Luck + Engineering
About two weeks ago, the inevitable happened.
We had gone to visit my in-laws in Florida. It was a late-night arrival, and while the kids stayed awake pretty much the whole flight, Daniel passed out while leaning on me as we made our descent. I pulled him up to carry him, and he didn’t wake up. I picked up various carry-ons from the floor, slung them over my shoulder, and made my way out of the plane, and he didn’t wake up. I put him into his cold, gate-checked carseat and buckled him in, not a peep. Latched the seat into my mother-in-law’s car with him in it, nothing. Took him out of the car, brought him inside, put him down on the bed, and pulled off his shoes and jeans, and still, he slept.
We plopped both passed-out kids into the mini-cribs that always await them in Florida, plugged in the GoodNite Lite, and hoped they wouldn’t freak out when they woke up in a strange place.
At the appointed hour of the nightlight wake-up, I heard happy chatter and got up to retrieve the kids. The door was cracked open, and I could see a light on, much brighter than the yellow sun we brought with us. “That’s weird,” I thought. “Maybe that light is on a timer? Or maybe my mother-in-law heard the kids before I did and is in there?” Then the light turned off.
I opened the door, and there was Daniel. On the couch. Turning the light off and on (much to his grumpy sister’s chagrin). I asked Daniel how he got onto the couch, and he happily described that the blue moon was on (the nightlight), but that he had a poopy diaper and he climbed out (blessedly, said diaper was still intact and latched to his person).
I had long suspected the kids had really outgrown these mini cribs, and was amazed they made it as many trips as they did without the self-propelled exit. I was glad he hadn’t tipped it over, with its somewhat high center of gravity.
But hey, we made it to almost 2 1/2 before our first incident of climbing out of the crib. And we haven’t had another one. Here’s why:
1. Luck. Not just luck in that my kids aren’t super persistent climbers, nor particularly mischievous as toddlers go, though that is certainly lucky. And I’m not naive enough to think that they’re really listening that well when I say that climbing in and out (as Daniel still sometimes talks about) is dangerous. No, we’re lucky that we bought the right cribs.
They’re from Babies R Us, nothing spectacular. As I recall, they were about the least expensive ones we could find that we didn’t hate. What makes them awesome is that, at the lowest mattress setting, it’s so deep that the crib rails come almost to my 2.5-year-olds’ shoulders. Other cribs we’ve used while traveling, even the full-sized ones at my dad’s house, come barely past their belly buttons. No wonder most kids climb out so much younger: the mattress just isn’t deep enough! Did I know this when I bought these cribs? Of course not. Dumb luck.
2. Engineering. You notice I said we’ve used other full-sized cribs (as well as pack & plays and mini cribs) before, and this was still our first (and, so far, only) climbing incident. There was one other unusual circumstance when Daniel made the literal leap. In his passed-out state, though I did manage to get his shoes and jeans off, I didn’t bother to put on his sleep sack.
Yep. My kids are still in sleep sacks. Have been pretty much every nap and every night since they were six months old. Even when the cribs would seem to have made climbing easier, they still can’t quite swing that leg up, or get the traction on their feet. And to that, I say, Hallelujah.
I’ve heard people say they stopped using sleep sacks because they worried about restricting the kids’ mobility, but I can assure you that my kids can do just about anything (except climbing) in those things. Walk, crawl, whatever. There’s a little bit of luck in this one, too, as my kids have never made any kind of consistent effort to get out of their sleep sacks, though I suspect they’d be quite capable of it if they tried.
Of course, this will all be coming to an end. Sometime this year, we will bid farewell to our beloved sleep sacks (which don’t appear to come in a larger size than the XL they’re currently wearing). We will pull off the front rail and turn those cribs into toddler beds.
But for now, they have warm toes, and there are no suspicious thuds coming from their bedroom. I’d better enjoy it while it lasts.
Tags: climbing, cribs, sleep sacks
January 20th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
My kids aren’t climbers either and I thank my lucky stars they can still be in their cribs. Cullen had one incident where he tried to climb out and fell down and bumped his head. And that was all it took…he was talking about it for weeks, but never tried it again. I know the time is coming when we have to put them in toddler beds, but I am going to prolong that as long as possible!
January 20th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
I am hoping that mine won’t be climbers either. A little bit of standing in chairs, but (knocking on wood), that’s been it.
I love the sleep sacks & mine walk all over the crib in them. Like you, I plan to use them as long as they will still fit in them.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Gotta love those sleep sacks! My girls also use them for every nap and bedtime and I hope to continue that for as long as possible. Don’t know if they yet existed with my oldest who climbed out of his crib a month before his first birthday- luckily we found the crib tent and didn’t have to take my mom up on her offer to sew his pajama pants together!
January 20th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Goddess, your pictures of your beauteous duo (sleeping or awake) are always so wonderful.
Our first incidence of crib climb (She-Twin) resulted in a broken arm.
At not quite 2 years, we KNEW they were not (nor we as their parents) ready for big kid bed. Huzzah for the crib tents. They freakin’ LOVED them…like li’l club houses they were. When we finally made the move to the beds, they wanted the tents on them. (we did not oblige.)
Looks like those cribs you have are pretty, AND genius in engineering.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
My kids aren’t climbers either and they never climbed out of their cribs. But they are insanely tall and the day Sophie leaned over the rail and fell out on her head was the day we said goodbye to their cribs. They’ve been in beds since 2 years exactly and it’s been totally fine. We just twin proofed the heck out of their room and put a gate in front of their door, just in case.
Have you seen the toddler/preschooler sleep sacks? Their feet are out, but I suspect that they might still impede climbing.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Ah, the sleepsack trick. That worked for us too!
The move to “big girl” beds hasn’t been too bad for us ::knock on wood::
January 20th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
I agree, sleepsacks are awesome. My kiddos love them. We actually found bigger sizes and jumped from the XL sleepsacks to the 4T/5T size for my now 23 month old twins. They have feet holes which my kiddos sometimes use and sometimes don’t. I dread the day when we give these up but I know it is coming before long because we are already zipping them in backwards and my daughter still unzips herself on occasion.
Good luck with the transition to beds–I look forward to reading about it!
January 20th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
We have the same cribs! So psyched that we got them, even though I had no clue at the time that they would be a future life saver in this department! Oh, and my girls are still in sleep sacks, too, when they decide not to take them off.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Mine will definitely be in sleepsacks until they outgrow the largest size. And I’m planning to keep them in their cribs as long as we can. Since they’ll have to share a room indefinitely, I’m not in any hurry to have them more mobile at sleep times.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:52 pm
We had one very odd jumping incident at about 19 months. Our unhappy waker, Moshe, woke up and cried for just a couple of seconds. Then a pause and Malka starts WAILING. And she’s normally the sound sleeper/happy waker. So I go flying in only to have Moshe meet me at the door all smiling and giggly. Malka apparently was upset that her brother was out of his crib and she wasn’t! We never did figure out how he managed it (there was no thump or any other tell-tale sound). So we decided to take our chances and wait to see if we ever had a repeat. We’re now at 28 months and while we see them prop a leg on top of the railing from time to time, we’re trying to hang in with the cribs as long as possible. And just in case, when another MoM was giving away the crib tents from her trips, I snagged ‘em.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Wow! I can’t believe you’ve made it this long without a climbing-out incident. We’ve never had one, but only because we transitioned Jack to a full-sized bed when he was 19 months (the only reason being that I didn’t want to buy ANOTHER crib when Derek arrived). I’m sure that we’ll have a climbing-out incident with Derek because we won’t be in as big a hurry to transition him to a bed. Duly noted about the sleep sack. With Jack, I had no idea that they made ‘em that big — I’ve never seen them in sizes past L! But recently my SIL gave me a hand-me-down XL sleep sack. I was like, WHOA!!!! She ordered it online, and I’ll be doing the same for Derek!
Beverly´s last blog ..Yup, They’re Growing
January 21st, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I also don’t have a climber and she is still in her crib. I have a different crib, but it’s very similar in that it’s very deep and there’s very little chance she’ll get over the side of it b/c it’s so tall. I used to curse myself for not getting one with rails that come down, but with all the recalls out there for those types, I am now happy I did that.
January 21st, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Wow! Love the pic of him sleeping still in the bed after all that moving him around. Cracks me up. And amazing you haven’t had any climb outs. We never did with our 9 year old daughter, but we don’t know with the boys yet. I’m curious to see what the future has in store for us.
Heather´s last blog ..Twin Boy Pics! – 7 1/2 months
January 21st, 2010 at 9:30 pm
You know, I bet with your quilting skillz (couldn’t resist!), you could probably make the kiddos lager sleep sacks. Hey! You could even make them quilted and sell them! Woot! I claim 10% of the profits for the brilliant idea.
Emily´s last blog ..Words
January 25th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Hey! We pulled roughly the same miles last week in 500 in 2010. It’s good not to be completely blown away. Although reading your blog here, I am amazed that you pull that off with all you have going on!
JourneyBeyondSurvival´s last blog ..Let’s Do it Again