Off to Dreamland...

My wife and I recently had our first child, and the decision of what crib to purchase was a painstaking one. The first and foremost concern for us was safety, followed by price. While researching cribs, one recommendation I found was to stick with a simple crib design. Additional details in the shape of the crib can get in the way and snag clothing when putting the child in the crib. The Rochester model seemed to fit the bill.

With safety as the first concern, we wanted to determine how sturdy the cribs were. For this particular crib, this was problematic for us because none of the typical stores (Target, Babies R Us, etc.) had the crib in store. You could only buy it online. This presented a dilemma -- did we really want to buy something that would be vital to our baby's safety that we couldn't kick the rails on ahead of time?

After spending many hours online and staring at various crib models in the brick and mortar stores, we finally decided to purchase the Storkcraft Rochester crib. The next question was where to buy it. After comparison shopping, the question really came down to shipping costs. Many sites were comparable on base costs, but after adding $50 or more for shipping, the price was no longer attractive. We settled on purchasing from Walmart since they offer ship to store, thereby saving the shipping cost. In general I'm not a big Walmart fan, but in this case I was happy with the decision.

Some Assembly Required
In general I would say that the crib assembly was pretty easy -- IFF all the parts are there AND they fit together. Most of the crib is pre-assembled, and you more or less have to connect the base to the sides. One problem I encountered was that the nuts that were included were too small for the screws. I called Storkcraft about this, and they said they would ship me new parts -- in 7-10 days! I was unhappy with the delay, but the parts did end up coming in about 5 days, and this time the nuts were the right size.

One other irksome thing about the assembly was that the directions were glued to the base of the crib. I guess the thought was that you wouldn't lose them. It contains instructions for lowering the base and converting the crib into a toddler bed. However, having the instructions glued to a large piece of wood that you are attaching other pieces of the crib to makes for difficulty in reading the next step. I would have preferred separate instructions. Perhaps these are available on their web site...

After I had all the parts, assembly was easy. I completed it in less than an hour.

Sturdiness
I am satisfied with the sturdiness of the crib. There is a little "give" at the sides if you tug on them, but overall if feels sturdy.

Drawer
A handy feature of this crib is the bottom drawer. We use it to store bedding for the crib and blankets. Sliding the drawer in and out is not completely smooth, but it's sufficient.

Side Rail
The ability to lower the side rail is another handy feature of the crib. My wife tends to use it because she has difficulty putting the baby in the crib with the rail up due to the height. I tend not to use it because latching the rail makes an additional noise that could wake the baby that I just spent 20 painstaking minutes rocking to sleep. If you're tall, leave the side rail up.

Overall
Overall I'm very happy with the crib. I believe we've bought a safe, sturdy crib at a cost effective price. We've had the crib now for almost 6 months, but we haven't lowered the base yet or converted it to a toddler bed. So far, so good.....