Katelyn fell out of her crib!

We always knew that Katelyn was part monkey and very strong, but this past week we got a "nice" surprise from Katelyn. She's been a little uneasy about taking naps lately, so we've had to leave her in her crib and let her cry a bit to settle down before falling asleep. Last Thursday she again decided that she wasn't tired enough to nap, so she was furious and screamed histerically. She's very stubborn and once she sets her mind on something that's it.. She threw all of her things out of the crib and then managed to throw herself out of the her crib with a loud thump. She went to her bedroom door and continued pounding her fists until we got there. I happened to work form home that afternoon, so I heard the whole thing first hand.

We knew being how active she is that this day was going to come sooner than it did for Ashley (Ashley stayed put in her crib perfectly happy until she was 3 years old) but we didn't expect it to happen at 16 months!!

Her crib doesn't have a drop down side, and she's not big enough to throw her leg over the side to climb over, so the odds are is that she pulled herself up enough where she could lean over to fall out.. Scary considering that she probably fell on her head or her back, but without any visible signs of hurt.

I Googled what to do and consulted with a few friends that have kids that have done the same at a young age. Katelyn is not even 17 months yet, so I don't feel like she's ready for a "Big Girl" bed, and the responsibility of being able to wonder around her room before sleep and when she wakes up. So the choice was obvious.. we had to get a tent to put over her crib to keep her from climbing out.

I ran out to Babies R Us to get the tent and came back empty handed :( They don't carry them!! Urg.. So what are we to do.. Indira rocked Katelyn to sleep for her nap on her hands, but night time is a whole different ball game. Both Mike and Indira were out of the house, I tried to get Katelyn to sleep in the crib at night, I figured if she's tired enough she won't fuss and just go to sleep. But as soon as she was done with her milk, she was screaming bloody murder and trying to climb out. I didn't want her to fall again, but I wanted to see if she'd try again. So I sat quietly in her room in the rocking chair, just to see what she'd do, and soon enough she wedged her feet in the slots in the side of the crib and almost made herself fall out head first. Realizing that leaving her in the crib is not a save choice. I cleared everything out of her room, moved her crib over and put her crib mattress on the floor where her crib used to be. I attempted for almost an hour to get her to lay down on the mattress to sleep but no luck.

Her normal bedtime is around 7:30. It was after 10pm and she still wasn't sleeping, finally Mike came back, he took her in her room and 5 minutes later emerged with news that Katelyn was on her mattress settled down.. I don't know how he does it, but somehow he's the only one that can reason with Katelyn and convince her to listen when no one else can. She slept on the floor the whole night until 6 am. At which point I suppose she thought it was time to get up. Mike again visited her room for another 5 minutes and convinced her to sleep until 8 am !!! Amazing! Thank God he's got this power over her, or we wouldn't get any sleep.

On Friday, after having processed what has happened, I realized that getting her to sleep on the floor is going to be an ongoing challenge. I got a tip to look for the tent at the Burlington Coat Factory and luckily they had it!! We right away set it up, so that she could nap inside the tent that day. She was a little leary at first, but now she's used to it. We zip her up inside so she stays put. So far it's worth every penny of the $60 that I spent on it. At least we have a piece of mind knowing that she can't fall out and hurt herself and that she's not leaving the room.

Here's what the contraption looks like: