Wednesday Words of Wisdom: Look Before You Leap!

"Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are likely to reap."
Samuel Butler

• Nearly every parent has a tale about the time their kid jumped out of the crib. Here's ours.

My toddler is always happy except when she is being confined or isn't getting what she wants. For that reason, being in our house is kind of like being on a roller coaster. Things coast along just fine for a while and then the ground drops and there's lots of screaming...

Yesterday the toddler woke up early around 5:30 AM. First she stirred. Then we heard her crying. I looked at the monitor and she was standing up, very unhappy. I asked Andre to go to her because that's been our deal. When I go to her she tends to want to get out of bed to be with mommy. He didn't go. He was sleeping and hoped that she would tire herself and return to sleep. However, that didn't happen.

Instead she flipped the script on us. Instead of going to sleep she decided to leap!

After she had been quiet for a couple of minutes Andre asked what she was doing. I told him that I could no longer see her. I thought she may have fallen back asleep out of the camera's view.

I was wrong.

The next thing we heard was a crash followed by more crying! This time the crying was louder and more intense. The toddler had apparently jumped, climbed, or fallen out of the crib. Then, Andre ran downstairs with me behind him.

I didn’t know what we would find when we arrived down there. I was terrified. I expected to see blood, teeth on the floor and a scared baby in a pile on the floor.

There was no blood and all of her teeth were intact. However, there was a very scared baby. By the time I arrived Andre had scooped her up in his arms. He told me that she was sitting on the floor in her butt. I think that he said that to make me feel better…

After the crash, we watched her and while she was a little whiny she seemed no worse for the wear. So, after a few hours, I went to work. I asked our nanny to keep an eye on her. I considered taking her to the Emergency Room. However, I knew that there was no way that I was going to subject her to an MRI unless it was absolutely necessary. I considered staying home, but decided not to. Andre convinced me that I should go to work. I should have stayed home though. Even though I received reports throughout the day, being at work made me feel guilty. I wondered whether the nanny was missing signs of distress.

I have learned that guilt and being a working mom goes hand-in-hand, but knowing that doesn’t make it any easier.

The good thing is, the toddler appears to be fine. She has resumed her old activities. She is running and climbing and laughing. Her mother will become comfortable with that soon enough…

Since "the incident" I have spoken to other moms who have put it all in perspective. A mom laughed and told me that her 7 month old rolled off of a changing table and her other daughter rolled off of the bed. Another mom told me that her three year old climbs out of the crib daily. A really organized mom told me that the first time she got a hint that her son might be inclined to climb out of the crib they put him in a bed.  We should have been so smart. 

I probably should have thought about doing putting her in a bed when I first learned that Andre had taught her how to leap off of furniture. Did I forget to mention that he did that about a week before this happened? My sister tells me that I shouldn't assess blame, but I am still working on that. I am a work in progress...