DS crawled out of crib today - Now what?

[Fairy]

Ok, so the day has now arrived. 23 months old, and DS was none too happy to be having nap, so he crawled out of the crib, fell with a thump, and screamed his head off. Once calmed down and had some stories in Mommy & Daddy's bed, he went down in his crib without a fight. Bedtime tonight also went off without a hitch. However, now that the genie is out of the bottle, I'm thinking our little adventurer will try this stunt again sooner rather than later. I was really hoping to keep him in his crib well after his 2nd bday, into big boy bed before age 3. Now that he's crawled out, I just want to do what's safest.

We discussed converting the crib to a toddler bed and putting up a gate by the stairway so that he won't fall down them if he gets up at night. Would welcome your thoughts. We also discussed skipping the tod bed entirely (my vote) and converting right to the regular bed (his crib will convert to both). DH not keen on either of those ideas yet.

What did you do when your DC crawled out of the crib? When did you move to a big boy/girl bed? Would welcome your thoughts. Thanks!

-- Fairy

[crl]

Well, I flipped and had DH convert the crib to toddler bed that day. DS was not yet 2. He went to sleep that night with no problems and has continued to sleep in the toddler bed ever since (over a year now). He doesn't get up at night, much to my surprise. We already had a gate on the stairs.

[Momof3Labs]

Crib tent. DH ran out and bought one that day. It kept DS1 in the crib for another 15 months, when we were all ready for a big boy bed!

[o_mom]

DS1 climbed out once. Never tried again. If he did it again we were set to buy a Crib Tent II. My plan is to keep him in there until 3, and transition him sometime after that when he asks.

I can give you horror stories of friends and family that transitioned 2 yo's out of cribs :-) Basically, IME, you can kiss naptime goodbye and plan on an hour everynight of getting them to sleep. I have yet to hear from anyone IRL of a good transition at that age. I'm sure someone has made it work, but I don't know them. (sorry if this sounds harsh, but my sugar coating turned off about an hour ago.. ;-) )

[ribbit1019]

Moved her to a twin (with box springs) on the floor. Easier to just move her since we had another on the way.

In hindsight I should have just bought the crib tent, DS still hasn't slept in his crib so there was no real reason to rush her out of there.

So short of the long, ;) I would recommend that you get a crib tent since you would like to keep him in there another year.

Christy
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[Marisa6826]

Sophie only ever climbed out ONCE, and never tried it again. We just took the side of her crib off and made it a 'princess bed' since she now can get up and go potty by herself during naps and at night/early morning.

Amelia (thank God) hasn't even tried to climb out yet.

Several Mommies here have made the investment in crib tents to keep their kids in their cribs safely. Try to make it a cool thing - tell him it's a fort, or whatever he'll buy into. ;)

They're pretty spendy full price, so look around on SWAP or if you have a Buy Buy Baby Coupon, it would be a good thing. Full price, I think they're upward of $70.

The only other thing I think that might work, is to go ahead and buy a twin bed, but maybe put it on the floor next to his toddler bed. That way, if he falls out, it will be a soft(er) landing.

Good luck!

-m

[almostamom]

We, too, are crib tent users. It took DS climbing out once for us to get one. It's never been an issue since we put it up. Of course, my mother was convinced he would hate it and would refuse to sleep in his crib anymore. Sometimes I just love proving her wrong! ;)
~Linda~
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[JBaxter]

At 23 months you made it a few months longer than I did with any of my boys ( 17-20months). We converted his crib into a toddler bed and put a gate on his bedroom door to prevent wandering. My older 2 were in twin beds for at 2yrs old. My mom bought them each a mattress for their 2nd b'day. This option worked well for us ( all 3 times). Nathan has the crib/toddler bed and the twin up in his room and chooses where he wants to sleep.

[rlu]

Our DS fell out as well - didn't see it happen, but I think he actually bounced himself out while pushing down on the crib rail (thank you Little Gym!) He did that months ago, so we put a body pillow down next to the crib on side closest to the door (where he went over), and he hasn't done it since.

We too considered the crib tent, but we change DS diaper in his crib and there is only one opening in the crib tent, so we wouldn't be able to tag-team him those times that DS fought his diaper change.

[sdbc]

I was almost one of those horror stories!! :) But it did end up working out. DD climbed out of her crib a couple of nights in a row at about 25 months. After the third time the second night... we got the mattress from the guest room and put in on the floor. The first night, she kept fighting us and coming out of her room nd crying in the middle of the night (she used to not have any problem with sleeping). It was a nightmare, and DH and I were both sick. The next night, after she came out crying at 3 in the morning and dh spent 1.5 hours trying to get her to go back to sleep, I took over. She doesn't get yelled at often, but she did that night, and we haven't had a problem since. I told her (very firmly) "Mommy and Daddy are sick. It's night time and it is time to sleep. You will stay in your room until morning! If you want to look at a book or play with your doll, you can, but you are not to leave this room until it is light outside! Do you understand?" She gave a muffled sobby "yes" and that was that. She stayed in her room and we haven't had any issues. She is potty training now, so she knows she's allowed to get us if she needs the potty (or if she isn't feeling well, or has a legit reason), but then she has to go back to bed.

ETA, It's nice having the bed because we can cuddle with her during story time without having to pick her up and move her to her crib. It's nice and cuddly.

Sue, mommy to Aurora (Rory) born 5/13/04

[dhano923]

My DS started climbing out of his crib before he was a year old (this child started crawling at 6 months and walking at 10 months!) We got the Crib Tent II to keep him in. It worked really well for us.

[mudder17]

Okay, I just had to chime in because I swore Kaya was going to be in her crib and crib tent until she was 4. She loved being her crib and we just decided to get a second crib. Fast forward to the last month.

In her room there has been her crib and a full-sized bed that was used for guests and for nursing. It's been there the longest time, but with this baby coming, my mom is coming out for a month and will need some place to sleep. So we decided to clear out the room next door (study) and move the bed there and eventually that would also be the baby's room (baby will be in our room for the first 4 months). But that left a giant space in her room and we knew we would eventually want another bed there. We started thinking ahead and decided to look at bunkbeds since we envisioned these two sharing a room once they got on a similar sleeping schedule. In all our visits to the store, Kaya kept wanting to climb up to the top bunk. She would lie down on them and say she was ready for a nap. So we knew that if we got a bunkbed, she would either want to sleep on the top or we would have to set it up without the top bunk (and store that in the attic) or we would have to figure out a way to make the top bunk safe so that she could sleep in it. Even if she didn't want to sleep in the top bunk, we would still need to put rails around the bottom part.

At this point, Kaya was still thrilled to be in her crib. Then she started skipping her naps. She would literally spend 2 hours in her crib playing with her stuffed animals and some days, it would be like a wrestling match to get her ready (although she would eventually go willingly into her crib), but the point was, she wasn't sleeping. After about a week with no nap, we decided to go to IKEA once again and we decided to get this bed:

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l318/mudder17/Kurabed.jpg

It is a bunkbed of a sort in that you can get a mattress for the floor below (or you can flip the whole thing and just make a normal sized twin bed) and the top bunk only goes to around mid-chest for me, so quite low. The neat thing about it, is that the rail goes around the entire bed except where the ladder is and there is a tent (which mimics Kaya's crib tent very well, except it's cooler looking), and Kaya just fills it with a bunch of stuffed animals and feels quite comfortable up there. I actually feel more comfortable with her being in this bed than in a normal twin bed with rails on the side. Keep in mind that Kaya is already 30 months and she gave up her naps before we decided on this, so that didn't change. 7 months ago, there's no way we would have tried this.

On the bottom, I've created a reading area for her and we got matching lights that will go underneath (haven't gotten it up yet, but we're almost there) and we got some of their organizers for her toys. Kaya will definitely be able to use this bed for a very long time (since we decided to skip the toddler option) and if it turns out the two of them can share a room, her sister will probably start out in the bottom on the floor (after she graduates from her crib).

The transition hasn't been exactly smooth sailing (she tried all the delay tactics because she was sleep deprived from no naps), but it hasn't been very long either. In fact, after 2 very rough evenings of getting her to bed (and both nights she slept solidly until morning), it's gotten easier as we've also been transitioning her to an earlier bedtime to make up for the no nap. Her bedtime was creeping closer and closer to 9:00 during her 2-3 hour nap period, and now we're planning on moving it to 7 (we've gotten it to 7:30 so far). So far (crossing fingers), she's slept solidly each night (almost a week) and in the morning, she still calls for us and waits for us to come get her rather than climbing down and coming out herself.

I think at your stage, especially if he's still taking naps, I would not mess with it. It's possible that he climbed out once and that was enough of a lesson for him (it depends on the kid, honestly) and he won't ever try it again. But for your peace of mind, I'd go ahead and get a crib tent (especially if it's not too much of a hardship, $$ wise) and keep him in his crib until he's closer to 3.

HTH!

Eileen

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[teddy]

My DS crawled out a few weeks ago - 20 months. My crib switches to a toddler bed, but BRU doesn't carry that brand anymore so I couldn't order the guard rail. Since DS and DD (3.5 yo) share a room, and DD is in a toddler bed, we switched them. DD now is in the converted crib-toddler bed with no guard rail, and DS is now in her toddler bed.

But he doesn't stay in the bed. So we put a mattress pad from Ikea on the floor next to the bed, and put his blanket, animals, and extra pillows on the mat. He sleeps on the mat. He has slept on the bed two times, but he is much more comfy on the mat. And DD loves sleeping on the higher converted crib-toddler bed. It was great fun for her to switch, thankfully.

Also, thankfully, DS does not come out of the room. I almost put a door knob cover on the inside of their room, but instead I put it on the bathroom door. So if DS does come out, he can't get into the bathroom. We also have a gate at the top of the stairs.

I debated the tent but worried if DS got tangled up in it while trying to escape. We can't put a twin bed in the room either without getting DD a twin, and I'm not ready to put 2 twins in there (because we're going to have to keep a crib in there for #3).

Maybe your DS can sleep on the floor on a mattress? That solution in all its variants seems to work well for many.

[mommyoftwo]

Amelia was 15 or 16 months when she started climbing out of the crib. It didn't make me very happy, but there was no stopping her. When she was about 18 months, we moved into a new house. We decided to go ahead and get her a big girl bed and do all the transitioning at once. She rolled out a couple of times, but really did quite well with it. Suprisingly, she stayed in bed until we would let her out. Now she will often play in her room when she is supposed to be sleeping, but she still crawls back into bed when she wants to sleep. We had a couple of days a few weeks after we got the bed where she crawled out and then slept on the floor, but overall the transition went quite smoothly. I know we were very early to move her to a twin bed, but it worked for us and we needed the crib. Of course, now Linnea refuses to sleep in the crib, but that's life. I guess it depends on your comfort level, but it can be done with a minimal amount of trauma and Amelia is extremely strongwilled so I was surprised. I think the key was that she LOVED having a big girl bed.

[Momof3Labs]

>I debated the tent but worried if DS got tangled up in it
>while trying to escape.

i honestly don't see how this would be possible - the crib tent is very snug and secure on the crib. just fyi for others considering the tent option.