Triplet crib for grand kids

[Dan Oliphant]

Three weeks ago my daughter gave birth to three wonderful babies:eek: :eek: :eek:. Two boys and one girl. All are doing well. My grand daughter came home last week and the boys will be coming home in a couple of days.
So grandpa had to make a triplet crib for the kids:D. The crib is made using Alder, with Zebrawood as the accent wood covering the bed bolt nut holes. The bolt holes are covered using antiqued brass madalions.Grandma made the bumpers as shown.
The matress is on a 20 (give or take) degree angle so the kids won't make too big a mess when they spit up (mothers orders). As you can see, there is lots of room for the two boys to join thier sister (and then some).

[Dan Oliphant]

couple of more crib pics:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Christopher Pine]

THis is one of the coolest things I have seen in a while.! I guess I just like to see blessed people enjoying their blessings! This is a great idea! When They are first born they are so tiny.. Made me laugh when I first seen this baby in the huge crib.
Congratulations and Great Crib!


Chris

[John Cavanaugh]

Nice work.

When I read the post I was thinking that there pretty much isnt a cooler project for a grandpa to build than something like this. I bet you had a LOT of fun working on this project. Congrats on the grandkids.

But I still want to see a photo with all three in it. Bonus if all 3 are actually sleeping at the same time!!! :D

PS. Our daughter is finally sleeping well after 18 months. I feel sooooo bad for your daugther, she isnt going to get much sleep until 2007. :(

--
John Cavanaugh

[Keith Starosta]

Dan, that is a very cool crib!! I was wondering...did you make make a couple of dividers that can split the crib into three separate sleeping areas, for when that time comes?

Keith

[Gail O'Rourke]

Dan, that is an awesome crib... you did a great job, and it will come in handy for a very long time. The baby looks beautiful and please post pic of her brothers when they are home.

I have twins, one boy, one girl (7 years now) but when they were born I kept them in the same crib. It is funny how one would be screaming and the other wouldn't even wake up...but no matter how far apart I put them in the crib, they were always in an adorable bunch in the middle, nose to nose, when they woke up.

Enjoy.

[George Matthews]

Great build Dan!

I too had a crib all designed and ready to start building for my third grandchild when the topic of safety came up.
I did some Googling and came across US regulations for crib safety. http://www.cpsc.gov/
Search on 'crib'. That put a damper on the project.


In your case the post extends up beyond the rails more that 1/16"
I realize that at this time there is no safety issue here, but there may be once they can stand and bounch around.

Again, sorry to 'rain on your parade'.

[Dennis Peacock]

Dan,

Absolutely outstanding!!!!! Congrats on the new grandkids and may each of them and you be healthy for decades to come. Very nice design on the crib and that will be something that your daughter will cherrish for years to come. :D

[Rick de Roque]

Wonderful job. Grandkids are great.
rick

[Robert Ziegler]

Way to go, Grampa! Such a big crib for such a tiny baby. It'll fill up with three quickly. Great job. Enjoy.
Z

[Russ Filtz]

Another note on safety. I wonder about the angle and if it is safe? Once the kids start rolling, they could roll all the way down and wedge between the rails and mattress, esp. if the fit is not tight. Or they could roll on top of each other and smother one? Sorry to be negative, but with babies I tend to be paranoid about stuff like that.

After reading the regs/tips posted in the link above, YOU MUST remove the corner post extensions!!! I would do it sooner than later before everyone forgets.

[john whittaker]

Absolutely beautiful....and the crib ain't bad either.

Congratulations.

[Dan Oliphant]

Thanks to all for the kind comments, and don't worry, NO ONE is raining on my parade.
Keith, I already have two dividers fabricated that will be located between the larger slats making three equal spaces for the little ones, they will be used as the matress is moved down (hardware was designed to allow for three matress locations).
John, camara is at the ready to take pictures of all three "lost" in the crib.
George and Russ, I too looked at the regulations for crib design before starting this project, the matress being proped up is only for the first few weeks, premies don't roll around yet. The matress will lay flat after that. The finials are going to stay right were they are, if this crib were designed and fabricated taking into account all the nervous nannies that write child protection regulation specs, this thing would look just like a floatie!!!!

Thanks again for the kind comments.

[Keith Starosta]

Thanks to all for the kind comments, and don't worry, NO ONE is raining on my parade.
Keith, I already have two dividers fabricated that will be located between the larger slats making three equal spaces for the little ones, they will be used as the matress is moved down (hardware was designed to allow for three matress locations).
John, camara is at the ready to take pictures of all three "lost" in the crib.
George and Russ, I too looked at the regulations for crib design before starting this project, the matress being proped up is only for the first few weeks, premies don't roll around yet. The matress will lay flat after that. The finials are going to stay right were they are, if this crib were designed and fabricated taking into account all the nervous nannies that write child protection regulation specs, this thing would look just like a floatie!!!!

Thanks again for the kind comments.


LOL!! Well said, Dan! Again, it looks great!

Keith

[Byron Trantham]

Crib? You say it's a crib? Looks like a ball field to me! :D Beautiful job. The finish really looks nice. I showed the pics to the LOML (read Grandma) and she got all emotional over it. She said she never saw anything like it. [I told my son and daughter "to watch out". :) ]

[Dan Oliphant]

Byron,
Put a little baby in a photo and the women folks just melt, (I like it too). You know what was odd when designing this crib, a twin sized matress was real close to the interior diminsions of a lot of bassinets, when the twin matress is divided into three equal parts that is.

[John Gregory]

Your project brought a smile to my face. My daughter is expecting in December. Just one baby tho. Whewwww

[Russ Filtz]

Dan, did you read the regs regarding the finials? It's not just for them bonking their heads or anything. There have been cases where kids get their clothing hooked up on it and then get strangled. Hmm, dead kid or finials? Guess which I'd choose.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Talk about a project for which you're motivated! It looks great Dan, and you should be proud of all the new additions to the family, too.

I guess I can see both sides of the finial issue, and don't know which way I'd go if I were in your shoes. Seems a lot of us survived growing up around things that nowadays are against one recommendation/regulation or another. I don't think it's possible to protect ourselves (or families) from every single thing out there that might hurt or kill. We all roll the dice every day when we get out of bed.

Congrats on a job well done!

- Vaughn

[Dan Oliphant]

Russ,
You are most certainly intitled to you concerns and opinions. This crib design is not intended for resale. My daughter, son in law, and my family are aware of the potential (all be it VERY low) risk to the children. As Vaughn stated, life always has its risks and I/we think the potential risks you mention are not at a level we will be concerned with.

Dan Oliphant,
proud and sensible Grandpa

[Brad Tallis]

Russ,
You are most certainly intitled to you concerns and opinions. This crib design is not intended for resale. My daughter, son in law, and my family are aware of the potential (all be it VERY low) risk to the children. As Vaughn stated, life always has its risks and I/we think the potential risks you mention are not at a level we will be concerned with.

Dan Oliphant,
proud and sensible Grandpa

Yikes, Dan-

Unfortunately, it's that kind of attitude that one day you might regret saying. You should never say, "Ya, there are risks, but we are not concerned with them" when you are talking about kids.

For example, one day I heard the worst sound you could ever imagine. I was downstairs and my 2 year old boy went upstairs. I heard the sound of our largest knife sliding out of it's sheath. I ran upstairs and he was holding a 14 inch knife in his hand. He had moved one of his toys over to the counter, stood on it, reached in the drawer and unlocked the child saftey lock, pulled out the knife and was walking around with it in just a matter of seconds. There was no way I EVER thought he would get access to the knife drawer since it had a child safety lock on it. Needless to say, that moment probably knocked a few years off of my ticker...

Also, my wife set our 3 month old baby in the middle of our queen-sized bed. He had never rolled over, crawled, or even moved before. Well, a few minutes later, he fell off the bed and hit the floor. Again, we had thought, "Oh, he can't move... This will be ok..." But of course, he had taken that opportunity to learn how to crawl.

Do these situations make us bad parents? No, but it sure had made me more aware of what is "safe" or "a good idea/bad idea".

I really agree with other peoples posts... The crib looks awesome, but I would highly recommend removing the finials. It only takes a second with your back turned to have a kid jump up and down in the crib (when they are old enough) and get clothing caught on those. Think about it... You never hear in the news, "I was starring right at my kid and they drowned...", or, "I was watching them play with the blinds and they choked..." It's always when the parents back is turned or they are distracted (phone, doorbell, etc) that something drastic happens.

I'm not trying to preach... I've just experienced first-hand what others have said in previous posts...

Brad

PS. I never thought my 2 year old would be able to open the door to my shop either, and guess what.... Yep. Nothing like hearing the sound of your tablesaw turn on when you aren't in the shop, huh? :eek:

[Don Baer]

Dan;
We have an Oak Baby crib with finals similar to yours. My two boys both used the bed and no harm came there way. We now use the bed for my granddaughter. That said the ones on our crib have bolts on them that thread into inserts in the posts. When they little one gets big enough for this to be an issue it is a simple matter of unsrewing them to make the bed safe.

Just a suggestion.

[Peter Dougenik]

As a soon-to-be father who has been building a crib for around 6mos now I'm truely impressed with your project! It looks good and you've thought about the present and future needs with the tilting mattress support and dividers, excellent :). As to the finials - sometimes you read the current safety specs and wonder how we all made it to this point without them. pretty soon you're going to have to seal your kid up in a bubble because there may be a slight chance that at some point they may possibly be affected negatively by some aspect of something around them. :rolleyes:

[Russ Filtz]

Yes and people used to drive cars with no seatbelts, and people still ride motorcycles with no helmets. Doesn't make it right or smart. If you can control some aspects of risk with little effort, why not do it? It should be second nature, like not running with scissors!

[Peter Dougenik]

Yes and people used to drive cars with no seatbelts, and people still ride motorcycles with no helmets. Doesn't make it right or smart. If you can control some aspects of risk with little effort, why not do it? It should be second nature, like not running with scissors!

no doubt there are modern safety standards that are really important, but that doesn't mean that we need to obey them ALL like some kind of religion. What I always ask myself is "what are the odds that this WILL happen", and then I go from there. how many hundreds of thousands of cribs have been used through the years that did not meet this particular safety specification? and how many children have died as a direct result of what it's meant to prevent? do you not give your child baby carrots, celery, gumballs, teething biscuits, ring-pops, cookies, or just about anything that hasn't been through the puree cycle of the blender? contrary to popular opinion there is such a thing as acceptable risk when it comes to babies/children, everyone takes them every day. if you are educated and know the reason behind the rule then you can choose if you feel it's reasonable or not.

but that's just my opinion

again, beautiful crib!

[Ken Salisbury]

Dan has asked me to delete this thread because of the direction some of the responses have taken. My first impression is that it was a cool project for him and of course is proud of his work on the project, as he should be. I have e-mailed Dan and asked him to reconsider his request since it may benefit other members who are considering a similiar project. I am waiting to hear back from Dan before any other action.



http://www.oldrebelworkshop.com/misc/moderator.gif

[Peter Dougenik]

Dan has asked me to delete this thread because of the direction some of the responses have taken. My first impression is that it was a cool project for him and of course is proud of his work on the project, as he should be. I have e-mailed Dan and asked him to reconsider his request since it may benefit other members who are considering a similiar project. I am waiting to hear back from Dan before any other action.

I would like to see it stay, and will no longer be posting to it regarding any safety specification type stuff. I would like to suggest that if it's an issue that needs more discussion that someone create another thread to continue the debate, in a calm manner of course ;)

Dan -- my opinion (again) is leave the thread, it shows a great project and also highlights some of the most important issues that will arise when someone chooses to do such a project...which as we can see aren't always the woodworking issues! If you do choose to delete it please post more pics when all three young'ins are in there, or at least PM me the pics, I'd love to see them:)

[Norman Gallaher]

NOW That Is a Crib.

And, a very nice one.