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May 14, 2011

climber



Lexi might be our fourth child, but she has achieved a Bartle family first: climbing out of the crib.  Are you shocked to know that Zachary, Tyler, and Gavin never did this?  It's true!

Zach did naughty things like pee onto the carpet from between the crib rails and smear poop on the walls when confined, so we moved him to a twin bed when he was about 21 months in preparation for potty-training.  For all the crazy mischief he created, he never climbed out of the crib.

Tyler followed the same pattern.  Then, just before he turned two, Garry's parents bought the boys bunk beds.  That prompted the transition for him, and with no baby on the horizon, we actually put the crib away for a season.

I fully intended to keep Gavin in a crib until he was five, but at 19 months he declared himself done and demanded a big-boy bed.  We had an extra twin in his bedroom, so that was that.  Good-bye, crib.

So I'm not really sure what to do with Miss Lexi, who showed up in the kitchen after I put her in bed tonight.  She didn't want to sleep, so she climbed out, opened the door, and found me so she could register her opinion in person.  I nearly died.  I put her back in bed, where she screamed at me but wouldn't show off her fancy trick again.  Ten minutes later, when the screaming reached a fever-pitch, Garry checked on Lexi and found her hanging off the outside of the crib rails by her elbows.  She was more content to lie down after that, but my bets are on a repeat performance tomorrow night.

All I can say is:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

9 comments:

The Wizzle said...

Oy. Iris climbed out once, but never really did it again. Not consistently, anyway. Um, I hope you get a similar situation! You should emphatically NOT be having to deal with this.

I hear people say good things about something called a "crib tent", but I've never used one.

Jeff and Lori said...

We switched Brielle to a toddler bed a couple months before Grant was born. We use a pressure safety gate on her door. Her door swings inward so she can open it and yell at us but can't leave her room. I just consider her room a really big crib. She tries to get up a few times each night, but we just tell her it's time for bed and she generally stays put after the first couple times. The bed's nice so she can climb back in without our help. It's taken some time, but it's better than her roaming the house.

Grandma said...

Lexi, oh Lexi!

Laura said...

My now teenage son was a climber as a toddler. We had to put a child proof door knob cover on the inside of the bedroom door so he couldn't open it. Of course that only works if you have actual round knobs and not the "handle" type. We had a Daybed in the room and would pull out the trundle underneath for him to sleep on at night cuz he just wouldn't stay in the crib. Often, though, he would just fall asleep right behind the door and we'd have to push him out of the way in the morning. Good luck!

maynardmoments said...

Oh man! And no, I really can't believe your boys didn't do this. Mary was a crib escaper and it was scary. She would get stuck a lot. We finally put her mattress on the floor by the crib, for safety, but it sure didn't help the problem of her being able to wander the house.
Good luck.

Grandma Honey said...

Oh you've got to check out a post I did on my blog recently about this very problem. I have twin 2 year old grandchildren who learned to climb out of their crib on the same day. It was a nightmarish 2 weeks until the crib tents arrived....and now they are back to sleeping through the nights and taking good naps. Check it out, complete with pictures...and read what my DIL had to say about them in the comments (she is the mom of the twins) Good luck!

Just go to May 1st on my blog, or use the link below.

www.adventuresofgrandmahoney.blogspot.com/2011/05/crib-tentspeace-at-last.html

Colleen said...

Oh dear! Josh was our only child to do that too (so far) and thankfully when we moved him into the toddler bed he stayed, but it was a scary prospect!

annjeanette said...

Hi you don't know me, but I found your blog through a mutual friend (Margaret Mitchell - my BYU roomie.) I don't usually comment on blogs of people I don't know, but I had to on this post. (I love your blog by the way!) I have a daughter like yours. She is a wild child and also learned how to climb out of her crib. That has never happened with any of my other children either. I have two words for you: CRIB TENT!!! It is a mesh "tent" like thing that goes over the crib and keeps the child in the crib. It is the best money I have ever spent. Seriously. It has saved my sanity and saved my daughter's life. I found mine at www.totsinmind.com. They also make them for pack n play cribs as well. I just thought I would pass on this information for you, to save your sanity. Moms have to stick together! Congratulations on your coming baby. We just had our fifth as well. I hope the tent will work for both of you.

Emmy Z. said...

I have no advice, but I hope you find a good solution soon!

pass it on!

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