As some of you may have seen, my daughter recently climbed out of her crib and broke her arm. Yep, I know crazy! Some have asked me how exactly it happened and how it has been transitioning my 15 month old to a toddler bed ... so here it is.
About two weeks ago I went to put my daughter to nap and I watched her stand up and cry for "mama" because she wasn't feeling the nap - it was one of those days. Then I saw a little foot creep up and when she noticed it was too high (because I have the crib on the lowest level) she then began to pull herself up. I seriously thought she wouldn't be able to carry her own body weight but boy was I wrong. I went running to her room but didn't catch her in time. She was giggling though so I thought nothing of it - rocked her to sleep and put her back to sleep for her nap.
Fast forward to that evening around 8:30pm. Rocked her to sleep with her "Che Che" (milk) and placed her in the crib. I went straight to the monitor to make sure she was okay and sure enough she was up and once again trying to pull herself out of the crib. My husband and I watched in disbelief. This time she did it quicker though and when we got to the room she was not giggling, but crying. I calmed her down and then checked her out but she showed no signs of being hurt so I once again rocked her to sleep and put her back in her crib where she slept soundly.
The following morning when she woke up, I noticed she was a little more "emotional" than usual. I needed to go change my tire because I had driven over a nail and had a flat tire - yeah I know my luck! When I went to go change Annemarie she started crying and flinching her right arm. I knew right away something was wrong. We drove straight to the nearest children's hospital and a couple of x-rays later, we were told she had a broken arm and would need a cast for FOUR WEEKS. Talk about a flood of emotions at that point - guilt, worry, completely beside myself... the list goes on and on. Like I wrote on my post on Instagram, I really felt a surge of "how did you not prevent this- you let her get hurt." Pushing those emotions aside, I went in total mom mode thinking of the following steps and what would have to be done so that she wouldn't get hurt again trying to climb out of the crib.
The only solution I felt was reasonable was to change her to a toddler bed. Another surge of emotions came to me. This transition was supposed to be later! She's growing up too fast! Yet, I pushed those aside and continued. I thought the crib we purchased changed into a toddler bed but SURPRISE, it doesn't. We bought a toddler bed in IKEA along with the mattress etc that same night.
Thinking of a new routine that would work for us and for Annemarie, the plan was to cuddle with her while she drank her bottle and then hopefully she would be asleep and I would slowly leave the room. So far this has worked really well and soon once her and I are used to and comfortable with this arrangement, then I'll step it up a notch and after she has her bottle I will leave the room and let her self soothe.
Other suggestions/advice I was given:
put the mattress on the floor don't get a toddler bed yet
rock her to sleep and place her in the toddler bed
give her milk and just place her in the bed and walk out, if she gets up then walk her back to her bed
make sure everything is toddler proof and nothing is in her reach in case she wakes up and wants to play
adjust the monitor
since her room is right next to ours, we put a little gate in the hallway so she can't roam the house if she were to wake up
In this process I have learned a lot about not only myself, my daughter, the relationship/connection I have with her - but I have learned and confirmed that people can be just mean and opinionated. What works for one mom may not work for another and for those that don't have children yet, you will soon find out that not everything is found on google or the latest article/book. Nothing is set in stone and you need to find a good groove and place with your little one. They will only be little for so long. Who cares if I cuddle with her for a little before she goes to sleep. That works for my little family and if I can help anyone else along the way even better!
Change is scary, but like my mom once told me .... without change we do not evolve.
