Sheets (or “think of all the things you can do with the extra half hour”)
Sunday, August 27th, 2006Don’t try this at home
The first time I had to change the sheets in Finn’s regular size crib, I let down the side (2 seconds), removed the bumper (30 seconds) and then spent half an hour trying to remove the stupid mattress. It’s a good mattress, nice and thick, supportive, fits tightly to the sides of the crib because you don’t want any part of your child getting wedged into any potential cracks. It’s almost as long as I am, twice as heavy. I wrestled with it, freeing one end (hooray!), watched the dust ruffle bunch up, then lost my grip and watched it drop back into the crib. Meanwhile, Finn lay on her purple shag rug staring up at me with wonder (if I tried that now, she’d be laughing hysterically, like she does when I swat at flies).
I’m sure there are smarter, stronger, taller mothers who can get the mattress out to change the sheets, or may even have figured out how to change the sheets without removing the mattress. But I’m not patient enough to figure it out. I got online and ordered the Quick Zip crib sheet set, and let Finn sleep on dirty sheets until it arrived.
Try this instead
It’s a brilliant system. For about $33, you get one base (you do have to get that mattress out once to get the base on – David and I wrestled it together) and one top sheet (just zips right on to the base – you don’t have to remove the mattress, the bumper or anything!) More top sheets for about $17. And they even come in flannel! (We don’t have a flannel one yet – maybe this winter). And sage green! (We have white – I’m too practical).
It takes about 20 seconds to change the sheet - I wash Finn’s sheets a lot (if my mother is reading this, she’s really happy).
Note to Michelle, who is pregnant right now, and who is the reason I’m blogging on this particular subject rather than sunscreen or childproofing (less imminent for her): don’t even try the regular sheets! Put these on your register list now!