until she was probably 3 or 4 months old. Sarah just didn't sleep well for a long time..... and then, when she was just shy of two, she figured out how to jump out. So, we put the crib under our bed to get it out of the way. It was within a few days of doing so we realized baby number 3 was on its way. Good thing we had a good, strong, sturdy crib! Finally, Emily got her turn when she was about 8 weeks old. I was so unsure of how to make the room arrangements for the girls that Emily slept in the pack and play in our room until I finally decided. The only thing I had known for sure up until then was that she was going to have "girly" bedding! When we discovered her gender I completely embraced the idea of being a mother of girls. But, poor Emily's room was actually our office for the first 8 months of her life. The romance of a "nursery" had long worn off by then. In fact, even when the office moved out, her bedroom became the official guest room as well and wasn't completely finished before she changed bedrooms. Ah, such is the life of the third child.

Emily stayed in the crib the longest. She was nearly 2 1/2 when she launched herself over the side rail by herself. Considering she has been potty trained for several months now we figured she might as well have a big bed too. Now we're on to the next transition for our family of having three rapidly growing girls and no babies. They each have their own room and their individual personalities are really starting to show as we see how they arrange their own spaces.

The girls and I had a little reminiscing moment right before they helped me disassemble the crib. I told them all the special little memories and reminded them of how welcomed and special each of them are. The emotions and memories tied up in that one piece of furniture are precious. I can't think of any other single piece of furniture in our house with so many wonderful memories for our family. I pray that the next owners have memories just as sweet.