So the reason I finally got off my butt and started posting in this blog was because I realized my Facebook was filling up with rants about how Little Man is no longer sleeping in his crib.
Two nights ago, Little Man figured out how to jump out of his crib. He would stretch his foot over the side, land on his toybox, and climb to the ground. While that was impressive and interesting for me since he refuses to go up or down stairs... it meant that the room had to be rearranged.
Solution 1: We moved the toybox to the guest bedroom, and removed any sharp objects or toys that he could potentially wreck with his razor sharp teeth. Which meant any toy that wasn't a stuffed animal.
Two hours later he was out of the crib. He would just jump up on his belly and slide down the outside of the crib. Great. We put him back in the bed and he kept jumping out when we would leave. Luckily (erm...) he had his monthly vomiting episode, which tuckered him out and left him too exhausted to jump out of the crib. Unfortunately since the vomiting episodes do not phase him anymore, it meant that after finally getting him cleaned up and back to bed by around 3 am, when he showed up next to my bed at 8 am singing one of his little songs, I was not pleased.
Solution 2: We tighten the baby gate we had previously placed in front of the door (after the vomiting we'd sort of rested it against the door assuming that he'd sleep so late it wouldn't matter. Silly parents.). We also took the bottom railing of his crib off, and placed the mattress on the floor. That gave us an additional 4 or 5 inches of railing. We gleefully anticipated a full night of sleep and chuckled as we watched the Little Man try to lift his leg over the rail and fail.
That lasted about 10 minutes. He kamikaze dove out of the crib and played silently in his room. 10 escapes that night before he passed out on the floor and I stuck him back in the crib. Score 1 for us with the baby gate so he stayed in the room, but this morning I caught him trying to jump over that too. UGH.
So we're working on finding a Solution 3. I have researched crib tents (baby death traps apparently), wooden special needs beds (Over $5k. Hah.) and special needs tents (chaching!). The Nickel Bed system would be ideal price-wise, but apparently the poles and material are flimsy and chew-through-able. Having seen my son snap the arms off plastic toys and the wheels off of metal trains, it wouldn't last long and is still over $150 not including shipping. I am leaning towards a middle of the road (HAH.) option called the Safety Sleeper. At $1550, its wayyyyy more than I have to spend on a bed, but its gotten amazing reviews from parents and is even featured as a great sleep solution on the Autism Speaks website and autism magazines. Unfortunately, it will be at the mercy of our insurance company to decide if this bed is a "need" or a "want".
Until then, I am working hard to find a temporary solution to our sleep problem. Right now the only thing that has been working is letting him wear himself out running around all day long, and hoping he passes out before I do. Then I put him in bed, and hope that I hear him on the baby monitor before he gets out and eats the baby monitor. Yes, that has happened.
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