In the old days everything was homemade. People didn't have money to buy things such as doll cradles had they been available, which they weren't in a small town like Bristow. Dolls didn't have doll beds like they have today, neither did babies. Dolls and babies had cradles. The cradles were made with rockers which made it possible for a mother to rock her baby with her foot so she could keep working with her hands. Mothers were always busy, patching clothes, piercing quilts, darning socks, etc. At night babies slept in the bed with their parents.
Mattresses and pillows were filled with dried corn shucks, they weren't that comfortable and they made a lot of noise every time anyone move and there was always more than one person sleeping in a bed. People grew cotton but they could sell cotton and so they didn't feel they could afford to use it in mattresses and pillows.
Later, people who could afford newspapers, saved them, even collecting them from neighbors, until they had enough to fill a mattress or a pillow. The newspapers were crumpled up first to make the mattresses or pillows softer and fluffier, but they also rattled when someone moved and they were made from flour, sugar or feed sacks, unless the people could afford to buy material for them.