By LIA SPENCER
It’s about time I move Isla from her cot to a ‘big girls bed’ but there are a few factors holding me back.
I’m worried about her waking up and crawling out of bed, making her way to our room at two in the morning, then pressing her face against ours and screaming at the top of her lungs “wake up!” – which is one of her favourite ‘games’ to play when she sees someone asleep.
She is now tall enough to reach her door handles, so closing the door won’t hold back my little escape artist.
I am also worried about her falling out of bed and onto the floor.
Even with a bedside rails I think she would find any opening and squeeze her way through it in her sleep.
See, Isla has a habit of rolling around, doing 180s, flips and any other acrobatic moves during the night.
She also likes to make her way to the top end of her cot and squeeze her head into the corner so she feels nice and secure.
This may not seem like a huge issue but a sleepover at her cousin’s house last weekend proves my case in point.
She fell asleep on a mattress between her two older cousin’s bed.
My sister-in-law (SIL) lined it with pillows in case Isla rolled her way to the end.
I was going to pick her up late after my dinner out with friends but after Isla fell asleep, my wonderful SIL messaged and said to leave Isla there for the evening and I happily obliged.
At 3am my SIL woke up and decided to check on the girls who were all sleeping peacefully.
At 4am my brother-in-law woke to find his two daughters asleep in their bed, but Isla was gone.
Because the original plan was for me to pick Isla up that evening, he thought she had gone home with my husband and I after he had gone to sleep.
He couldn’t get back to sleep, so half an hour later, while he was sitting in the living room, he heard a small voice call out. “Stuck, stuck, stuck.”
He ran to the bedroom to hear Isla calling out from under the bed.
He quickly woke his two daughters so he could get them out of bed, move the mattress, and pull Isla out to safety!
She had somehow managed to roll off the mattress, past the pillows, and get stuck under her cousin’s bed.
Luckily she wasn’t panicked or upset, just a little dazed and confused.
Now I wonder what kind of situation she will find herself in if I put her in a big bed but as she is two next month I have to face the inevitable.
She can’t stay in a cot forever.
I will just make sure to line the floor with blankets, pillows and loud alarms in case she plans to pull another stunt like the one she did last weekend!
