School me on "can pull self up to standing"

goodtobethelarkster

This is DD's new favorite thing.  She's like a little prairie dog.  She'll be playing behind the coffee table or a chair or something and then all of a sudden *pop* up come her little eyeballs.

She isn't particularly discriminating about what she pulls herself up on, though.  She'll try it with the coffee table and the couch but she'll also try it with the wall, the curtains, the cat, the covers on the bed, the bedroom trashcan, the sliding glass door, the laundry basket - basically anything. And then if she pulls herself up successfully she attempts to climb the object. This means she topples over a lot especially since the cat isn't exactly motivated to stay stationery, the sliding glass door doesn't provide a lot of handholds or traction, she's not big enough to successfully climb the couch, etc. 

So far this has meant that I've needed to baby proof a lot more things and pad everything that has a sharp corner which I've done but some of the things can't really be baby proofed or removed. We have to have, say, walls and the baby has to periodically come into contact with them. I can't really follow her around with pillows all day especially since if I do put something behind her to soften the fall she just cruises a foot to the left or right or crawls away to pull herself up on something else. And I don't want to discourage her from learning to stand / cruise...

So do I just have to become at one with the idea of frequent toppling or what?  Presumably she'll learn how to fall better as well as get better at the whole standing thing, right?  What else should I be doing?  I feel way trashtastic living in a world of constand "thunks."

MrsKellyOrBust

This would be why Ryan got a bloody nose today. Add that to the bumps and bruises already on his head and I'm wondering why I don't wrap him in bubble wrap...

NewlywednOhio

Well, you can only baby proof so much. Falling and toppling over is kind of how they learn. Quentin has been pulling himself up for about 3 weeks now, and he has bumped his head countless times...poor guy. : (
Usually, I am right there to catch him in time, but as soon as I turn my back, he usually is cruising around something else and falls over again.
He isn't crying as much as he used to, and I think he is kind of getting used to the idea of "Hey, I might fall".

Mrs Manners

This is our life exactly. Poor Sean has had to play in the superyard for weeks because the tree was up. Now that it's down and he's out and about, he'll pull up and climb on ANYTHING. He's taken plenty of spills and has so far been unfazed by almost all of them. I am more cautious on the wood floors but he doesn't seem to care. He did the most awesome face-plant the other day and I caught it on video and laughed when watching it later...does that make me a bad mom?

Mrs.Donkey

We're at this stage too as of a few days ago.  In fact, the first day he started pulling up it looked like he had the beginning of a black eye when he went to sleep that night.

I think all you can do is reasonably baby proof (not to mean turning your house into a padded cell) and keep an eye on her.  Bumps and falls are going to happen and, from what I hear from more experienced parents, are par for the course.  Obviously you don't want her to split her head open on the fireplace, but expecting to catch her on the way down from each topple is unrealistic.

thomas&lynn

just marking to get pointers for the future

olivia_eve

DD has been pulling herself to a stand for a little over a month now.  She fell a lot in the beginning, and had some pretty spectacular wipeouts.  I think you have the right idea- make sure she can't really hurt herself on sharp corners, but otherwise, let 'er rip.  She'll soon get much better at standing and won't fall as often.  It's very rare for DD to fall over now that she has learned how to hold onto things with one hand and cruise.  I'm sure the falling will start all over again when she tries to walk.

Agrippa

She'll learn.  I haven't padded any corners yet, even though DS has been pulling himself up and cruising for quite a while.  He falls, but if he gets hurt, he is easily calmed.  I think that he surprises himself more than anything.  I'd rather he not grow up in a bubble-wrapped world, because then he will never learn how do do things in the real world.  He has already learned to be more cautious when climbing on some objects.

Of course, we've baby-proofed the important stuff--no furniture is going to come crashing down on top of him or anything.