Game on. She’s escaping the crib.
At 15 months old, my youngest escaped from her crib for the first time. I heard her crying upstairs, and knew the sound was a little too close to her door. We were shocked. And scared. We weren’t ready. She wasn’t ready. But fortunately, the fall must have scared her, because she didn’t try it again. But now, she’s a little bit bigger, a little bit older, and at 17 months, she’s got it down. Just a lift of the leg, a hoist, and she’s free. Game on.
I’m completely unprepared for this. My first daughter didn’t start doing this until 20 months or so, and even then, she just didn’t care to escape, even though she could. She would just scream until we came to retrieve her. But my youngest is different. She’s fearless. And much more independent. In fact, she’s self potty-training already. Just this morning, she hopped down from the couch where we were cuddling together, and ran towards the bathroom, yelling “poo poo.” Sure enough, I plopped her down on the toilet and she did her thing. I’m thrilled, but unprepared for this as well. Should I just buy pull-ups and go with it? I’m not ready to escort TWO kids into germ-infested public restrooms. One is bad enough.
So now I’m considering options. She went down for her nap in her crib well today, and hasn’t come down the stairs yet. But should I go ahead and convert her crib to a toddler bed so she doesn’t injure herself climbing out? I’ve heard crib tents are dangerous, so I’m not sure that’s an option. I just wish they made crib extenders that made the sides 6 foot tall or so. I’d leave her in there until kindergarten if I could. She’s an explorer, and wants to get into everything. With my oldest, I always knew that when she did come down the stairs at night, she’d always come right to our room. But my youngest? I just don’t trust that kid. She’ll climb on the kitchen counter and look for food, or unroll the entire toilet paper roll into the toilet, or find a pair of scissors and injure herself or something else. She’s just too young to know any better. And that scares me.
So, I’m looking for suggestions. Has this happened to you? What did you do? Should we just transition her? Or keep her in her crib longer? I know I can’t keep her little forever, but I just want to keep her safe.
Transfer to toddler bed and do baby gates tall enough for her bedroom door….unless she can figure those out too…lol
I know most parents go thru this but I never had any of ours climb out of their cribs. Honest! They just hollered until I came in to get them.
Talk to the little one – ask her if she wants a big girl bed. She might surprise you.
My youngest, like yours, surprised me. Still does. Would not be contained. Roamed the house at 3 a.m., lights out, never got hurt. She is generally fearless, (aside from occasionally sleeping with the lights on after watching scaring movies in her teen years) and it has served her well in life. She now has her sights on studying/working in Europe. One of her cousins did, indeed, climb up on counters to see what was cookin’, and leap off balconies onto sofas, and ski better than any flatlander should — and now he is the captain of his own airplane and lives in the Caribbean. So that little girl of yours knows something these other two figured out, too: She is goin’ places! (Good luck, mama!)
Thanks for the encouragement! You know, it’s funny, we’ve always seen Anna as “so smart” because of her language skills, but Erica is very smart in much different ways!