The other day, I caught Jesse trying to climb out of his crib. I didn't think he would be able to do it. And, truth be told, I didn't think he would be able to do that until he was at least 2 years old. That's how old Jennifer was when she started to climb out of her crib.
But guess what?
It's happened. It has actually happened, before he turned two!
I did not see it happen the first time. I never actually saw him climb out of the crib. But this morning after my shower, I walked back to the bathroom to get the sunblock and...there he was. In the bathroom! Yikes! I gasped. My heart froze. And I said, "Jesse!" It kinda scared me but I'm glad I caught him before he got hurt.
So I told my husband about this. "Jesse is climbing out of the crib now." Little did I know what adventure awaited us because of this recent development.
We could not get him to go to sleep for his usual naptime because he climbed out of the crib. Again. And again. And again.
It was very frustrating. My husband just decided that, you know, Jesse won't be taking anymore naps during the daytime. We had a disagreement about this. I was raised on the belief that a child stops taking naps when turning 3. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in my family told me that. "He's 3 now. No more naps." It was like some milestone. (Even though there are, of course, teens and adults who catch the occasional nap.) I told him, we can't rule out naps completely. He acknowledged this and said, "Okay, if he falls asleep, great." I guess we can't designate his crib as the place to take naps anymore. He could fall asleep on the couch, on my bed or even under the table! (Jennifer was known to crawl into the cabinets where I kept canned goods and fall asleep in there when she was a toddler.)
So now we have this challenge of Jesse climbing out of his crib. And WHAT a challenge it is! First of all, like Jennifer, he is a night owl. He is VERY active and prefers to stay up at night and sleep in in the mornings. Second, he is ACTIVE! It is hard to get him to calm down enough for a nap.
This evening was proof of that. He kept climbing out of the crib when we put him to bed. At 10:00 at night. He just WOULD NOT go to sleep. I was very frustrated by this and trying to figure out what we can do to fix this problem. (Despite being a night owl, Jennifer NEVER climbed out of her crib at nighttime. She always stayed in there and went to sleep!)
My husband, however, was very patient about this. He just kept picking Jesse up and putting him back into his bed. Again and again. Time after time. He didn't yell at him or anything. Just quietly and patiently kept putting the baby back into his bed. I was very impressed by this.
I am going to still look up how to manage this situation. I think Jesse will still benefit from at least one nap a day. And I'll have to figure out how to curb this problem of him constantly getting out of bed so that we can instill good bedtime habits and he will stay there and go to sleep.
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4 comments:
your hubby probably has the right idea for night time, just keep putting him back in. Or graduate him to a toddler bed or a mattress on the floor if you're afraid he might fall at night. On supernanny she does exactly what your hubby did and eventually all those kids across the land stay in bed, LOL so good luck to you guys with this!!!
Isabel didnt have this problem because she slept with Caitlin till she was 4 and after that she just slept alone no problem. I dont know if that would be possible for you guys...but maybe a mattress on the floor in Jens room? I dont know, but then you might have to break him of the habit. Well good luck woman!
Thank you. :) The mattress on the floor is a great idea! He has a convertible crib but I don't know if he is ready to graduate to a toddler bed yet. However, Jen's bed DOES have a pull-out mattress underneath (I used to sleep on that LOL) and maybe we can try putting him on there. I just hope he doesn't roll off! (It is twin size.) Something to think about.
Also, I did figure out ONE way to ensure he takes a nap every day. WALKING! We walked to the market today so I could get a paper and a few things for dinner. He fell asleep in the stroller. So maybe that is something we can do every day to help him get his nap. It's a win-win situation! :)
the stroller is total win win, cause then you get to walk and get a hot body in the process!!! :-)
Jen has a trundle bed! I have heard about those! Well to expand on what happened with us, when we moved to our house Isabel was 1 and Caitlin was 6 and they each had their own room finally but neither wanted to sleep alone in a new house. I thought, I'll just put Isabels crib mattress on the floor in Caitlins room for a little while. Well in the morning, they were both on the crib mattress so I ended up just putting the twin mattress on the floor. Eventually I put two twin beds in one room, they still each had their own room but they both slept in one room because they were too worried to sleep alone. Until Caitlin was ten, then she wanted her own room. But by then Isabel had some established sleep patterns so it all worked out. I had some critics about this, who thought I should force them to sleep apart, but I thought, why? That didnt make sense to me when they would fall asleep so easily in the same room you know?
Anyway, you might have an acrobatic son, he is so young to climb out!!! Ha ha
I hear that! I am just amazed at how well he is developing. He's even become "aware" of when he has to go to the bathroom, too! We have to get him a baby potty chair.
And there are so many "experts" and critics out there who say "you should do things this way" or "you should do things that way." I don't think you should force children to do things a certain way if it terrifies them too much, or something. Some kids can adjust to that, but not all kids. There is really no "one size fits all" solution to these kinds of things. It sounds like you were very in tune with your daughters' needs and comfort level and so no one should fault you for having a solution that is not a very popular one.
And what's interesting is that Jen has been asking to have her own room for a loooong time. After sharing a room with her brother for this amount of time, I really have to wonder how she will take to that adjustment.
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