Double (Naked) Trouble

Lately, everyday is an adventure when it comes to night and nap time with the boys. I put them in their room and never know what I will come back to. The biggest challenge lately has been keeping them dressed while in their cribs. They were dubbed the Duct Tape Duo a little while back and I thought that phase was over. Boy, was I wrong. It’s been 2 weeks now of constant stripping and getting into nap time trouble in general. I haven’t been duct taping them in a while because, like I said, I thought that phase was over. If you are easily grossed out this is your warning. This post has some pretty detailed happenings in it so you may find it better to come visit in a few days when we’ve moved on to the next subject…

They’re still doing great with potty training and go number 2 on the potty almost daily. I do put them in pull ups/diapers for nap and night. The other week I could smell toxic fumes coming from their room so I went in and found both boys naked with their pull ups laying next to them in their cribs. Korbins was clean but Brody’s was not and he was surrounded by little smeared brown footprints…eww. So I get the mess cleaned up, give them a good talking to, duct tape them and put them back down. The days go on and their room continues to smell like a hamster cage – no joke.  It always stinks but it’s just been wayy worse than normal. I’ve cleaned it from top to bottom. The cribs, sheets, blankets, lovies, floors all of it was cleaned and I just couldn’t figure it out. I eventually go to change the boys sheets AGAIN thinking maybe someone peed again without me realizing. I lift Korbin’s mattress to change the sheet and there in the corner of his crib between the mattress and railing I see something that resembles charcoaled road kill. I thought it was his monkey or another small stuffed animal. After squinting and moving his crib away from the wall to get a good look, I realized I had just discovered the mysterious deadly stench. All this cleaning I had been doing and I totally missed the dried, God only knows how old, crusty turd in the corner of his crib. Although a little disturbed knowing my kid had been sleeping inches away from this thing for days, I was glad I finally found it, hopefully meaning their room would smell better soon. Sheesh.

Needless to say that night I was going to make sure there was no nakedness going on. Below you’ll see they are diaper duct taped, wearing backwards footed sleepers (they can unzip them from the front) which are duct taped at the zipper, AND halo sleep sacks that are also duct taped at the zipper. They did well that night but wow, that’s a lot of work and duct/gorilla tape gets expensive after a while… it worked but wasn’t ideal.

This is a few days before the above mentioned poop party. I was cleaning house and heard the boys’ lullaby monitor/project thingy getting louder then softer, louder then softer, then twinkle twinkle little star followed by the sound of heartbeats. Someone had there hands on it and I was prepared to catch them in the act. With camera in hand I swung open the door and to my surprise saw Brody on top of his dresser having a ball…

I know what you’re thinking. Heather, look at how close the dresser is to the crib, of course he’ll climb up there… But for those of you who know Brody, know that this is quite a huge task for him. He still struggles to get up onto the couch on his own, I still have NO clue how he managed to climb over and on top of the dresser. As mad as I was I’ll admit I was kinda proud of him… this is a serious accomplishment for this dude! That being said it was still a problem. You’ll see in the first picture his crib was then turned around so the tall back side was facing outward making it impossible (err.. I think) for him to climb out.

 OK, back to the nakedness. I still needed a sure way these crazies were not going to get naked and an easier way at that. Layers and layers and boat loads of duct tape worked but was a lot of work and took a good 10mins to do properly…multiply that times two (or more) and it’s a true pain. I had read when the quads were itty bitty about Little Sleeper Keepers but had totally forgotten about them until another quad mom mentioned them again. Not only did she remind me of them, she had some that she was no longer using and sent them to me – thanks again Amy! Little Keeper Sleepers are snug fitting sleepers and have a zipper up the back and have a total of three snaps at the non-stretch neckline. We put them in their, what they call “suits”, and have had no escapees so far!         

We made the switch to toddler beds this week (details to come on following post) and the quads have been on a new high since their new found freedom. Yesterday I made the mistake of putting the boys “down for nap” without the Little Sleeper Keepers. I told myself they would be fine and would be too busy causing other kinds of trouble rather than naked trouble. They’ll be having too much fun jumping from bed to bed to even think about getting naked…. wrong again. After two hours of hearing their giggly fun I stepped in to check on them and to what I swear must have been Poop Fest 2011. Both boys were both out of their beds butt naked, surrounded by (lucky for me) firm turd balls. Absolutely disgusting. I can only thank God it’s only two of them rather than all four. There was poop everywhere. On their beds, in their beds, under their beds, under their fingernails, on the window sill, it was smeared into the blinds…etc. NOT FUN and all because I had faith that they wouldn’t get into “that kind” of trouble. You can bet your rear they will not be left alone again in the near future without being in those new sleepers.

I am confident we have finally found the solution to the toddler nakedness in our house and totally recommend the Little Sleeper Keepers to other moms out there dealing with their own little Houdini!

Caged Monkey

I've heard soo many stories about toddlers and their quest to escape their cribs and have been warned that one day, chances are one, some or ALL of mine would learn to as well. I thought that maybe, just mayyybe I would get lucky and not have to deal with that part of toddlerhood...ha! A few months ago I went to peek into the girls' room during nap time and saw this...

My heart just about jumped up into my throat at the sight of my little barely 20lb baby girl straddling her crib rail and holding on for dear life. I went in, set her back down in her crib, told her "no" and left the room. Five minutes later I hear a loud THUD followed by crying. Sure enough she had done it again, but had fallen and landed on her head. The first thing that came to my mind was crib tent. I've heard some people say "When they climb out of their crib that means they NEED a toddler bed"... I totally disagree. At this point in time, for our family, toddler beds are out of the question. Luckily, my friend and fellow quad mom Casey Gerwer had a crib tent she was ready to get rid of so we made the trip that afternoon to pick it up. We were prepared to install it that night if our little monkey-girl decided to try it again. To our surprise, she didn't. Since then (December) that crib tent has been waiting patiently in the garage until we were forced to use it. Well, that day came this past Wednesday night.

It was about 7pm, the babies were in bed and Bret and I had just sat down to watch a little American Idol when we heard a little voice say "Mom.........Mom..........Mom....." (first of all MOM? where in the world did she learn to call me Mom?!). Bret and I immediately looked at each other knowing she was not in her crib and was standing very close to her almost but not quite closed door. I peeked around the corner and saw Baxlyn's little body standing at the crack of the door and her little face beaming with pride, I have to admit it was kinda cute! We went to her room, set her back in her crib, had a little talk and left. 2 minutes later...you guessed it...she was out again. Not sure how she did it, but she did indeed figure it out without hurting herself. Bret headed to the garage for the crib tent and he and Baxlyn sat in her room putting it together while Kylee watched.

Once it was ready we had to figure out a way to make the new tent seem fun and cool but not soo fun and cool that the others would want one...let me tell you that is a FINE line! I've heard parents say their kids call them "tents" "princess castles" and other cool things. Baxlyn immediately suggested it was her "tunnel". We set her in her new tunnel, gave her a few blocks and she settled right down for the night!

The next morning the boys went in to see the girls with their daily "Goo Mo-nan!" greeting...their jaws dropped at the sight of the new crib tent and Korbin yelled "Bashi Tunnel!" He thought it was the coolest thing and insisted he and Brody try it out too! For now it's the perfect fix for our little climber. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before there's another one, two, or Heaven forbid three in cages as well!