Help! Houdini on the loose!

[KCharity]

Our 23 mo dd, who is SO not ready to give up her afternoon nap, has JUST learned how to escape from her crib. Even with it lowered to the lowest spot possible she is still escaping. I'm afraid she'll break her arm falling out of bed and I can't get her to stay in there for naps! I've been putting her back into bed (after punishment) for TWO hours now! She is already struggling with night time sleep and this is the last thing we need right now - to have her crawling out of her crib all night long.

I'm having baby #2 in a few months and can't cope with this right now (it's been a very tough pregnancy so far)

Any advice is so appreciated!!

[Erin M]

Ever hear of a crib tent?  It goes over the crib and makes it impossible for your LO to climb out, I know several people who swear by them when their LOs got adventurous and started climbing out.  Not sure where you are, but you can find them at Babies R Us, or you can check on eBay, I bet you could find one there.

[Mum to cool dude]

How about  putting a mattress or something next to the crib to cushion any fall ?

[mari]

Kcharity, I bought a crib tent, haven't used it yet as she has stopped trying to climb out (she hurt herself and it's put her off I hope)  I had mine from the US as far as I know you can't buy them in the UK.  I would have used one if need be though

[KCharity]

With a few sleepless days I decided to do some crib tent hunting. No one sells them in my area! (Westcoast Canada, by the way!) So I pulled out her sleep sack to try it. It goes up to 18 months but my little monkey is so small at 23 months that she fits just fine.

So she's safe now, but still not going down for her nap. Recently she started popping more teeth - she's working on her eye teeth now. So I'm crossing my fingers hoping that this is all due to teething and we'll be back to normal in no time. It's almost been a month since all this sleeping trouble started though, so I don't really know!! At least she's back to sleeping at night - poor little thing is so tired by bedtime she practically falls asleep the second her head hits her mattress!!

I've thought about doing the big girl bed transition but I don't think she's ready yet. I don't think I'm ready either! I have a feeling, with her night time temperament, that it would just make things harder! We'll see - it'd be nice to do it either LONG before baby #2 comes, or LONG after!!

Thanks for the advice - I will keep hunting for a crib tent

[Erin M]

Top eye teeth are very, very tough on most LOs that I know -- hang in there!