With the anticipated arrival of Baby O just two months out, there have been loads of questions about our nursery plans.  For all those interested, we will probably not be painting the room (you can imagine my frowny face about this) due to the weird paint-isms of Italy.  If we were in the States, we would simply use the painting supplies I have on hand to tape, roll, and brush our way to a glorious non-toxic, no-VOC finish.  Alas, there exists no such thing as no-VOC or even low-VOC paint in bella Napoli.  This isn't the Sahara of course; so there IS a Home Depot-ish store called Leroy-Merlin, but they carry Italy's version of paint, which is more like powder that you add water to and slap on the wall in multiple coats.  We decided (again, with many a crinkled nose frown) that painting our already questionable concrete walls might be making getting the nursery ready too much of a hassle.  Our little girl will just have to wait until we are in our next destination for bright (I'm thinking spring green) walls a là this colour:
<p style="text-align:left;"><img class="alignleft" title="Baby room colours" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/picture-8.png" alt="" width="196" height="203" /></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><img class="size-full wp-image-424 alignleft" title="Baby room colour names" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/picture-10.png" alt="" width="159" height="94" /></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">In fact, this is my palette that I tossed together on Behr's site.  So most of the items that we have <a title="Team Oswald baby registry" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/YOSNDEJPBBWN" target="_blank">registered</a> for and that will be going into our little squid's room are still following along these colour lines for the day when we actually can colour our world happy.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">
So what have we wrangled together so far?</p>
<strong>Crib</strong>:  We found one that we both agree on.  While we wanted to go super green on our choice, the completely eco-friendly options range around $1k (yes, you did read that correctly...one thousand smackers) &amp; that just isn't in our "that makes sense and is do-able" mentality.  If we went that option, we'd have nothing left over and our nursery would look more like a crib and, er, that's it.  We'd have to charge admission.

My father told us a cardboard box and duct tape would do splendidly.  Uh, no.  Stephen suggested that he could fashion one at the woodworking shop on base.  He is already backlogged in the "I could build that for us" category starting at his first project of making us a bed frame, so I nixed that idea too.  We need something sooner rather than later (but thank you, schweetheart).  And while our landlord IS a carpenter, we are a bit unsure of the wood he uses.  Especially since the legna (firewood) he gives us has been known to have termites.  As in you can hear the termites chomping down at night time and on one occasion a winged termite actually flew out of a burning piece, bent on escape.  Not certain he would understand our interest in non-toxic furniture any way (our landlord, not the termite), so we started our search with a compromise b/t environment ideals and a reasonable budget...thus shaping into this shopping list:
<ul>
	<li>Price ? $250</li>
	<li>Obviously a crib matching up to current federal safety standards &amp; acknowledging recalls (sorry, drop-down cribs)</li>
	<li>Solid wood construction (no pressed board, MDF) from responsible, sustainable resources</li>
	<li>A choice that avoided toxins/chemicals inside &amp; out (potential off-gassing glues, VOCs, chemicals like formaldehyde, &amp; toxic finishes)</li>
	<li>Classic design that could go the distance in terms of future kiddos</li>
	<li>Something local or that would require as little transit as possible</li>
</ul>
We looked high, we looked low, and we are fairly pleased with our final choice--despite the footprint of having it shipped out here.  We looked for cribs here in Italy and found a few on the local Craigslist-esque site, but people really wanted some bucks for their used-but-I-guess-it-could-work goods and we were not completely comfortable with buying from the Italian stores surrounded in trash piles (nothing says eco-conscious like a giant pile of rubbish).  It is a little above the price we set for ourselves, but otherwise fits our list.  It's made of solid wood (New Zealand pine); boasts no toxic VOCs, no formaldehyde, no pressed wood, and all with a non-toxic finish.  (!)  :::cartwheel:::  The design is simple, solid, and understated...not to mention it seems like it could definitely go the distance.  It is a 3-in-1 conversion design allowing for change into a toddler bed &amp; then day bed, but we will be using it for future bambini so not sure if it will even see those other two stages.  The fact that the rail/conversion kit is included in the price helps though, as many other cribs only come as a basic model and the kit is an additional cost.  And we feel good knowing that while cribs do not come cheap, that we will be using ours well into the future assuming we do not raise any big time gnawers (anyone else thinking of the delightful Sunny from "The Series of Unfortunate Events" book series?).  Without further ado, our awesome baby cage:
<p style="text-align:left;"><img class="aligncenter" title="Baby Mod Parklane 3-in-1 crib espresso" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/baby-mod-parklane-3-in-1-convertible-crib-espresso_bg03566.jpg" alt="" width="330" height="330" /></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Stephen took instantly to the darker wood while I was still considering the white version (technically I suppose the drawer would qualify the design as two-toned).  There's just something about using white that makes a room feel airy and brighter, which is exactly what you think of when you think baby room, correct?  Then again, we are going for a woodsy, Peter Rabbit-ish feel...so the espresso finish does seem more fitting (not to mention espresso...Italy...get it?).<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-415" title="Baby Mod Parklane 3-in-1 crib white" src="http://teamoswald.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/baby-mod-parklane-3-in-1-convertible-crib-amber-and-white_bg03565.jpg" alt="" width="330" height="330" /></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">I *do* wish that shopping for big items could have been easier on our sanity.  There was more than enough back-and-forth with the companies about whether they would indeed ship to our FPO address, what method they would ship with, and how much that was going to cost.  It was like re-inventing the wheel at times and, of course, these problems would not have given us any hassle had we walked into a good ol' store in the US of A.  (Chalk another one up to us moving home to American soil.)</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>Mattress:</strong> With all the hassle of ordering the crib, we actually ended up ordering our mattress *before* the thing that would hold it.  In classic style, this process too was not without its bumps.  Again, yes, we ordered an item that required shipping (I really cringe at that part, b/c we would like nothing more than to cruise locally and not feel like we are dissing the environment while attempting to purchase enviro-friendly products).  We at least tried to find companies on the East Coast to avoid any more transit than was already on the agenda.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">I originally contacted the manufacturer for the mattress we were scoping out to find out whether they could ship to us (they could), how much that might set us back (only $35), &amp; what method they would we willing to send the mattress (USPS Parcel Post).  And that's where my smile dropped.  B/c, as my father &amp; I recently discovered, Parcel Post can take up to <span style="text-decoration:underline;">2 months</span> to arrive (ouch).  It's not that we do not have the two months, it's just a long time to wait on such an important piece of the puzzle and my patience is not fantastic in situations I like to call "domino predicaments."  Those times when you really need one factor to fit into place before the rest of it can come together smoothly...yeah, those.  At the time, I reasoned that we could not put a mattress in the room until we had a crib any way and inserted my energy into getting our crib plans underway (and ran head-on into the same sort of problem).  Bah.  So in my "something's gotta give" mentality, I put the order through with the manufacturer.  Then cancelled it less than 24 hours later.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Why?  B/c I found the same two items for <span style="text-decoration:underline;">cheaper</span> through one of their distributors.  There was a lot of head shaking on my end of things as I found out that going straight to the source does not always secure you the best price.  Silly me.  I figured it would cost less to send something straight from the manufacturer to the customer.  Evidently, the distributor going through the manufacturer and having it sent (from the exact same warehouse) TO the customer is potentially cheaper.  So, I placed the order with <a title="The Natural Sleep Store" href="http://thenaturalsleepstore.com/" target="_blank">The Natural Sleep Store</a>.  Who later advised me that the shipping rate would be more expensive (reminder:  from the EXACT same warehouse, through the EXACT same shipping department and shipping method).  I just don't get it.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">In the end, the price was still cheaper (whew!) and I didn't have to do an embarrassing dance back to the manufacturer to order the items again.  So, in 1-2 months (crossing our fingers for the former) we will be the proud owners of an organic <a title="Savvy Rest" href="http://www.savvyrest.com/" target="_blank">Savvy Baby</a> mattress &amp; pad.  Many people will think we are crazy for wanting to buy an organic mattress for our tiny bundle of joy...and that's okay.  Just as we feel it is an important purchase, we know that there will be those who will not agree.  To us, we wanted the place where Baby O would spend up to 12 hours a day/7 days a week to be free of off-gassing, chemicals, and harmful toxins.  There really is something grand to a product made entirely of natural materials.  I keep daydreaming and imagining it being made at a factory rivaling the Care Bears' cartoon digs of rainbows and clouds.  In reality, the mattress is made with a firm, natural latex core &amp; a certified organic wool/cotton exterior; the pad is natural, unbleached certified organic wool.  For those of you who have written me off as a total CA hippy tree hugger (that means you, Jamy), the mattress still holds us to US fire proofing standards just without the chemical retardants traditionally used in mattresses.  And the latex is a natural dust mite repeller--how cool is that?  Can you tell we're pretty psyched about it??  (And yes, our baby will be sleeping on a better mattress than we currently do; something we plan to remedy soon, esp. since we want to co-sleep and she would be laying atop our current off-gassing, petroleum made, chemical-riddled sleeper.)</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><em>Colour palette done via the Behr project planning tools <a title="Behr" href="http://www.behr.com" target="_blank">*here*</a>; photos of the two crib designs are borrowed from <a title="Walmart Parklane crib espresso" href="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Baby-Mod-ParkLane-3-in-1-Convertible-Crib-Espresso/8592555" target="_blank">*here*</a> &amp; <a title="Parklane crib white" href="http://www.babygiftsoutlet.com/prd/baby-mod-parklane-3-in-1-convertible-crib-amber-and-white.html" target="_blank">*here*</a>.</em></p>