Bed Rails and Broomsticks
My last two years of college, I lived in apartments pretty far away from campus, first on the edge of Shadyside and East Liberty and later in Friendship (yes, that was the name of the neighborhood). The University of Pittsburgh is in Oakland, which was a 45 minute walk or 15 minute bus ride away, and I was more than happy to be a little distant from campus.
The only problem was on (those few) evenings I wanted to hang out with friends who lived in Oakland (especially South Oakland, where the apartment buildings were extensions of the dorms, it seemed), I would end up having to crash on their couches instead of trudging home. (In Pittsburgh, not every bus line ran 24 hours, and late at night, their frequency left much to be desired.)
This wasn’t a terrible thing, as sleeping on floors or sofas isn’t uncommon to most 21-year-olds.
The exception was with my friend Missy Jo. When I went out with her and her friends, I always ended up sleeping in bed with her. No hanky panky, people. It was just that Missy had the uncanny ability to fall asleep and never once move until she woke up.
She would get into bed, lie as close to the edge as possible (giving me plenty of room), fall asleep, and remain completely motionless. No head turning. No flipping. No restless leg. Nothing. Completely still.
I mentioned this to Kristen the other night, and she said that she didn’t move when she slept. Hogwash. While she’s no Exorcist girl, she’s been known to give me a few good kicks to the shins.
Anyway, I bring Missy Jo up not because I’m reminiscing about the good old days of Pittsburgh but because of Henry. (Of course.) You see, I’ve been thinking of when to start to transition Henry to a toddler bed. The crib he’s sleeping in now has a side that can be converted to a shorter (and open) railing, one that will make it easier for him to get in and out (when he so desires). Most experts say to wait until your child is around 18 months (just 2 1/2 to go) before you do this, but I think that we may have to wait a little longer.
Why, you ask? Well, Henry is a whirling dervish in the sack. He twirls around like Curly Howard, always finishing up his nap/sleep in a different position than when he started. Sometimes he’ll be curled up in a corner; other times he’ll be splayed out in the center, his body perpendicular to the wall behind him. Often, all the blankets and stuff animals will be thrown out of the bed, but just as often, they’ll all be collected into the middle of the crib, like a plush monument to sleep on which he rests. (That was poetry, my friends. Poetry.)
The other thing about getting Henry out of his crib is that he’s still sleeping in a SleepSack. These are really great for keeping him nice and cozy when he sleeps (and when we put it on him, it’s always a good signal that it’s time to calm down and get ready to snooze), but they’re not so good with walking.
In fact, he can’t walk in them at all.
So before we change the rail of his crib or get him his own “big boy bed”, he needs to do two things: stop moving so darn much and move to a wholly blanket-based sleeping experience.
(I’m completely insane, people. Completely.)
January 18th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
My advice is skip the toddler bed altogether unless you get a really good deal at a yard sale because it is a small “step” development-wise. Get a good twin that will last until their teen growth spurt (looking back I wish I had bought twin-longs) and if your worried about Henry falling out of bed put the bed on the floor. I will tell you from experience though…they only fall out of bed once.