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Maggie’s new bed (night 1)

Dream On Me toddler bedWe got a new toddler bed for Maggie (this one, but in white.) I’ll be doing a writeup on it at some point, waiting for their customer service to send me a replacement form for one of the parts at the moment that was manufactured incorrectly.

We actually have Maggie a rather nice mattress and bed already, but the problem is even with the aftermarket rails we put in she manages to fall out, and it’s up too high for that to happen. Even just playing in her bed we’ll hear wailing and yet another new way she managed to either fall out or get stuck between the rail and the mattress.

It was time for something in between, and that’s what the Dream on Me toddler bed was for.

Maggie’s getting pretty big for the crib, and most of her compatriots have been out of cribs for a long time. We’d really tried with the big girl bed before, but falls, rails, etc bleh…

I put it in her room last night and laid her on it. I heard her talking some and then an hour or so after bedtime I heard her crying. I came in and the bed was mostly made with a host of dolls all lined up on the pillow and Maggie smelling like she had a full diaper. She did.

She started playing the toddler delaying game “daddy I so hungry, daddy I so thirsty,” which we’ve had a talk about not doing because, well, she’s mostly lying. I asked her if she wanted to sleep in the big girl bed and she said no. I asked her if she wanted to sleep back in the crib and she said no. I told her she was going to sleep in one or the other and she kept on with the “so hungry” so I told her if she said that again I was going to get her a cracker, but I was taking the new toddler bed.

She agreed, I gave her one cracker, put her in the crib, and took the new bed out. When I got back in her room I asked if she was hungry, she said no. I waited about 20 minutes and went back in and she was half asleep. I asked her if she wanted to sleep in the big girl bed, she said yes.

Try number two for the night seemed to be working out pretty well until she fell out of the bed. Did I mention I’m waiting for a replacement part for the backboard that one rail attaches to? Yup, she fell off the side without the rail.

This really wouldn’t be an issue if the crib were out, the bed would be on the wall. But meh. ITMama put a pillow next to the bed, we tucked her back in, all seemed well.

12:15am there’s a cry. She’s sitting next to the bed having scootched around where the pillow was (and where the rail would be if it were there,) rolled up like a pill bug and fell off the bed where you get into it. I put her back to bed and everything’s fine.

3am. I’m woken up by ITMama to grab Aerin some food. Done, about four minutes later I hear crying from Maggie’s room and head back down. Maggie’s in her bed but asks to come and sleep with us.

I should point out, I wouldn’t have much of a problem sleeping with a child, but Maggie puts her feet into your eyes, will prop her 10 pound head on your windpipe, and occasionally will pinch your fat with a vice grip strength in her sleep. There is no sleeping in a bed with Maggie. I’ve also only had about two hours of sleep, if that, at this point.

I sit down next to the bed and hug her. It’s significantly easier with this bed just to sit next to it and not have to pick her up to interact with her. I explain that I’d like to sleep and some of the above reasons that her being in the bed with me would prevent that from happening. She agrees and lays down.

I am able to give her a head scratch and back rub without bending at a 90 degree angle (busted back, hurts,) and she closes her eyes and goes to sleep.

She was asleep when the alarm went off at 7am, so was baby, I silenced the alarm and heard ITMama say she would get up in 10 minutes and get the beasts ready for school. 8:40am I hear Maggie singing in the hallway downstairs, sleeping next to the baby I notice an odor and a shit-eating gin on the sleeping baby’s face.

ITMama heads down to get Maggie ready, I pick the baby up out of her Snuggakitty and note she’s more soaked than possible. Slept great, warm pool of urine. Dang.

Looking at Maggie later she’s not got bags under her eyes which usually happens when she missed an hour or two of sleep like she did the night before. Actually seemed in a good mood although I’m told she complained about ghosts and monsters to mom.

She tried telling me something. I’m not sure if I’m reading into this a solution or I got what she was asking, but I think she had been in the hallway asking for us to come get her for a bit. Problem with the hallway is it’s not on speaker upstairs, so it’s the hardest to hear. I asked her if she wanted me to put something in the hallway so that she could contact us and she said no, then yes. I’m assuming probably.

As our entire house is not entirely 100% safe unattended, we toddler gated the bathroom and the access to the living room/kitchen/dining room leaving her free reign of her room (nursery,) and the other room (supposed to be her room, we’re working on getting her butt over there).

Paul King

Paul King lives in Nashville Tennessee with his wife, two daughters and cats. He writes for Pocketables, theITBaby, and is an IT consultant along with doing tech support for a film production company.