We’d heard about rogue toddlers climbing out of their cribs, and we were ready.
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I’d already witnessed our little David Blaine working in reverse. She scaled the outside of her crib and flung her body onto the mattress below, trapping herself like a lost pet hamster that follows a cheese trail up makeshift steps into a waiting bucket. That’s how you trap a lost hamster, if you didn’t know.
Our monkey baby had also scaled our King sized bed with ease and mounted my desk (how else could she change all the settings on my computer?) so a crib jail break was only a matter of time.
Each night as we put Viv down, we built a moat of pillows around her crib, then waited and listened.
One evening, I heard a thud followed by a wail. My adrenaline kicked in. I raced across the hall, flung open the door to rescue my daughter, and inadvertently bashed her in the face. She’d escaped her crib on a mission to come see me, putting her on a collision course with her inward-opening bedroom door. I’m accepting your nominations for Mother of the Year now.
Much to my horror, Viv ended up with a shiny bruise on her cheekbone. (Right cheekbone, in case you want to call Child Services.) It took about an hour of me holding her in bed to calm her down. The soft landing on the pillow moat was clearly not the issue–it was the surprise assault by her door wielding mother. Maybe next time you’ll want to just sleep through the night, huh kid? No? Okay, never mind.
We weren’t ready to face the transition to the big girl bed, so, following the advice of other toddler parents, we dropped Viv’s crib mattress to the floor, then added a second mattress to fill the gap at the bottom, so she couldn’t wriggle out sideways.
So far it’s working to contain her, but we’ve already bought our tickets to Escape From Baby Jail 2: The Revenge. Coming soon.
Rio did this the first day he learnt how to stand up, i was just walking into his room and kind of saw it in slow motion but no matter how fast me or my OH moved it just wasnt fast enough… He ended up with a friction burn on his collar bone from the bars 🙁 needless to say ive got a spare cot mattress down the side there and lowerd it basically to the ground.
Friction burn, oh, poor baby and poor mama!
my brother had the same problem with Giovanna, our future stuntwoman. they had to attach a tent to the top of the crib, and zip her in. she’s 6 now, so she survived. good luck
Julie, did you know that they recently recalled those tents? You can’t even buy them anymore. It’s such a bummer!!
We installed barbed wire and bought a few flying monkeys in bellhop outfits to keep Charlie in his crib. So far, so good.
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Dave just started showing Viv parts of The Wizard of Oz – I could probably just use fear of flying monkeys and not have to actually pay for the outfits.
I live in a house of seven, so we don’t have this problem. Everyone has a bedroom, my brother, my mom and dad, a family friend who is in need currently, and my husband and I lets not forget baby. So in a house of 3 bedrooms baby does not get his own, thus no crib (we are co-sleepers anyway). I am hopping to soon get him started in his own bed, (not looking forward to this) so that we can co-sleep with #2 when the time is right. 🙁 I don’t want my #1 to grow up though lol
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Your house sounds like fun, and lots of babysitters you lucky mama.
I wish it was that lucky, and simple. LOL even with that many baby-sitters I have to beg for a two hour look out 😛
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Oh, sweet God, how I *hate* the crib to big kid bed transition. Sorry, that is so NOT helpful. It was one of the periods of parenthood that I felt like the least-competent grown-up ever. “Why can’t I get this kid to stay in her bed? How hard can it be?” I feel your pain mama. Though it is pretty stinkin’ funny that you clocked her with the door. 😉 Good luck!
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Thank God you found that funny…still worrying someone will read this and turn me in.
When Sam was 2 he figured out how to climb out of the crib. I was standing at the sink washing the pots, fulfilling my husbandly “I cook, you clean” duties, when I looked down and saw Sam standing there with a huge smile on his face. “hi daddy”. I looked up at my wife who had the “oh shit” look on her face, and we realized we were wholly unprepared for what had just occurred. We didn’t have a baby gate, to keep him contained to his room, and no way to keep him in his crib, and it was 10:30pm… oh, and no one told my your cool trick about lowering the mattress to the floor… that would have helped. I put him back in, and then watched how easily he got himself out again. Now that he knew how, there was no containing him.
So, then it was 11pm, I was in Sam’s room with allen wrenches, taking his crib apart, because I didn’t want him to slip and fall out in the middle of the night. After taking the crib apart, I put his mattress in the corner of the room and had to sleep there for the night, since we didn’t have the baby gate yet to contain the little beast.
By the next day, we had the baby gate up and were surfing Craig’s List for a baby bed. A few months later, we realized the bed we bought on Craig’s List had some serious microcracks we couldn’t see, and one night, I sat down on the edge of the bed, and cracked it in half… but that is a story for another day. Who doesn’t love parenthood?!
I love that story, and not because you suffered, but because of the twist ending. Cracked bed! You deserve a lifetime of good sleep after everything you went through. Remind Sam of that when he tries to stay out past curfew in a few years.
my wife had more fun with the cracked bed than I did. It was a 2×6 running along the length of the bed. I sat down on it, and cracked it right in half (through the 6 inch part). It looked like a “V”. Of course, this happened late night too… so I grabbed an empty suitcase and shoved it underneath to give the bed support for the night. Next day we threw out the bed and put the mattress on the floor.
My wife immediate told me I needed to go back to the gym.
Go, MacGuyver with the suitcase! We do get to be creative.
This was very amusing and I love the hamster trick! But why are you so afraid to let her have her bed? We converted the crib to a toddler bed in honor of our daughter’s 2nd birthday and she was so excited! She fell out a few times but we always put a thick layer of blankets on the floor next to the bed (it’s very close to the floor anyway). We’ve never had any problem with her roaming around on her own due to having the new freedom. It was a fun transition for the whole family.
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Boy, you are super lucky that she doesn’t get out of her bed. I’m seriously jealous! My daughter started climbing out at the ripe old age of 19 months, and we changed her crib to toddler bed around 20 months. She’s now 2 1/4 and is always roaming around in there, in spite of reminders of staying in bed or trying to lay next to her till she falls asleep. She’s given up trying to get out of her room thanks to a knob protector that she hasn’t figured out yet and a gate, but she’s always walking around in her room.
Bedtime isn’t too bad, she might get up briefly to get a new stuffed animal and then get right back in bed, but naptime really took a hit. It’s hit and miss whether it’s naptime or just quiet play time (she’ll sit in her chair and read books or play with her animals). I’d do away with naptime entirely, but I’m pretty sure she still needs it – the days she doesn’t nap, she’s super cranky, so I at least give her the opportunity.
I probably should have tried the idea in this post, at least in the very beginning of her climbing out since she was still pretty young, but in spite of the naptime difficulties, I don’t really regret having her out of a crib now. She’s jumping now and I really don’t want her climbing up on top of a crib and diving off!
It’s always a trade-off, right Mel? Nap time’s so frustrating, but at least she’s safe. GOOD LUCK.
Sleep has been our biggest challenge with our daughter, and we’re terrified that once she’s in a bed she can get out of, she’ll climb in with us every night. I secretly love sleeping with her, but my fiance always gets kicked in the head. Glad it is working out for you. We’ll be there soon, I’m sure.
Keep an eye out for her crawling around the bedroom shaking soil out of her pockets
That sounds like a good story…