Aidan’s crib broke the other day.

Wednesday last in fact. Gwen leaned into it to push the rail edge beyond the catches, and “Snap!” the top rail of the drop side broke. It hasn’t completely broken, but it has cracked through. The teething rail is helping keep it together.

Our temporary solution has been to put that side of the crib against the wall and deal with retrieving him without lowering the rail. Not a big deal given his size and mobility.

But what to do with the crib? It’s not exactly dangerous as is, but not 100% safe either. Gwen called Storkcraft (a local company would you believe) and, surprise, surprise, our crib model (“Ashley”) is discontinued and they don’t have any replacement bits. $280 dollar crib, 3 years old, and broken. It’s not like we abuse the crib, and I’ve never seen him stand up and rattle the rail either, so it’s particularly disappointing.

So, do we do a home-fix, convert it into a toddler bed, or get a new one? Well, I think getting a new one is out of the question right now — seems pointless. Fixing it is do-able: I think that effectively putting a splint on the rail will keep it together pretty well. Metal straps will work, but I think I could patch it up pretty well with fibreglass; unfortunately Gwen’s put the kibosh on that.

And then there’s the option of transforming the crib into a toddler bed. I’m leaning towards this, but the fact is that I don’t think Aidan’s ready for it. He likes his crib. He doesn’t try to get out of it. He happily plays in it for hours. We’ve asked him if he wants to sleep in a big boy bed, and Gwen’s gone to Ikea to get him to test drive some of the beds there, and the reaction ranges from tepid to outright rejection.

So, what to do?