Another Infamous Milestone: Good-bye Crib

Davis has hit another infamous milestone - climbing out of his crib. I had naively thought he might not be able to do that with this crib (I don't know why I thought this crib was climb-out-proof). But to really tell how horrible this new feat was, I must describe his sleeping pattern for the previous day.

I had gone up to Pineview Dam with the YM/YW and my mom had come down to tend Davis for the day. Apparently, he woke up at 9:30 am crying and when she asked if he wanted to go back to sleep he said "yes." And he did. Until noon. Noon! So he got up, had some lunch, played a bit, and then about 2:30 he seemed tired again so she asked if he wanted to take a nap. And he said "yes." And he did. Until I woke him up at 5:30 pm. 5:30! Now, I know I could have prevented the inevitable terrible evening ahead by waking him up sooner, but it was so nice to get to do some things that needed to be done (homemade salsa, frozen juice for creamsicle smoothies, dinner prep).

So, we headed into the evening expecting bedtime to be a little later than usual. But Davis seemed tired by 8:30 pm and so we made the first attempt at putting him to bed (and by bed, I mean his climb-out-proof crib). It was quiet for a little bit, then we heard a knock on the door. His bedroom door. First, I was a little freaked out. Who could be in his bedroom? Was he safe? Then, reality slowly dawned. It was just Davis in there and he was no longer in his crib, but knocking at his door, calling, "Mama." (I don't know why he was knocking at the door - he can open it himself.) I went up, opened the door, and he said quite proudly, "Mama, I'm awake!"

Attempt #2 came around 10 pm when we all headed to bed. I put Davis in his crib, turned all the house lights off, and Darren and I climbed into bed. Soft thump, then knocking on Davis's closet door. Apparently, it was too dark and he couldn't find his bedroom door. So, up we went for awhile. I kind of knew it might be a late night, what with all the sleeping the day before.

Attempt #3. 11:30 pm. This ended in failure for both me and Davis. Of course he tired to climb out again, but this ended in a crash and a sore leg. So after some loving, we told some stories and I laid down on the floor in his room until he went to sleep. Finally, I crawled into bed and dozed off. 5:30 am brought "Mama. Mama! Mama out!" Then panicked crying. I ran in and he had again tried to climb out, but had gotten his foot twisted and stuck in between the bars and he was stuck straddling the top of the railing because he couldn't go back or forward. So that brought the end of a very long night and the beginning of a very long day.

So, I took the crib railing off and put on the toddler bed guards in protest of this new skill. But, as anyone who has children probably already knows, this brings its own issues. Bedtime brought the get-in-bed-get-out-of-bed game. So he slept in his pack and play. Which he must not realize would actually be easier to climb out of than his crib and much less painful. Luckily, we both got a full night's sleep.

On a different note, I haven't been posting about our date nights because they aren't very creative, but last night we had a great, simple date. (This was at the end of the very long day.) Darren had wanted to go hiking, but I was in no shape to do that and it was getting close to dark. So after Davis cried himself to sleep in the pack and play, we went to Baskin Robbins, got delicious ice cream and drove to a place where we could see much of the Ogden valley. There were lightning storms across the entire western horizon (not where we were) and it was so wonderful to sit, eat ice cream, watch one of nature's wonders, and enjoy being together. Thanks, Darren!