Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Traveling Bassinet

We had been looking forward to this day for a long time.  The day that we would walk through our back door with our new baby.  I had a difficult pregnancy, so it was a relief to be at this point.  Mom and baby healthy and home.  As a result of my time on bed rest there wasn't a lot of time to plan and decorate.

Oh, don't worry.  I made my maiden voyage to the children's furniture store.  And within fifteen minutes I had dropped a thousand dollars.  Scott didn't say a word.  He didn't blink an eye.  He just wrote the check.  For this grand amount we received a crib, a dresser and bedding for our new baby.  Blame it on the hormones, or perhaps my limited time to shop, but it was an insane amount to spend. Fourteen years ago.

Back to the much awaited moment of walking through the door with our priceless addition. She was tiny.  I know, I know.  All babies are small.  But Gracie was four pounds, fourteen ounces.  A little itty bitty thing.  She was early, but healthy as a horse.  We introduced her to our dogs.  They checked her out.  Sniffed her.  Licked her little head.  And they gave us their approval.  It was as if they said, "it's all good.  You can keep her."

After a little while we decided to put her in her crib.  I laid her down gently.  Scott and I looked at her sleeping peacefully and smiled.  And then I freaked.  She's too small to sleep in such a big space!  This isn't going to work for me.  And then the tears.  And there were many.

Scott was off like a superhero.  With the help of my mom he left for the children's furniture store.  To buy a bassinet.  Because the thousand dollar furniture was too big for his baby.  Not really.  But he understood that it was too big for his wife to bear at this very moment.

Back they came with a lovely little bassinet covered in white eyelet.  It was perfect.  Small, like she was.  It was on a stand that had wheels.  And wheel it I did.  From the living room, to the kitchen and back to my bedside.

It wasn't long before she grew too big to be in this bassinet.  By this time I was much more comfortable with her sleeping in her gigantic crib.  Not really.  I mean her crib wasn't gigantic.  I meant that I was at peace with her being in there.  Gracie was at peace, too. She slept beautifully.

Such a pretty bassinet it was.  And so when we heard that friends were having a baby we loaned it to them.  They kept it through two babies.  No sooner was it returned to us and another couple we knew needed it.  They kept it through four babies.  Right now it is being used by a baby boy born a month ago.

This pretty little impulse buy is getting a lot of use.  This traveling bassinet has held a lot of babies.  It is the gift that keeps giving.