That's about where I am at 8:11 p.m. on this fine Monday night.
It all started about five days ago when Hannah decided that her 8:00 bedtime was not going to work out for her that particular night, even though she goes to bed at 8:00 every night. Adam and I were hanging out together downstairs while Hannah wailed upstairs. She doesn't cry herself to sleep (believe me...she can go until 2 in the morning and Mommy and Daddy can't hold out anymore so they give in) but we figured she would wear herself out and then we could comfort her and she would fall asleep. At around 8:40 I went upstairs to go snuggle her and calm her down. As I got to the top of the stairs I heard a soft thud. When I went to her room I found her standing by her crib, very upset. She'd fallen out somehow.
Adam lowered the crib.
Ever since then she has repeated her resistance to bed. It isn't fun but we deal with it.
Last night we waited 15 minutes until we went to go soothe her. Adam opened the door and ran Hannah over in the process. Apparently she had used her bumper to climb out of the bed. Her partner in climb.
We removed the bumper.
Tonight I found her trying to escape while she bawled her eyes out. She had all her stuffed animals piled in a corner and she was trying to use them to climb out. So I removed them, cuddled with her for a while, and laid her down.
A few minutes later I heard the strangest cry coming from Hannah's room. I rushed in to find her DANGLING ON THE OUTSIDE OF HER CRIB.
Great.
I didn't even rescue her in time. I ran over but she was not strong enough to hang on and she let go.
It has now been an hour and a half since bedtime started. I'm all alone at home right now so I don't know what to do. Hannah is still screaming in the spare bedroom. I set her in a port-a-crib and hoped she wouldn't be able to climb her way out of that (p.s. she did...she's knocking on the door right now...I'm still hoping she will wear herself out somehow).
So that is my story. Pathetic I know. I just don't know what to do with my precocious one year old.
Help.
6 comments:
You poor thing...you have a climber!
Just remember what it says in the scriptures, "It came to pass" it never says, "It came to stay". This fun phase will pass and change into another adventure, just hang in there and be as persistant as your one year old.
P.S. I think the word is 'precious' not 'precocious'.
Sounds like she gets it from her uncle Sean. I remember years ago at a family picnic at West Bountiful park. Sean was pretty young (can't recall how old) and we turned around to notice that he climbed the 6-foot chain-link fence almost to the top and was just sort of hanging on and looking around. Easy for me to laugh he was my brother's kid. :-)
Hang in there Mom.
Ohhhhh.... Poor little girl! Errr, more like poor mommy! ;) mason was not a climber--ever!! He did start resisting bed at 18 months, so I shortened his naps by 30 mins so that he would continue to go down right at 8. I also started letting him have a few stuffed animals and hard books in there, but it sounds like Hannah is using those things to help her escape! Maybe a pack-n-play is at least harder to get out of, but I guess if she's gotten out if it once, she will do it again. Tie her down? That's the only other option (kidding!). Be persistent. If she gets out, put her back in until she learns to stop trying to get out bc it will not b any fun! Good luck, and let me know what ends up working. Just in case Tanner ends up being a climber!
I meant soft books. Why would I put hard bks in his bed?! Haha
Let her get out of bed but block her way out of her room. Put two gates up(one on bottom, one on top) so that hopefully she will look at it and see that it's too tall for her to climb. I have also heard of a "clock" that is supposed to train them to stay in bed because it changes colors(or something like that) at certain times and so you just explain to the child that they are not allowed out of bed until the numbers are a certain color.
I know this is really late coming, but I really liked "The No Cry Sleep Solution". It was geared towards infants, but I think there's a toddler version, but the principles still apply I'm sure. Cory (who has a bachelor's in psychology) has told me and pointed out to me numerous times that when children do this sort of thing, part of the phase is the fact that they are going through a cognitive leap and is a great window of teaching almost any concept and a window of opportunity for them to push boundaries just to see what's there. Samantha is going through a rather exasperating one right now....her first day of school can't start soon enough!
Post a Comment