Who needs sleep?

My almost 19-month-old climbed out of her crib last night.

Yup.

Climbed. Out. Of.  Her.  Crib.

Since I’m fearful she’s going to do it again, but not quite ready to say it’s time to make the transition to the toddler bed, my husband and I decided to do two things tonight: remove the bumper from around the inside of her crib and surround the floor of her crib with pillows and bean bag chairs.  Tonight I’ll sleep with the monitor on full blast next to my head.

I just don’t think she’s quite ready for the transition yet. I don’t think she’d stay put. Some nights, tonight included, she fusses herself to sleep. Tonight featured a diatribe of “Mommy, where are you? Open the door. Where’d mommy go?”

It’s heart-wrenching sometimes. I hate when I have to let her fuss herself to sleep, but my pediatrician tells me she’s just testing the waters. I know he’s right.

She’s smart. Too smart. (She can count to 20 and sing her ABCs, among other kid songs.) Too smart for her own good (or at least the good of her mommy and daddy!).

The whole climbing out of crib thing stemmed from her wanting to get her way. Of that I’m sure.

She woke crying around 2 a.m. and fussed for about a half hour. I went into her room to check on her (she’s had stuffy nose and cough, so I wanted to be sure she didn’t spike a fever otherwise I may have let her cry longer). I rocked her in the glider for about 10 minutes and put her in her crib. She screamed.

So the hubby took over.  And he rocked and rocked and rocked and rocked. But she remained wide awake.

Our bed was the next step (oh joys!). Part of me loves cuddling up next to my little munchkin, smelling her sweet scent, and holding her little hand while she caresses my face as she lulls herself to sleep. But the other part of me, the part of me that knows my alarm was set for my 5 a.m. workout prior to my 8 hour day of teaching 11, 12, and 13-year-olds, wants her sleep.

After about a half hour of this cuddle fest, I decided I needed my sleep. I was too afraid to move in my bed with her next to me, thus risk waking her, so I decided to bring her back to her crib to “cuddle with teddy” as I explained to her.

Now, I knew she would cry when I put her back, but I didn’t expect her to climb right out of the crib. But climb she did. And when that was complete, back to mommy’s and daddy’s bed she came. I spent the rest of the night drifting in and out of dreams of her climbing and falling out of her crib, which she abruptly woke me from at 5:20 a.m. (the climbing out of the crib incident but the kibosh on my gym workout) demanding “milk and cheerios, milk and cheerios.”

I couldn’t settle her. So I plopped her down on the couch and put on an episode of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” (bad mommy), while I proceeded to catch a little more shut-eye as I drifted off sitting next to her.

So right now my little one sleeps. Hopefully I too will sleep. And hopefully this climbing out of crib thing was a one-time thing. If not, she better make a quick transition to the toddler bed because this mommy is not yet ready for sleepless nights again.