Lilly's House

Last week Lilly started climbing out of her crib - the end of naps and my alone time as I knew it. I had a good cry and then I had Gus convert the crib into a toddler bed. We moved everything out of Lilly's room except for her bed, rocking chair, lamp, and noise machine.

The next four days involved a lot of yelling and crying from both me and Lilly. I asked friends and family for their advice on how to get Lilly to stay in her bed. Nothing seemed to work. I would leave her in her room for hours and she never cried, she would just talk and play with everything that was left in her room.

She stripped her sheets off her bed and made a bed for her and Kat on the floor. She played in the blinds. She made a fort from the cushions off the rocking chair. You name it, she did it. Everything except sleep. Even though I baby-proofed her room I was afraid she was going to get hurt.

So, on the third day during nap time I started putting her back in her bed every time she got out. Four hours later and 75 times back in bed I knew it was going nowhere and so I gave up. The fifth day was more of the same with multiple trips back to bed and still no nap. As the days went by, she got more and more tired because of the lack of naps.

I finally told Gus that he was going to have to eat $80 and buy Lilly a crib tent. I would have spent $800 on the stupid thing. It was exactly what we needed. We call it "Lilly's house" and she loves it. The first nap time we put her in it she seemed relieved and fell right to sleep. It has been bliss ever since. Now maybe we can keep her in a crib until she is 10.