so makenzie (7 1/2 months) has started to pull herself up on things..the legs of the highchair, the bars on her crib, etc.
she can get up to her feet, and then she falls.
when shes not in bed i can keep an eye on her and usually catch her before she falls.
but theres not a whole lot i can do when shes in bed. and she doesnt have a normal crib with crib mattress...its like a compact crib, and the matress is more like a pad..so when she falls im really worried about her hurting herself.
we're in the process of trying to find the money to get her a fullsize crib, but in the meantime does anyone have any ideas about how to soften her fall or something?
EDIT: ive checked craigslist, and theres not really anything in our price range. unless theres free ones i missed. im not sure really where we're gonna get the money for a crib, things are super tight right now. and we just converted alexis' crib to a toddler bed earlier this week
we ended up borrowing money from my in-laws and getting a crib from walmart. we changed alexis' bed back into a crib and put makenzie in that, and put alexis in the new crib since alexis could climb out of her old crib
M.,
If the crib you already own is a full size crib, you might have better luck finding a used toddler bed at a more reasonable rate as opposed to buying a second crib. I found one at a garage sale for $25. It even included the mattress. My son is big for his age and at 4 years old he is still sleeping comfortably in it. It was definitely worth the investment!
It would be good if you had a regular crib, but where she sleeps is not bad for her. Children are very resilient in these matters. They don't get hurt as quick as we think they do. To help her muscles get stronger for standing and eventually walking, have her stand next to the couch or other piece of stable furniture and hang on. this worked for my children. My daughter started pulling herself up at 5 months and walked at 9 months. My son could stand next to furniture at about 7 or 8 months, but preferred to crawl everywhere until he just walked one day out of the blue at 12 months.
I hope this helps.
I suggest getting a full size crib ASAP.. try craig's list. I don't think there's any other way... Or.. is your 1 1/2 year old in a full size crib? Would she be able to transition to a twin mattress on the floor and free up the full size crib?
I would actually consider putting your older child on a mattress directly on the floor and using your old crib for your younger baby. Our child co-sleeps with us so we never really bothered with a crib, but I know that co-sleeping is not for everyone.
I was always told to not add any type of soft bedding to a crib or a bassinett, as the baby could suffocate. Unless your child is falling out of the bed, I would not be too concerned about it.
Try freecycle. It's a yahoo group and you sign up for your local area. Not only can you look to see if anyone is offering a crib, but you can post to say you are looking for one. I signed up for the one in the Shreveport area when I was living in Louisiana and I was able to find all kinds of things for my classroom. My sister in law uses the group in Omaha all the time for different things. All of the things on it are free all you have to do is arrange for pickup. I have found that often if you post you are looking for an item and make your situation sound really desperate someone usually comes through. You just go to yahoo, click on groups, find freecycle and go from there.
If you can't find crib you could always fold up a fleece blanket to put on top of the pad under the crib sheet. That is what we did when we traveled with our son once he got to be about 6 months old and could move around on his own. It just made him more comfortable and he was old enough that we didn't have to worry about SIDS. The other thing you could try in seeing if petsmart has one of those firm dog beds that aren't soft like a pillow but are more firm. I know it sounds weird to use a pet bed for your child, but if it was under the crib sheet no one would have to know. I thought about it for our pack and play but the pet bed wasn't as convenient for travel as the blanket. Good luck!
You might try www.freecycle.org and find your area.I have found tons of stuff there and it is all free.
