The Crib Tent is here!!!!

Finally. I thought you'd never come. Oh please Mr. Crib Tent...help us!!!

So I have had a few people ask me if I have noticed any improvements since Porter started the Gluten Free Diet on New Year's Day. Well, I guess it's hard to really say. You see, just about that exact same time, Porter started escaping from his crib. At first we thought ...wow, look at him ! He can jump that rail with the stealth of a cheetah! It was kind of impressive.  And it was sort of cute when he would "magically" appear in the living room after you thought he was down for the night, but then it got old, REALLY fast! And nap times, beloved nap times, disappeared. Every now and then he would throw one in and you would think...ok, finally, getting out has lost it's appeal and he is going back to his "routine" only to be brought back to reality the next day when he would escape again!

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect him to nap forever. I mean he will never be able to hold down a job if he has to nap from noon til 2pm everyday, so I fully expect to lose the naps sometime....and I am ok with that. But he's not ready, trust me. When he doesn't nap, it isn't pretty. Sure he can get by for a little while, but by 3pm, I am waiting for his head to do a complete 360. Most days by suppertime he will pass out from pure exhaustion and you are forced to let him sleep, because seriously, you don't want to wake him at this point, I learned that the hard way!  So then , as you can imagine, his night time sleep is a complete mess. Like for instance last night, he passed out around 4:30pm, woke at 10pm and was awake til 3am. Then up at 6 am to start his day! Thank GOD for my mother in law, she offered to take him for the day so we can get some rest. I've said it before, I'll say it again the woman is a saint!

So we have quickly come to the point where we need a new plan because this just isn't working ...for anyone. I mean we tried our best to get him to stay in his bed. I should have arms like Kelly Rippa from the workout I've gotten lately from lifting and re-lifting and re-lifting and re-lifting that child back into his crib but mine still look more like Regis's, but that's not the point. Then we thought ok maybe if he is "confined" to his room, the novelty will wear off and he'll just go to bed! WRONG! When we put a safety lock on his door so he couldn't get out he would destroy his room. Not in a fit of rage, but just because he can!  I'm talking every pamper from his basket thrown, clothes pulled from hangers in the closet and flung on the floor, diaper genie tipped over, blankets everywhere, the top of his changing table removed.... shall I go on? So we considered taking everything out of his room and putting a lock on his closet so he would get bored and just go back to bed, but I'm not living in a mansion here, I can't just move his things to the north wing...there is just no room to do that unless I want them in the hallway and that is just a plain old fire/safety hazard! I mean what would Jim Peters say?

Then just as I was about to give up hope,  I remembered a conversation with one of my favorite people. My friend Trudy once told me about crib tents. It was waaaay back when I was pregnant with Porter and we were worried about the cats getting into the crib and smothering him( did that EVER really happen anywhere?) Well, thank goodness the cats were way more afraid of him than anything and they certainly didn't want to curl up with him at night, so we didn't need a crib tent after all. But I remembered her saying she had one I could borrow. So I messaged her immediately and of course she said we were welcome to it, cause she's awesome like that, BUT it had a broken zipper that we would have to fix and it was made to fit a standard crib and ours was an adjustable crib. We didn't give up and thought we could make it work! To make a long story short, it didn't work out BUT Trudy did give us the website where we found one for a decent price that would fit our crib. I swear it has been like waiting for Christmas. But yesterday, it came!!! It was such a moment of pure joy that I thought when we pulled it out of the box it might glow!  ( It didn't in case you are wondering, but still glorious none the less) . Unfortunately it wasn't set up in time for his nap, hence the hellish night of sleep, but it's on there now!

So when you ask me if he has improved, I'd have to say hmmmm....not really. The bumps on his arms and legs that he has had since he was about 12 months old are pretty much gone and he is finally having solid poops, but all the things we had hoped for haven't really happened. The diet is supposed to improve language, behavior and SLEEP! Nope, not here folks. But like I said, he is walking around exhausted 90% of the time so it's hard to know if it is working or not. In fact that reminds me , the night before I messaged Trudy about the crib tent,  he had fallen asleep at 6pm and slept straight through til 6am the next day, we couldn't believe it! When he woke I felt like we had our sweet natured little boy back AND he said 4 new words that morning... Buzz, Woody, pancake and Eggo !  So like I said, he NEEDS his sleep. So I guess I tend to think if he was sleeping better, the diet might help? Anyway, we are banking on this crib tent to save us and we plan on continuing the diet for at least 6 more weeks. I'll keep you posted:)