When you have a baby, the doctors, books, and other parents will advise you to remove all distractions from the child’s crib when they are sleeping. This will help increase their ability to fall asleep. Plus enable them to understand the concept that when they are in their crib, it is time to sleep.
We did just that. Never has our little guy had a blanket or a teddy bear in his crib. Well, unless grandma is in town! Our little guy never seemed interested or wanted anything to help him sleep.
However, one thing people never warned us about was having those distractions in close proximity to the child’s crib. I know, we should have just known that, but we did not really think about it when he was younger.
Well, now we think about it every time we put him to bed. Our little guy manages to reach the bookshelf right next to his crib, grab a book, and get it back into his crib. Actually, for his age it is amazing how good he has gotten at turning the book to get them into his crib. We often laugh when we hear a loud thud coming from his room, indicating the dropping of a book as it crashes to the floor. When he finally falls asleep and we go in to check on him, his crib is full of books. I think the largest we counted one time was 14 books. It is crazy!
Move the bookshelf . Simple answer to our problem.
However, we have found out something awesome about this trick…..it entertains him for HOURS! Yes, at naptime it is a little annoying as he should be sleeping, but I guess he is resting. However, in the morning, this is GOLD. Once he wakes up, he will pull on his books and play and play, making minimal noise (other than the occasional giggle or talking to himself) until we come in and get him. Sometimes we do not even know how long he has been up because he has been quietly playing.
We have thought about moving the bookshelf, but I think we will allow him to play a little more at naptime, so that in the morning we get a little longer sleep. For now, the bookshelf stays!
Here are some fun photos I captured of him playing after a nap one day…
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Sweet Olive Photography is located in Evansville, IN. Sweet Olive is a children, family, and senior photographer. As a professional photographer, Erica captures baby, family, and senior portraits in and around Evansville, Indiana.
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