Growing Up

It's time we let Kaitlyn grow up a little. I was hoping we could pack up her crib and worry about this at our next house, but it looks like me must face it here. My plan had been when we PCS from here and FINALLY get our household goods back to put up her crib minus the front rail. Recently Kaitlyn has been throwing her leg over the railing when I put it down to get her out. I know she must know she could crawl out even when the railing is up. Today I walked in her room after her morning nap to find her on her belly (awake) with her feet up on the rail. Now tell me how do you get your feet up on a high rail while on your belly??? She did it. I decided that was it. It was time to take the rail off. I would rather her fall 18" from the mattress rather then over the rail. I figured it would be safer anyway.

At first she didn't even want to look at the crib. She would bury her face in my shoulder and cry after looking at it. I put a king size pillow and a step stool on the floor and she still didn't care to check out her bed.

It took our second trip upstairs for her to crawl on the bed. By the way, other then the railing missing this is how her bed normally looks; crowded with stuffed animals. There is a shelf just above her crib that she has started pulling stuffed animals off of when she is supposed to be napping. I come in to find a whole zoo in her bed.

Her first nap in the newly changed bed didn't happen. She cried, got out of bed, went through her closet and dresser, pulled out toys and several other things while she should have been sleeping. Just because she wasn't sleeping didn't mean she could come out of her room. She normally naps for 2 hours in the afternoon so I made her stay in her room for two hours. She eventually opened her door to discover the gate I put across the doorway.

Tonight didn't go much better. She wanted to go down at first, but by the time I made it downstairs she was bawling. Her room was dark so I figured she wouldn't be playing around. After a bit of crying we heard her hit the ground. She started screaming more. I went in for her and as soon as Neal came in she wanted him. After a bit of holding her he finally laid down on our bed with her and she passed out. Afterwards he put her back in her bed. Hopefully she will stay on it tonight. I did take her long narrow pillow that she used to sleep with and put it next to the edge of the bed. I'm hoping it will help a little in keeping her on the bed. Maybe I should be checking on her rather then typing here.