question for mommies and daddies... you every try one o them baby cages?

[welfareloser]

so the twins are now big enough that they oculd launch themselves out of their cribs if they wanted. which means it's time to put them in toddler beds. not looking forward to it.

eg was bad enough... he spent six months pissed off at his toddler bed, ripping the sheets off it, throwing the mattress in one corner, teh frame in another corner, and finally falling asleep on the floor by the door.

i cringe to think that these two will have access to each other alone in their room. and if they hate the beds too... *shudder*

so they sell these contraptions that are sort of like a tent that fits over the top of the crib, turning it into a cage. i like the idea of keeping them confined until they've got some more sense, but i'm not convinced that the damned things are safe (i can see where a kid could maybe get stuck in it, hard to tell from pictures... but it is cllapsible, which means a kid could potentially collapse it while inside) or effective (if it can be defeated, my kids can defeat it.) ... and i think i'd be spending upwards of $200 on two of the damned things... so i'm not buying unless i hear from someone who has used and liked them.

anyone?

here's what i'm talking about:

[Yossarian]

just charge admission for people to see them, you'll be fine

[BigJon]

eg was bad enough... he spent six months pissed off at his toddler bed, ripping the sheets off it, throwing the mattress in one corner, teh frame in another corner, and finally falling asleep on the floor by the door.

d00d...if evilgremlin was that abusive with his toddler bed...just imagine how the twins could be with those mesh cages! Better ask them if they have a guarantee...maybe they'll let you take them back if your kids don't stay in them?

All I know is that Gabby was fine with her toddler bed...but then again hers is a conversion crib/toddler bed...so it wasn't too much of a change.

Edit:
Amy is curious about these things though too....she is looking for something that keeps Gabby from climbing INTO the new baby's crib....apparently she found Gabby asleep in the new baby's crib one afternoon...luckily the new baby isn't here yet...

[welfareloser]

oooh, yeah... eg didn't do that, but he was 3-1/2 ... at 2-1/2 (i don't know how old your oldest is, but under 3 i'm assuming) it woulda been ugly.

might be a very good idea for you, since the baby inside won't be able to try to kill herself on it... then again, if the big girl decides to try to clim in anyway, falls through the mesh and gets tangled... well, you'll hear the screams pretty quickly

i think we've pretty much decided that if it's collapsible, our kids WILL collapse them... so we're just going to babyproof the crap out of their room, and hope the spazboy doesn't smack the good baby in the head to keep him awake to play with him til 1 am...

[OC]

I vote for Velcro pajamas and walls.

[welfareloser]

oooh, then we could punish them by putting them to sleep upside down...

[Kim]

No experience here, sorry. It looks interesting though.

[oblongmelon]

Ever see those toddler beds that look like race cars? all plastic, pretty solid and low to the ground..maybe something like that would help..or..worst case scenario-do what I did for one of mine-put the mattress in a thick mattress cover on an area rug and forget about the frame until they are old enough to get the grasp of not falling out of bed..(doesn't ruin the mattress when they jump on it either)

[hoey222]

not sure how tight space is - but you could try to transition them slowly.

use the toddler bed only for naps till they get used to it. use the crib at night.

if that doesn't work - duck tape them to the ceiling.........

[Jenny]

I second obby's idea of putting the mattresses on the floor to begin with. Also, have they been sharing a crib? I'm assuming not but I know a friend of mine's twins did for a long time. If they have, maybe consider starting them out in a double bed together rather than putting them in twin beds separately. That's what my friend did and it worked out great for them.

[zippyjuan]

I had a leash when I was little, but not a cage. For a while, I could sleep anywhere but in my bed. There is a picture of me sleeping in the laundry basket or in the toy box.

[faither]

That looks like something you'd see in a zoo. While to date our's haven't been early climbers, once we found they could and might possibly cause harm to themselves we started to grease the crib (sort of like greasing the pole at the Italian feasts).

Just kidding, but after thinking about it a few seconds we may try it with the new one. Once they could climb out, we moved them to a bed. Doesn't have to be a full single but we'd get them closer to the ground.

[DarkFury]

Heh... now that's what I call "Livin' in captivity".

[WhiskeyPapa]

When our twins first moved to toddler beds, we just baby-proofed the room, shut the door, and let them go at it until they fell asleep. It was really kind of funny to hear them playing. They completely tore the room apart every night, but we just cleaned it up in the morning. It only lasted a few months.

[caribiner23]

I've never seen this cage thing in action, but I'm sure that if I had this when my kids were younger they would have defeated it-- they worked around every other "babyproof" thing out there.

[cheapie]

hmmm...for austin we just put the bed in the room and let him get used to it before moving him over. he napped on it and the transition went seamless. of course, he's pretty docile so yrmv

[kimchicowboy]

what my mom told me was that my twin sister and i used to change cribs in the middle of the night.

[welfareloser]

thanks for all the input, guys... good stuff.

i think we're jsut going to do the kb0wwp thing and let em have at it... hopefully they knock it off by the time *I* want to get some sleep...

[sizemic1]

How about a hinged sheet of 3/4" plywood across the top and adding a sliding bolt latch?

That should keep your spawn under control.