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Baby getting wedged in crib

August 2002

Hi, I have a 7 1/2 month old who starts out sleeping on her back, then rolls to the side and onto her stomach. Sometimes she's able to turn back over without a fuss, but lately she's been rolling into positions such that she gets ''stuck'' at an angle in the crib--jammed into a corner, turned perpendicular to the sides, or an arm thrust under the soft bumper through the crib rails. She wakes up and cries, so I've been going in to turn her over.

What can my husband and I do to prevent this? I don't like the idea of putting cushions in to wedge her in, yet she is getting stuck several times a night. Should we consider putting the crib mattress on the floor in the corner and putting barriers on the other two sides? Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution? Thank you in advance for any suggestions! Jean


When that started happening with my son at about the same age, I removed the soft bumpers and it was resolved. His crib looks more like a jail, but he can maneuver much better in there now. molly
Perhaps using a Graco PACK-N-PLAY instead of a regular crib would solve your problem. The sides are made of a soft and flexible mesh material. Your baby might not even wake up if she rolled into the side of it. MEG

8 month old standing in crib, exhausted

July 2002

My daughter is standing at naptime and bedtime, even when utterly exhausted. She is sometimes happily standing holding the rail, but this soon becomes screaming her head off. It's pretty clear that it's that innate urge to get to vertical which has control over her. We don't do well co-sleeping, so that is out of the question. But it'd be nice to hear from folks who have gone through this. She is a spirited physical girl who is keenly attentive to every sound and visual stimuli (i.e. it's never been too easy to get her to bed in the first place.) When she is walking around holding our hands or onto furniture, she is able to sit herself down well without falling. And last but not least, she appears to be in another spurt of teething. Help! Help! Madeleine


My husband and I experienced the same thing with our daughter starting when she was about eight months old. She was nornally a great sleeper. Our situation seemed identical to yours: we do not co-sleep with her. The first thing we did was adjusted her schedule of napping, so that there was more time between naps. We found that being consistant and sticking to our routine has helped a lot. When we put her down, we go through our little routine and we lay her down in her crib and leave the room. After five minutes, if she is crying (and usually standing up) we check on her and lay her back down, rub her head a couple times, but do not say anything and do not pick her up or hold her. She would usually get back up and cry. We wait longer (7- 10 minutes) before we go in and lay her back down. We repeat the process and extend the time between going in the room. The first week was hard. It would take about an hour just to get her to sleep. We are first time parents and she is not a fussy baby, so hearing her cry just broke our hearts. It has taken about a month but now when we put her down, if she gets up and cries, we usually have to lay her back down once and she falls asleep. I hope this helps. It has really helped us a lot. Amy
Oh Boy, I remember this all too well. Let me see, where to begin? Well, my daughter who is now 12 is and was the same, spirited, intelligent, commanding and demanding! And I gave in every time. Why? Because I did not believe in the ''books'' advice that if you just ignore it the infant/toddler will stop and just go to sleep on their own after say a week.. I actually tested this out, at 3 months, at 6, 9, 1 year, 3, years, 5 years, 8 years. Perhaps you are wondering if I had incompleter boundaries or a soft heart. Yes to a soft heart, I love my child more than myself but I desperately wanted sleep. I can not begin to list all the night lights, snuggles, book reading, vampire salts, etc. we went through! None worked for us. I recomend reading ''Raisng your spirited child'' right away, it was a great help to me to know that there are lot's of children out there who have this temperant and viewed in the right way, it is a gift to the holder of the personality. My daughter and I were able to sleep by me getting a queen size bed and I slept there with her in her room for 10 years! I tried everything else, including at 5 trying to lock her in her room out of desperation to sleep with my husband who was admantly against co sleeping. She is still intense and keenly aware and always will be. This poses certain huge hurdles of growth on my part but I see her blossoming into a creative, vibrant, self sufficent young teen. Artistic and caring. I wouldn't trade her for anything!! I think you got the best of the bunch, just give in to the demands of the personality, after all this is why we are mothers, no matter how hard and believe me, there were many nights when I sat by her bed and cried myself to sleep before I got the matteress. mscwalker
What we did was practice getting from a standing to a sitting position through play. I would hold my baby's hands and pull her up saying ''baby UP'', then I'd lower her onto her little booty saying ''baby DOWN''. We started when she was about 4 months old, but I'm sure you can do it with an 8-month old. I did this specifically so that she wouldn't get stuck in a standing position in her crib at night and causing problems with her putting herself back to sleep. Fortunately, I read a ''getting your baby to sleep'' book that alerted me to the problem before it began. Christina
There have been times when my son was exhausted and resisting sleep, so I put him in the crib to fall asleep, although it upset him (and me). The nice thing about a crib is that it's designed to be safe. He fell asleep standing up, leaning on the bars, more than once, after crying for a while. When he fell down, he did not hurt himself, and it only awakened him slightly--then he went back to a deeper sleep (I watched him do this once). Other times he was practically asleep standing up (after crying for a while), and did not get up again when we lay him down. My son has gone through several different stages in his falling-asleep habits, some of them quite brief, so don't despair! He is now 18 months old, and rarely complains when put to bed, tired but awake, for a daytime nap or a night's sleep. And in our case it was certainly true that the first 2 or 3 times of crying to sleep were the most painful for all parties. After that, when we had to do it (he was frequently asleep when put into bed, I admit), he often only cried for 5 or 10 minutes (often intermittently). Since your daughter is easily disturbed by noises, you might want to try using some soothing music that will mask noises from outside her room (your footsteps, etc.), that might keep her from relaxing into sleep, at bedtime--start it before you leave, and leave it playing when you go. We have been using the same music for many months as part of the bedtime routine, and I started using it for naptime, too, more recently--it's definitely helpful. And if the teething is keeping her from sleeping, you might want to try Tylenol, in the dosage recommended by your pediatrician, on nights when it's really bothering her. I was worried (about starting a habit, I guess) the first time I did this, but found that I only ended up using it a few times. Lisa
We worked with a very intuitive baby coach ... (see Sleep Consultants for the rest of this recommendation.
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