Ah, Those Milestones

I mentioned that Valerie learned to get out of the crib herself two days ago.  Yesterday morning she proved it not to be a fluke, grinning along after Sadie looking for parental company.  The first day of that also coincided with her returning to seriousness in the potty department, which slipped again yesterday.  Apparently she gets bored, or it’s just too powerful an urge to turn things into science experimental play.  Or mere play.  She may have started first, but Sadie essentially trained in a day and was done, while Valerie in that department is being a mere 20 months old.  Valerie has also been suffering tooth pain from molars coming in.  This is easy to forget or overlook, as she doesn’t respond to it in a recognizable way.  Took us a while to catch one, but at least now she knows to ask for Tylenol when it’s bad enough.

She also learned to open doors.  Sadie was more responsible at the point when she learned that skill.  Ouch.

It was no doubt inevitable that last night would happen sooner or later, and it was sooner, because this is Valerie.

We put her in bed, already slightly late.  She climbed out.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Multiply by ten.  Add in a -duh - dose of Tylenol.  Add in Sadie going to bed too, so she’d go.  Add in Sadie offering to let Valerie sleep with her and Dee Dee.  Add in finally letting Valerie stay up a good extra hour and playing with her intensively and diverting her when she asked for what she’d normally want for breakfast.

Finally we tried again.  Out she came.  Was there too much light from the computer monitor being on in there?  Nope.  Out she came.  By this time I had emptied the crib of the inevitable mass quantities of animals and dolls they put in it during the day, thinking it was too crowded.  In the end, I wondered if the number or arrangement of the blankets was too much.  I put her in and I hung two of the three over the side of the crib toward one end.  As I left, she was grabbing one to wrap herself in, apparently happier that way.

So.  Apparently getting out of the crib is the new fussing until we help her rearrange things or otherwise identify and fix a problem.  At least, it is if she’s not asleep yet.  Perhaps if she wakes on top of her covers, or unable to find her drink, she’ll still fuss.

And apparently we don’t need to get a second crib as planned.  Perhaps a mattress for Henry for the existing crib, while Valerie keeps hers, be it in the existing toddler bed that’s a pain and Sadie disliked, in a new one, or on the floor.  We also offered her an air mattress like Sadie uses.  She wanders around a bed at least as much as Sadie, so that may be ideal.

We’ll see what happens tonight when it’s time for Valerie to go to bed.  It could just be a bad night.  I hope.  The whole “you will go to bed” thing gets old fast.

1. They make crib tents that zip closed to help keep them in their cribs.  Not sure if this even interests you but it made a difference w/Jackie although when we put her into the toddler bed we had to put a canopy type thing over her becasue she liked the enclosed feeling.  I think we had gotten ours at Babies R Us but can’t remember. Sorry already gave it to someone or would have been happy to pass it on.

   Posted by  on  10/28  at  03:33 PM  from 
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