Well, I can hardly believe it myself but it's already that time.
Grunter is going to be crawling before we know it. If you put him on his back under the play gym, he flips himself over quickly and "swims". He gets very frustrated that he's not getting anywhere! This cracks me up since less than a month ago he HATED tummy time and then one day...preferred it.
And that's what babies do. They are always changing up their game and keeping you on your toes.
It happened yesterday, that oh shit! moment. I had put him under the play gym which is on top of one of those interlocking foam square play areas. We have a pretty big area (or so I thought) and I often will put them down to play while I do other things--including a quick trip around the corner to the kitchen. I pop my head out often to make sure everything is ok and keep an ear out for trouble.
I heard Grunter give out a cry and figured that Whoop Whoop had probably kicked him.
I had only been in the kitchen long enough to get the bottles out of the fridge and put them in a hot water bath to warm up.
But it was long enough for him not only to flip over but apparently KEEP rolling--something I've never witnessed--and he ended up face down on the hard wood floor!
He was totally fine. I was more upset than he was! But it was that scary moment of realizing how mobile your 'baby' is becoming and all the things you have to do to get ready NOW.
Our entertainment "table" is the biggest hazzard. The TV is too low, all of the equipment is exposed and there are a gazillion cords everywhere. There's no solution to fix it so I'm looking at media cabinets. We have put off buying new furniture for...hmmm...most of the relationship!
The couch and the desk we bought new together about six or seven years ago.
Every other item in the house has either been bought used/second hand stores/goodwill or found on the street or down stairs in our garbage room on a tenant's moving out day.
Having kids has forced us to step it up a notch and buy some new stuff!
So while I hate spending the money, I'm very happy to get rid of the crappy end table that I found in an office bathroom 13 years ago.
And I was delighted to replace the wooden and iron coffee table that had jagged, chipped wood (totally an accident waiting to happen) with a soft sided leather coffee table/ottoman/storage bench. The old one went back to the garbage where we'd found it years earlier.
And the Lazy Boy. Well, that was just a gift from god. Money well spent as I lived in it my entire 3rd trimester.
Bit by bit, we are getting it together and adjusting to this new stage of parenthood and kids.
What did you do to baby proof or rather what did you find out you should have done? Do I really need to bolt the bookcase to the wall (I'm leaning to yes...)?
Any other tips??
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10 comments:
I guess the benefit to having a chunk is that he isn't going anywhere... He is like a beached whale! So, at almost 7months, baby proofing isn't on our radar yet. He does sit up on his own and we just put pillows next to him in case he falls over. Not sure what we will do, although he has a bookcase in his room that we will probably bracket to the wall just in case. Oh, and cord management on window blinds!
YES bolt the bookcases to the wall
I think how much babyproofing you need to do depends on the personality of your child(ren) and of course, your personalities for being cautious.
So that said, Miles is 14 months and we've hardly done any babyproofing beyond baby gates (at the top and bottom of the stairs), and two downstairs to keep him out of the kitchen entirely, and out of the office. We have stuff bought to lock cabinets and block outlets, but we still haven't needed to do any of that. The biggest thing was just keeping him out of the kitchen. The areas we normally keep him in are fairly safe and we keep an eye on him when he's playing. When he goes near something we don't want him to touch (like the laptop) we say NO and he quickly picked that up. He may not like it, but he understands and will back away most of the time.
I'm sure as he keeps getting older, we'll need to babyproof more, but that's all we've needed so far. And he was crawling at 5.5 months, and just now walking.
Honestly, we're bolting bookcases to the walls, but I think it's more for our sanity (and we also live in earthquake country). Still, those things become targets for wee ones who want help standing up, and if they are at all unsteady, they can be a bit scary.
More than anything, we're babyproofing only on an as-needed basis. We have a plant that BG wants to grab, and while it's not dangerous, we'd rather he leave it alone, so we make slightly scary noises when he touches it. It only took two times, and now he's so dubious of it, he leaves it alone. We'll see how long this strategy lasts, but it seems to be one way to keep from turning the whole house into a kid's room.
That said, basic safety is important, and it sounds like putting the electronics behind closed doors will be a good idea. And who doesn't love an excuse for new furniture? We used BG as an excuse to replace our old crappy coffee table with great new funky baskets. They really do help us re-envision our lives, and it's so, so fun.
Believe it or not, we are already getting ready to do some child proofing! Our nanny/good friend will be bringing her 13mo old with her when she watches our kids here at the house and her little guy is FAST and into everything. we've started collecting outlet covers, cabinet locks, toilet lock (he will not stay out of the damn toilet!) and baby gates. We will be bolting dressers to the wall soon as well but don't have any tippy bookcases thankfully. We have lots of decorative stuff that needs to be moved off of low tablesto higher shelves. Oh and he always goes for the dog bowls and litter box to. It has been very illuminating to have him at the house recenlty as I never realized HOW much needed to be taken care of.
We have yet to baby proof but we do have a baby jail... Please see:
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=6193&cmSource=Search
We bought two of them and put them together to make one very big area that is strictly filled with baby safe toys and blankeys. Since they started crawling this kept them safe and contained. It takes up all of our living room, but in my mind its been a great investment. They learned to pull themselves up pretty quickly and walk along the walls.
Now that they are running around we let them wander around the house supervised and tell them NO when we don't want them to touch something.
I've followed your blog for a long time, but I'm not sure I've ever commented....Anyway, I agree with Strawberry...a lot depends on your boys and how cautious you guys want to be. I have 3 kids (6, 5, and almost 2)and have done in home care for many years, and I have minimal childproofing. I keep chemicals and medicines in high cabinets the kids can't reach. I have left the low cabinets unlocked and for the most part, the kids leave them alone. Just before age 1 and then for a few months, they get curious and explore in them, but there's only pots and plastic kid cups and plates, etc. My glass baking pans are in one, but I just move the child away from that one and close it back up. After they've explored, it's not a big deal and the cabinets are left alone. On a plus note, my youngest learned to set the table all by herself around 20 months old since she could reach the plastic kid plates, cups, and forks/spoons! Otherwise, I keep the blinds cords out of reach and do have outlet covers on the low outlets. I've done gates on the stairs in the past, but they became more of a pain. Instead, I taught my little one how to come down the stairs on her bottom or tummy. She's never fallen. The older ones have tripped and stumbled more on the steps because they're rushing. I've never bolted a dresser or bookcase to the wall...again, that's just me. I keep an eye on the kids, especially when they are in that exploritory stage, and let them know what's not safe by telling them no or redirecting. However, if I had a child that was often pulling on a bookcase that was unstable, then yes, I'd bolt it. Again, I more go on the lines of letting the kids explore and even get a little hurt at times (in a safe, supervised kind of way) so they can learn dangers and limits instead of keeping everything off limits. If something is proving to be a safety hazard, then yes, I would address it.
YES - please bolt the bookcase to the wall.
I'm all for my kids getting 'character forming' breaks along the way but we had a full bookcase fall on our 3 year old and don't really understand how she wasn't killed. For a while there I was all for bolting the chairs to floor but I'm calmer now...
I'm okay with risk and getting hurt along the way but definitely lean towards avoiding things that can kill the little blokes - and remember that twins can get into more mischief than one. A friend's twins managed to open the bottom drawer of a chest, climb in, open the next drawer, climb in... you know it ends badly... they lived but they managed something a singleton couldn't have.
Good luck with getting it all done.
We 'babyproofed' by shoving shit in front of electrical outlets. We have tons of cords hanging everywhere - your entry made me laugh because you could be describing us.
We continue to shove shit in front of dangerous things, but Snort will always manage to rip things away and pull on plugs.
We need to reevaluate, that's for sure, but for now I make a FACE at the babies when they are doing that, pick them up and move them, and they seem to be learning?? Or maybe that's wishful thinking.
Oh yeah - but we DID bolt the skinny bookcase to the wall as we knew they'd probably be pulling up on it, and we have stairgates that effectively lock them into the lounge. They have free rein in here - we don't do playpens.
And the shit - don't forget we shove good shit in front of bad shit, to act as blockage. That got us pretty far.
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