Bed battles

So it finally happened on Sunday. Emily figured out how to crawl out of her crib. It was quite by accident at first. She was throwing a tremendous fit about something. I had put her in her crib and shut the door just so I could take a deep breath. She was out within seconds and was so surprised she immediately forgot about whatever she was throwing a fit about. Our fears were confirmed when she went down for her nap and within 10 minutes had quietly crawled out, opened the door and snuck downstairs to see what was going on. At that point I just took the side rail off so her crib looked like a day bed, even though it's not designed to be. Emily was basking in her new found freedom. She never did nap that day. And just to add to the drama, she had not one, but two dirty diapers that she promptly removed and smeared into the carpet. Sigh...

On Monday I stripped down her room to the bare essentials and gated off the closet so she wouldn't have much of anything to play with or entertain herself. (On Sunday she also took all her shoes & pj's out of her dresser drawer and was sporting a new combination each time she emerged from her room.) Monday night was really rough, though. Emily fell out of bed twice and I was up with her a total of six times. She ended up sort of sleeping curled up on the floor halfway underneath her bed.

Needless to say, Tuesday wasn't the happiest of days for either of us. I hauled out the baby gate for the doorway and put Emily down for a nap shortly after lunch, but she didn't fall asleep again until Austin took her on a trip to Waterloo and she fell asleep in the car. At least that gave me a chance to get a nap in! On top of all this, both Emily & I have come down with chest colds. Thankfully, my friend Kathryn came over in the evening for moral support while Austin was gone. We finished taking Emily's crib apart, which left just a bare crib mattress on the floor. However, Emily seems to still prefer the floor and has not slept on the mattress since. Unfortunately, it usually takes 1 1/2-2 hours after I put her down to sleep before she actually falls asleep.

So after 5 days of battles and broken sleep we desperately need to get a real "big girl" bed. Now if I could just find the time and energy to go somewhere to get one...