My Grandson#1 is 6.5 months old. (His cousin, Grandson#2, is a week younger) He’s been trying to crawl for about a month now, ever since he mastered rolling over, which he does continually. He even wakes himself from what little sleep he gets by rolling over. He doesn’t sleep much unless he is attached to his mommy. She’s exhausted and tired of him Not Sleeping Unless Held. They’ve tried letting him cry himself to sleep…gave up after one hour and 45 minutes of shrieking. Occasionally he will sleep for a couple hours, then either startles himself awake or rolls over himself awake. He’s a very happy, charming, talkative baby when he isn’t screaming and he loves his toys and the dog and bouncing…continually. At least my daughter could use the bathroom or take a shower by putting him in his crib or the playpen and letting him cry. And sometimes he would fall asleep while bouncing in his hanging bouncer and she could do dishes.
But yesterday, he mastered crawling. Up on his hands and knees, zip, zip, pulling himself up on things…even crawled directly into his bouncy chair, which sits about twelve inches off the ground. And this morning, she had him in his crib while she sat in the rocker nearby, making some phone calls to get a vet appointment for the dog, and she saw his hand grasp the top of the crib. Then he pulled himself up. Then he reached over the top rail and grabbed the outside of the crib. She got up, and stood next to the crib and watched as he pulled himself over the side and fell into her arms.
Less than 24 hours from “starting to crawl” to “escaping from the crib”. The hope was that he’d wear himself out from crawling and actually sleep. Not gonna happen. He is a lean perpetual motion machine. His cousin hasn’t yet mastered “sitting up alone” much less crawling, and he’s a lot chubbier, so I doubt they will have the same issues. My daughter was exactly like her son…skinny, fearless, and over the side of the crib at the first opportunity, though not this fast. My son was exactly like his son…plump, cautious, and too round to get his chubby little legs over the rail!
My sympathies to your daughter. Mine started crawling at 5.5 months, a day I later designated as “worst day of my life”. That charming combination of self propelled and completely lacking in anything resembling sense, caution or obedience is certainly something special.
Her husband was supposed to do that the other day, but they couldn’t find the Special Allen Wrench. And they thought they had time. And it’s not that much lower!
Maybe his dad shouldn’t have watched all those Spiderman movies with him…
Oy, we’re only three weeks into our Final Baby Adventure, but the next smallest Matata will be two next month, and she is one of Those Kids - agile, precocious, and utterly fearless* (with a bonus dollop of stoicism, so she doesn’t let us know when she’s hurt herself.) She’s truly a joy, but I’m about thisclose to a cardiac event what with trying to keep Lily Kat out of Littlest Matata’s crib, etc. And Littlest wants to be held all the time. By me. And I’m exhausted.
Your daughter has my sympathy. Also, my unsolicited advice: if she plans on having a second child, wait at least 3 years in between.
*And we can’t figure where that came from. Mr. M and I are both klutzes, both afraid of heights. She may have gotten her stoicism from me…
I can’t leave this thread without telling the story of my brother. He was walking by 9 months, early but not extraordinarily so. But at 9 1/2 months he climbed out of his crib. So my father built up one side to the ceiling and pushed it into a corner. Bro was soon climbing out of the end and so my father built that up too. Pretty soon bro discovered that he could push the crib away from the corner and get out that way. So my father put chocks in the floor and we had to lift the crib over the chocks to get him out. To make a long story short, at 13 months, he kicked the crib to smithereens. He actually kicked so hard that the end of crib collapsed and could have crushed him, except the sides restrained it. I saw the result (I was 6). After that he got a bed, but then the fun of keeping him in it began.
That would have been me before I was a year old; my method involved lifting up the board underneath the mattress and simply dropping down onto the floor. When my dad nailed it tight, I think I did what that kid did. <cue the music from the Great Escape>
Ooh, it might be too late for that advice. She called yesterday to ask “How can you tell if you are pregnant if you haven’t started having periods again…I just ate a can of baked beans and I’m insane”…which were her exact symptoms LAST time! If they are they will be happy about it. They want to have their babies close together and it took them seven years to get pregnant the first time around.
I’ve warned my daughter that she started walking at nine months and to expect the same from her son. If only their Rottweiler was up to herding the baby (she just injured her knee and is resting, with pain killers). That dog adores him and thinks its totally her job to be as close to him as possible at all times.
Oh, I have such sympathy for her! My first daughter was so placid and rules-observant. She was, mobile on the early side of normal, but she’s so compliant that, although we bought stuff to baby proof the house, we never actually used her. We would tell her “no” the first time she did something she shouldn’t, and she would pretty much not do it again.
Fast forward four and a half years and daughter no. 2 arrived. We should have been suspicious the day we brought her home from hospital on her fourth day. We put her on a blanket on the floor… and watched as she stretched out and rolled over :eek: She’s now almost 8 months, has been crawling since 5 months and standing and cruising round the furniture since 6 months. It’s kind of funny to see this tiny little dot of a thing peering over the arm of a sofa at you. In the meantime, she’s into everything - opening drawers and cupboards, tipping out the cat’s food bowl, splashing in the dog’s water bowl, stealing the TVremote. She’s done the cot escape too, although not the breakout yet. She takes the word “no” as a challenge or a delightfully eccentric opinion of ours.
At least you can reassure your daughter that this too shall pass! Actually, it sounds like you, like me, have a sneaking admiration for the monkey-child. I think life with no. 2 child for us is always going to be more chaotic than with no. 1 but I do laugh at her spirit.
Parents get so excited about these early milestones…and they really shouldn’t. :D. My son was athletically gifted (still is) and was climbing to the top of the fridge at 15 months.
Kittenblue, she is going to have to take care of the sleep problem if number two is on the way. That may mean having the baby cosleep or sleep on the floor while laying down next to him. Then slowly transition herself from “holding him” to “next to him” to “touching him” to “nearby” to “in the room with a book” to outside of the room. It will be hellish, but it has to be done. Even crying it out is seldom one night of crying. Its nights and nights of cry and comfort, cry and comfort.
The problem I had was that my son was a perfect baby. He rarely cried, slept through the night and made me believe I was a perfect mother. So I had a second child.
She was the hold me I never want to sleep child and month 7 of my pregnancy was apparently what my son was waiting for to begin his climbing phase.
My daughter just came from baby’s checkup. He’s lost weight, probably because he won’t stay still long enough for a bottle and thinks the breast means nap time and while he likes cereal and pears he doesn’t like sitting still that long. Doctor prescribed " let him cry and have a glass of wine". She’s going to go pee on a stick first, tho!
