Life Outside the Rails

There comes that day in every parent's life when it is time to bid farewell to the four walls of the crib.  That day can elicit dread, fear, exhaustion, or even joy.  The feelings that accompany the disassembling of the crib largely depend on the child that has made his escape outgrown the crib.

There are many reasons you may choose or be forced to choose to transition your child out of the crib:
1. Your child may be mature enough and old enough to smoothly make the transition to a toddler bed or a regular bed.  I was not so lucky.
2. You may have another little one that's arriving soon and you don't want to purchase another crib.
3. Your child may be part monkey and decide to climb out which means its no longer safe for them to sleep in it.  This was the case with both of my children.  Despite my efforts to keep them in, once they tasted freedom there was no keeping them in.

video is dark, but this is Parker's great escape

I used some tactics to delay the process of living life outside the rails with Parker, but they only bought me a couple of weeks.  I removed the piece of the crib that holds the mattress up so that the mattress was on the floor, I tried turning the crib around so that the high part was facing out, and I tried straight up telling him that it was bedtime and he needed to stay in.  He all but laughed at my fruitless attempts to keep him contained.  He is extremely tall and pretty strong, so he was able to just climb right up the side of the crib and hop out with little effort.  Parker has also been blessed with an iron will.  He set his mind to getting out and there was nothing that was going to keep him in.

Parker is currently "sleeping" on a queen mattress that's on the floor just like his brother did at that age. I remember Michael having a much easier transition than Parker has so far, but it wasn't without struggles.  You can read about Michael's transition woes here and here.  Of course, both of my boys decided to escape their prisons in conjunction with the 18 month sleep regression, so that's been super fun.  Once I figure out how to parent Parker effectively and get him sleeping smoothly in his new bed I will write about it.  For now...we drink.


How old was your toddler when they started life outside the rails?