Monday, December 17, 2007

To Bumper or Not to Bumper?

That is the big question.

I'm settled on the nursery bedding. I'm going with Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo in pool. I am going to have to buy the fabric and either make or have it made. I love this set (as posted earlier), and I have even found someone to make the bedding for me. I'm going to make the quilt/blanket.... it looks easy enough. But the bumper and dust ruffle, I don't know. I know for sure I want the dust ruffle, but should I have it made? It'd be around $25 to have it made, plus the cost of fabric (which is running $10-12/yard).

I chatted with my mother in law and I am thinking I'm going to skip the bumper and attempt to make the dust ruffle. We made Porter's, although it didn't have the pleat or the trim, so hopefully I'll be able to figure it out.

The bumper.. I love it. I really do. But, I also loved Porter's $80 bumper from Pottery Barn Kids and we ended up taking it off and tossing it in the closet after numerous annoying sheet changes from pukey/leaky diaper baby. As much as I'd like to say "I *WILL* use the bumper this time, I know in reality that after I have to change the sheets twice in the middle of the night being exhausted and sleep deprived, it too will end up in the closet.

I'm going to have my mom scan me again tomorrow, just to get the "for sure" its a boy (Ryan will finally get to see an ultrasound... he's going to take a late lunch and meet me there) and once we have confirmation I think I'm going to get the fabric and start working on things in January.

If we're still in this house (which I'm hoping not, but there's a good chance we will be), we're going to move Porter into the play room and redo that for him in February for his birthday. The baby will move into Porter's room, and I'll keep the green/blue parts of the wall and paint the mocha brown a more chocolate brown to match the bedding. I'm going to paint the square canvases- I found blank ones at JoAnn's. I think I'll do the background a light blue instead of green since the top part of the room is green already.

So, questions for my three readers:

1) Did you buy a bumper for your child's crib? Did you love it or hate it?

2) Do you have any ideas on how to bring more of the zoo fabric into the room?

13 comments:

Kim said...

Max has always had a bumper on his crib. When he was really tiny he didn't move an inch when he was sleeping, so I never really worried about him getting to close to them. And now, he likes to snuggle up against it.

Can you make a valance out of the same fabric? Might be easier/cheaper than the dust ruffle. We hung Max's quilt up on his wall. You could also just get a couple canvases and stretch the fabric over them, than hang those. The fabric is cute enough by itself. Or, you could try to use the fabric to make some mats for picture frames. :)

heather said...

I always used a bumper. I just always thought the crib looked so bare and cold and bare without it. Plus I felt like it helped my kids sleep easier... when we didn't have the bumper on they were so busy looking around they forgot to sleep, haha! I liked how the bumper kind of blocked some of that out.
One thing I did when Sawyer was going through alot of spitting up was to double sheet the bed. I bought an extra waterproof matress pad and then layered; matress pad, sheet, another matress pad and then another sheet. Then if we needed a sheet change in the night, you just whip the top set off instead of taking the whole bed apart and the next set is waiting right there for you.

Jessica said...

The girls had a bumper until they were 5-6 months old. I got tired of dealing with it, and Hailey actually spent more time playing with hers than sleeping, so that was the final straw in getting rid of it. I like the way the look, but they were never really functional for the girls, so I'm on the fence...lol.

I thought you were considering putting the fabric on the canvases? I still like that idea! :-)

Kim said...

Here, the health nurse pretty much checks to make sure you don't have a bumper in the crib, Health Canada has a policy in regards to it. They say you can put it in down the road but really who gets around to that! We never used ours and won't be using one with this one. I'm sure that babies are fine with them but like I need something else to worry about LOL

Michelle Leigh said...

Annika had a bumper, and it was beautiful, but like you, I took it off and left it off for most of her 1st year. With Bianca, I just skipped it all together. We never missed it. In my opinion, just skip it, they are expensive and a hazard.

My mother in law makes all of our kid's bedding and while I spent a lot making B's dust ruffle out of beautiful silk fabric (with some also put into the window treatment) it was totally worth it. I wish we could have used more of it. I would say put some decorative pillows on your rocker, or put it on canvas. Good luck. P.S. You are way ahead of me on this nursery thing! We still have to clean out the room, touch up the paint and oh yeah, figure out what the hell we are going to do! We need a crib, a rocker, dressers, etc. since B will still be using all of hers! Oh dear, I better hurry!

Jennifer Cowan said...

I am a big promoter of NO BUMPER. The American Acadamy of Pediatrics does not recommend the use of them due to SIDS deaths. The death statistics of not using bumpers and placing infants on their backs has been greatly reduced in the past 10 years. To me it's all in the numbers, why risk a precious life?

Cute fabric! Good luck on your sewing project!

sarah s. said...

we used a bumper until we moved in June and my son was 10.5 months old. He didn't pay much attention to it so I didn't bother putting it back on. For the night time sheet changes we took a mattress pad and laid it on top of the sheet because it was big enough he never got wrapped in it and it stayed in place. We just took that off during the night if needed. Fortunately, we never needed a second sheet for his crib until he was 1 but only for a couple weeks, now it sits in his closet waiting because I just wash his current sheet and put it back on right away.

Finders Fee said...

I think the material would work as a valance or a changing pad cover if you wanted to match things.

As for a bumper, out of my 3 kids I only used one for a few months with my firstborn. I quickly found out that dust ruffles and bumper pads are just frivolous and 'showy' as opposed to being a necessity or functional. I just bought extra sheets (doubling up DOES help!!) and kept fleece blankets around.

It's too much maintenace to keep the crib looking like it came out of a catalog all the time. ;)

LeeAnn | {froggyleggs} said...

We had a bumper in Lukas' crib. I know there is some controversy about whether to have one or not....

As for extra things in the rooms, I like the idea of putting up a valence of the matching material. And you can get more of those canvas' and stretch the material over those to tie in with the animals as well, to make a larger display or two smaller displays. And if you look for some of those stuff animals, like that blue elephant you blogged about, those would be cute as well!!

LeeAnn | {froggyleggs} said...

Oh and too... What a great find to come across that same fabric!! Beats paying $600!!!

jenny said...

tucker had a bumper on his crib for a while. my mil got it for us as part of a set and i put it on. after a while i took it off and never put it back on. i could go either way on whether i will use one again.

everyone has had great ideas on how to incorporate more of that fabric into the room. i like the idea of stretching the fabric over the canvases. if you really want to have some fun, make an pillow in the shape of one of the animals on the fabric. :)

beanski said...

congrats on your (probably) boy! i ABSOLUTELY love the fabric and the ideas for the nursery.

i didn't buy the bumper for renee but that was mostly because i'm really cheap and my sisters said they were pointless. she never missed it, i don't think. i would spend the $$ on something else, like make him a matching blankie or i love the wall canvas idea!

Mary said...

I used a bumper.
I made my own valances in Thomas' room. I bought a bedding set and bought extra sheets to make the valances. I also made some pillows (no they aren't in his crib) and I made a cloth runner for on top of his bureau and for on top of his night stand.