The Daddy: The Kid Climbing Out of the Crib: Panicky Heart Attack Inducing Nightmare Scenario or Encouraging Developmental Dexterity Milestone?
The Momma: Uh, nightmare scenario. Clearly.
M: I mean, that means the era of containment is over. And there’s the danger of him falling from crib railing height. But more than that, he’s uncontainable now.
D: This of course brings up the fun decision as to whether we go with tons of pillows, batting, foam pads and stuffed animals as a cushion or if we bite the bullet and just convert the bed.
M: I think we’re just going to have to bite the bullet. Honestly, you know neither of us will ever be truly comfortable with him in the crib now.
D: Yeah, that’s true. I’ll put that thing together tomorrow for sure, but that’s another fun question- when? Can’t do it when he’s napping, like I do with any other big complicated project during the day. And if I try to assemble it when he’s around, well, that’s borderline impossible.
M: It may need to be a weekend project. That way I can be here to distract him while you make the necessary changes. Plus, I have a feeling it may not be the…uh…easiest transition. So we may need some intensive bedtime monitoring that may be easier on a weekend.
D: Oh that’s a good point, didn’t think of that. Yay! That’s gonna be a fun weekend. I’m thinking beach, park, or rock wall obstacle course or a combination of all three to exhaust the monkey.
M: Something. Because we’re about to unleash the whole freedom of the room. I’m…I’m scared. Hold me!
D: Shh, my dear. I’ll protect you. I’ll protect you with the power of screw anchors, bolts and wire to keep all the furniture glued to the wall.
M: As long has he can’t figure out the gorilla glued doorknob cover…because then the whole damn house is up for grabs.
D: Well technically he’s figured out a way to press his palm through the little hole in the cover, against the tape I put over the hole, to use palm pressure to make contact with the doorknob, and then squeeze the whole mess slowly to open the door. It doesn’t always work for him, but he technically IS able to do it.
D: Wait, that doesn’t make you feel better at all, I’m guessing.
M: Yeah. Yeah, no, not really. Let’s deal with one travesty at a time, mkay?
D: I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that my mutant superhuman interest in puzzles and problem solving may have passed into his gene pool. …Not that I’m taking all the credit (blame?) for this one.
M: Nah, in some ways, I think that’s just…kids (curious little devils). But when he gets older and starts taking apart the computer? That one I’m blaming on you.
D: Fair enough. But by then, I plan on helping him do it.
M: Oh goody.
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You ARE going to put all of these together and publish a book, right? You both do great work. Plus my latest blog is about miscarriage and who wants to read that? Do you have (I know N.C. could whip one up in a few minutes) a 125×125 badge I could post in on my main page in my recommendations section on the right to link to your blog. Not sure it will get you much traffic, but I’d like to try. You guys are great! Have a good weekend.
Oh, man. I agree that the move to the toddler bed is the way to go. I always tell Chris that the first time Charlotte even attempts to climb out of the crib, we’re making the switch. Let’s just say I’ve heard a horror story that was enough to help me arrive at that decision.
The freedom to move around the room scares the crap out of me, too. But, every family goes through it, and somehow the kid ends up sleeping eventually instead of cruising his bedroom.
I don’t envy your upcoming weekend, but I’m sure I will be there soon enough. Good luck!
Well, my oldest child has been out of the crib for over two years now, and I think she has gotten up and come into our room TWICE. She mostly just sits up in bed and yells “Mommmmm-eeeeee!”
(Seriously, the transition to regular bed was a big win for us. She became easier to get down (we could lay next to her in bed instead of rocking/bouncing her) and started sleeping through the night. I’m no saying the sleeping through the night was BECAUSE of the bed. But I do think she always hated her crib.
p.s. I agree with Megan. If the little one is climbing out, the crib needs to go immediately. Hope it went well?
We’re a bit further along. We’re thinking we need to ditch the toddler bed (or “crib bed” as JSL calls it) and move to a full sized bed. Lately, JSL’s been restless in his bed and complaining of lack of space and hard mattress. Of course, the former is because he insists on an army of stuffed animals accompanying him to sleep.
Our main problem with getting him a bed is that he shares a room with his big brother (who already has a twin size bed) and there’s no room in their bedroom for two beds. That means we’d have to go vertical. Yes, we’re talking bunk beds. You think “climbing out of the crib” is scary? Try thinking of your kid getting out of bed in the middle of the night by themselves to go to the bathroom and missing the stairs down. We’re *not* looking forward to this.
hmmm… Maybe I should probably spread JSL’s soft stuffed animals over the entire surface of the mattress and let him sleep on those. Two problems solved at once and bunk beds avoided for a little longer.
Ooh, never even considered the scare factor of bunk beds for the first time. In high school, a friend’s brothers had bunk beds, and the younger brother stayed on top, literally inches from the ceiling fan. Not sure he ever hit it, but did I hit it the first time I came over to play video games? Yes, yes I did.
So far, we’ve gone transformer and are in stage two of the three part toddler bed conversion. You know, the super fancy step where you literally just take one of the sides off and it becomes a “day bed”. I gotta give props to the marketing people on that one.
So far, he naps fine during the day, and often stays in bed when he’s awake and just whines to come get him. The one exception was when I came in to find him ON TOP of his long empty changing table, making his way to the bureau. That thing went out within minutes. Nighttime, not so easy. The Momma seems to be taking an average of an hour and a half hanging out with him until he passes out.
JSL’s “crib bed” is similar to this. We keep him from rolling off of it with the strategic placement of stuffed animals. Specifically a big stuffed Diego that he’ll roll over to hug but won’t roll over.
Well, not usually, he won’t. Once he did roll over it and out of his bed, but oddly didn’t wake up. We found him sleeping on the floor after hearing a thud.
Ha! Love the image. We aren’t there quite yet, our son is content using the crib as a trampoline rather than trying to escape!
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