Well, he's loose now (mostly a vent)

eyenigh · March 2014

Alexander has been periodically escaping the crib for the last almost 6 months. Until recently, it was only when I was in the room with him, like if I tossed him in there while I was putting away laundry (he likes to help too much or play hide and seek in the closet while I'm trying to put things in it!). About a month and a half ago, he jumped out in the morning and I woke up when I heard a door slam. I found him in the hall bathroom with a blanket, laughing. These were mostly isolated incidents so I just made an effort to grab him as soon as he woke up so he didn't have time to perfect the jumping out technique. Until this week, that had been working well. On Thursday night, everything clicked for him and he is literally vaulting out of the crib now. That night, he scared the CRAP out of me by silently escaping and sneaking into our room. I woke up to heavy breathing and someone patting my legs. I took him back to bed, rubbed his back to fall asleep and he was out again at 5:30, which is unheard of at our house on the weekends (he normally gets up around 8:30).

Friday night was a joke: as soon as I laid him down, he was up and had a leg over the side of the crib. I tried staying in the room and he was jumping out faster than I could get up to stop him. My husband was away for the weekend so I wound up bringing him to bed with me. Oddly, he stayed in bed all night like that. Last night I dragged the mattress from our spare room into his room. This was a little better. He only woke up once at 4 a.m. when he rolled off (the top of the bed--the only place that I didn't throw pillows around). I ended up having to lie down with him to get him to relax. He went back to sleep. I didn't.

I feel like I never even went to sleep since my husband came home late that night and brought some kind of stomach flu with him so he woke me up retching all night.

Oh, to answer the obvious question: our crib does not convert. I ordered him this bed: Lightning McQueen Toddler to Twin Bed with Lights and Toy Box but it won't be here until Monday. I'm thinking he'll love the bed. Hopefully he'll actually sleep in it. Anyone else going/went through crib jumping yet? How did your transition to the big boy bed go?

Obviously I am not good at writing short posts.

nunzchucks · March 2014

Have you considered a baby gate to keep in him his room? Maybe leave a blanket and pillow out so he can curl up on the floor. I'd just be nervous of what he could get into while you are sleeping - even when you have the big boy bed.

eyenigh · March 2014

Oh, he's already gated in there now! Furniture is anchored to the wall and the closet doors are childproofed. I gated him in after he creeped on me the first night!

JENandJEH · April 2014

I dread the day DS2 moves out of his crib...I'm keeping him in there until at least 3 unless he starts to climb out before then.

We switched DS1 at 3y2m when he potty trained and it went great. I was able to explain to him that he needed to stay in bed and he did! I felt like at 3 he was able to better understand. The only issue we had was that he stopped napping when we moved him to the twin bed. He still did quiet time daily but very rarely (maybe 7 times in the month) did he actually fall asleep.

DS2 is such a different child and has the polar opposite personality from DS1 so I imagine that no matter what it's going to be difficult. I dread it. Good luck, I hope it's a smoother transition that you're expecting!

Wipz · April 2014

We're lucky that the lil guy never really used his crib much enough to worry about climbing out.. he is a pro at getting on and off our beds and during the night never gets/falls out of bed. We converted his crib and he sometimes sleeps in there but usually still chooses the big bed (Mine).

If he wakes up from a nap he either shouts for you to come get him and waits or just climbs off the bed and comes to find you... he naps with daddy during the week because he works nights. when he is ready to get up he wakes DH up and so far never once has he tried to get off the bed and leave DH sleeping unawares. He still naps around 2-3 hours and sometimes more because we have a pretty unusual routine anyway due to work etc. At weekends he tends to skip naps so this is one tired mommy with a lot of housework to catch up on lol.

His crib is still in our room, but he does sleep in the full in his room for naps and even overnight occasionally... but not by himself overnight.

I'm not terribly worried about him wandering .. that kid would just get out of bed and turn the damned TV on or find my phone or tablet and sit quite happily watching his shows as long as he had a bottle handy.

We were actually at rooms to go kids tonight looking at getting him a loft bunkbed for his room.. thinking about getting him a twin over full to replace the full we have in his room currently. He had a total blast with the stairs on the bunk beds there... very proud of his lil old self he was. I'm seriously considering getting him one and putting some kind of bed tent on the top bunk for now.

That would make the top bunk a safe play area for him until I am happy that he won't dive bomb off the top when he is in there alone.

The trundle would make a great replacement for his train table and give us more floor space too.

I wish you all well.. every kid is different so just go with your instincts.. you know your kids better than anyone.I'm just glad someone is getting some use out of their cribs lol.. we spent a tonne on a really nice mattress and it's virtually unused lol.

[Deleted User] · April 2014

Oh dear. I hope he likes his new bed, and sleeps in it! DS sometimes puts his foot up on the rail like he's going to try to climb out, but only when he's really upset and he hasn't figured out yet how to vault himself over. Thank goodness, I am not looking forward to that transition! Good luck!

eyenigh · April 2014

I'm hoping that once the novelty wears off, he'll settle down. The mattress on the floor is like a giant jumping pad to him and it took him forever to settle down last night. He kept getting up, shaking the gate and flipping the light on and off for like an hour. I did my best to try to let him work it out on his own and as soon as I decided to go in there, he had made his way back to bed and was falling asleep. He stayed in bed all night but when I went to get him to get ready this morning, he met me at the door and was very upset. I know it'll get better but it's tough. It's nerve wracking to me when he's just up screwing around instead of safely contained in his crib!

nunzchucks · April 2014

Ack, @eyenigh These are all of my fears of transitioning to a big bed. Please start a blog with tips so I can learn

eyenigh · April 2014

LilNunz1 said:

Ack, @eyenigh These are all of my fears of transitioning to a big bed. Please start a blog with tips so I can learn

@LilNunz1 Consider this the blog, lol. I'll keep you posted on our progress. My major fear is early wakeups because he's awesome at sleeping in on the weekends. I am not crazy about going back to getting up around 7 or earlier but as long as it's temporary, I can deal!

On a positive note, the shipping on the new bed looks like it was expedited and it should arrive tomorrow so I'm hoping that will help once he's back into a smaller, more secure space. I don't think it'll be a miracle but I think it'll be a step in the right direction.

lindslalala · April 2014

We moved DS to a twin bed last week and here's how it has gone so far.. NIght 1- slept all night but woke up around 5am screaming and running through the house(instead of his usual 7am wake up). Every night since then he has slept fine, fallen out once or twice, but he just gets back in bed himself. He gets up at 6:30am now...hoping he starts sleeping until 7am again soon! We put a childproof handle on his door after night 1 and now he just meets me at the door every morning.

Naps have been terrible. He will NOT nap in his bed at all. He isn't even playing in his room, just wanders around, talks to himself and sometimes yells at the door for me. He falls asleep on the floor and sleeps anywhere from 30-60mins. I've tried putting him back in bed repeatedly, ignoring him completely, telling him to get back in bed via the monitor...none of it makes a bit of difference. I'm hopeful that he'll eventually figure it out, but it isn't promising so far.

Mrs MoJoRisin · April 2014

That does sound frustrating! DS has been in his toddler bed for six months but was not confident opening his door knob and going anywhere until last week. He realized it was very easy to leave his room. One night I stood outside his door and held the knob for 30 minutes while he threw a fit and then finally went to bed. I purchased this plastic cover that goes over the door knob and you have to grasp the knob with your fingers through two holes. Now he can not open his door and stopped getting out of bed. It lasted a couple days and only one day after I put the knob cover on. He has gone back to knocking very loud when he wakes up at 5:30 am....

Maybe try that so he can't keep coming out of his room once you get his toddler bed set up. Right now I'm sure it is hard bc he can't climb back into the crib. Good luck!

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