Crib? Check. Doula? Check? We're ready! (Part 1)

Despite the stiffling heat and humidity here in Manhattan last week, and despite rounding the corner at the 8 month mark, we had a pretty productive week here at SustainaBabe.

First, the crib: Last weekend the Sorelle Sophia crib was delivered and assembled. It looks fabulous and fits snugly in its Nook. (The Nook is basically the left hand side of our wall.)





After much deliberating, we also invested in the Naturepedic No-Compromise Organic mattress, which is recommended by Healthy Child, Healthy World, and endorsed by several other organizations. At twice the price of a traditional mattress, we weren't sure if it was worth the investment, but we figured if we are taking pains to keep the Babe away from toxic chemicals, it was the right decision. While dark greenies would probably cringe at the food-grade polyethylene waterproof cover, we thought this was a good, well, compromise.

Dressing

I've been looking at the dresser for a week and now need to do something with it. Before I can wash all the Babe's clothes and tuck them neatly in its drawers though I feel compelled to wash it down and make sure its as eco-friendly as possible. Even though the dresser is solid oak, the sides of the drawers are plywood which emit formaldehyde.

While The Complete Organic Pregnancy initially kind of freaked me out, I consulted it this week. In the nursery section the authors adivse how to treat nursery furniture that is constructed of plywood, using AFM's Safecoat Safe Seal product. It seems easy enough except for they don't sell the product anywhere in the city that I can see. Apparently, AFM has a Brooklyn location but didn't actually have the product listed on their website. Before I make the pilgrimage out there, I decided to test their commitment to "providing the best customer service in the industry" and sent an email inquiry.

Feathering the Nook

I'm not sure you can really feather a 'nook' rather than a nest, but anyway...

The Babe's (solid oak, espresso finish) chest of drawers was delivered from Straight from the Crate on Friday. The downside of ordering from a store like this is that you don't get that warm, fuzzy feeling like when you are in the upscale baby boutique lining Madison Avenue. The upshot is that the dresser was delivered in less than 5 business days and isn't the equivalent of a year of private school. The dresser is a 5 drawer piece, which stands about 47 inches high and 18 inches wide. Thankfully, it tucks into the wall pretty neatly. The drawers are 5 inches deep - plenty of space to load up the hand-me-downs and new clothes we bought for the Babe.

But ...

Suddenly the Pod looks much smaller. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I spent the better part of Friday night reconsidering this whole small living idea. The crib isn't even here yet!

We now have no room for the small bookshelf (that we were going to use as a changing table, so we thought we'd have to change the Babe on the bed.

The Nook

Here is a shot of the Nook. This is the left hand side of the wall (check out the floorplan from a few days ago).


On the wall are two Leroy Neiman serigraphs from two of our favorite pasttimes (the Met Opera at Lincoln center, left) and running (Olympic Games, right). As colorful as Neiman's work is, is this a little mature for an infant? Maybe we'll swap them out for some wall art like these wall stickers that they sell at Giggle.

"Every little bit counts"

Yesterday, after a morning of yoga, I felt strong, centered and ready to take on the closet organization task ahead of us. It's hard not to feel envious of everyone I know who seems to have walk-in closets but we try to see the upside. The best thing about the Pod is our closets have pretty good built-ins, which were installed by the previous owners. They're not Elfa systems, but they suffice. We figured our linen closet (first box on the left by the door on the floorplan) could be decluttered a bit (ok, a lot) to make a shelf or two for diapers and other baby stuff. My husband, bless him, deliberated over whether an old computer hardrive (barely 3 cm wide) should be put in our storage unit. "Every little bit counts" in his words. So true.

Here is a filled to the brim before shot:



Here is the after shot. We'll store diapers (gDiapers I think) on the top shelf, and other assorted baby bounty on the fourth (you can see we've already got a Boppy and some blankets ready and waiting. Even made room for the yoga mat!

Introducing ... the Pod

I just sketched out the floorplan of our Pod so I can start to share how we are reorganizing to make room for the Babe. Here is how we live Manhattan studio style.