There's More Than One Way to Assemble A Crib

Before you get nervous by the title of this post, let me be clear that we followed every single bit of the instructions as we put together Precious Boy's crib this evening. The last thing we want is a ghetto tinker toy crib for that adorable baby boy to rest his head in! :)

After being quoted nearly $300 to deliver the furniture for the nursery, we decided that it would be better to drive down to Austin and pick it up ourselves in a trusty U-Haul trailer rented for a mere 50 bucks. We were unaware that the furniture we selected was quite substantial, weighed somewhere around 3 tons and was in various boxes. Luckily it was well protected in the giant boxes, fit nicely in the covered trailer and managed to behave itself by not slipping and tipping over as we drove sloooowly down I-35. Fortunately I managed to convince Bryan that we could exceed the 45 mph speed limit set by Mr. U-Haul. I was only able to do this after we saw a renegade U-Haul customer fly past us on the highway going at least 70 mph while pulling a matching trailer.

We unloaded the furniture with the help of our old friends, Leah & Zach, who recently became our new neighbors! We were so appreciative for their help. Next came the daunting task of crib assembly. I am personally terrified of any furniture assembly as you never know if you will receive instructions in English, if you'll have all the parts you need and if you'll still be married when it's all said and done.

We took our time and things were going really well! We were getting ready to attach the sides of the crib to the mattress spring thingy when I remarked at how awesome we were doing. Way to go, Betsy. Total jinx.

Next thing we know a barrel nut (what is that???) has dropped backwards into a dark whole of nothingness in the furniture. We began to try everything we could to get this barrel nut to come out. I tried my fingernails, we tried turning the piece of furniture upside down... no luck. We moved on to more creative measures, including tape and the strongest magnets from the fridge. No dice.

Next it was my turn to come up with some ideas, which included the super girly ideas of using my tweezers and using two sewing needles to try to pry it out. Total failure. Bryan's next attempt involved - SURPRISE - surgical tools. While I held a flashlight, Bryan tried to use two surgical needles (brand new & clean, by the way) that he attached to some surgical tool things (not a technical term). No luck again.

In case you haven't figured out, we're basically up a creek without a paddle at this point. There's no way we could finish putting the crib together and it's not exactly a piece of furniture you want to jerry-rig. While Bryan went to search the front of the fridge for a stronger magnet, I held the flashlight in my mouth and by a true act of God managed to get the barrel nut out of the black hole using a flat head screwdriver!! AMEN! We could continue the crib mission.

I wanted to share this lovely experience with everyone - especially you other Kyrgz families who may be setting up your cribs soon! Don't just rely on your Phillips head screwdriver or Allen wrench to get the job done! In moments of desperation it's amazing what you'll try to put together a crib for a little guy like Precious Boy!

Here are a few photos of our handiwork, although the nursery is in the beginning stages and still a work in progress. I can't wait until we have all the bedding and other decorations so I can see how everything will look together. I did the fine-looking paint job on the 4th of July (Happy Birthday America!) while Bryan worked in the ER. I'm such a do-it-yourself She-Woman!!!

The Crib, assembled using a variety of tools & methods:


The dresser/changing table combo... future site of many dirty diapers: