Crib Bumper Fiasco

Hmmmmmm......I hate those mommy moments when you think your child is ready for something so you go for it but it ends up being a complete and total disaster! This post is about one such moment in mommy-ville. A while back we attempted to remove Jaxson's crib bumpers. This resulted in a sleepless & pretty miserable night for all. And with the crib bumpers going back in around 4:30am! Well now that Jax is nearing 16 months and attempting to use his bumpers as a step stool of escape, I decided it was once again time to attempt the impossible and remove the bumpers. Now I know most people would think, WHAT? you still have bumpers in his crib? Let me explain, Jax has never really slept with a blanket, pillow or even a lovey. Jax thinks all of these things exist within his crib bumpers. He snuggles them and nestles his little head into them.  Needless to say, he really likes them. We have, however, been getting him acclimated to sleeping with a blanket and lovey. With those things in place, I went for it! I removed the bumpers!!! He definitely thought the process was fun. He was able to ping-pong around in his crib, read some books, find some binks. Fast forward to events of that night at the bottom of the post......

 (Reaching through the crib rails to get binks, should have been my first clue!)

 (Crying because I pushed binks too far in to reach....Bummer :( Such a mean mom sometimes!) 

(Oh I love his squish smiley face!) 

 He went down happy as a clam and like his usual champ self! Awesome I thought, my babes is such a big boy and I was a little sad that he was such a big boy but happy at the same time. Around 9:00pm, I decided to take me a little tubby and then I heard Jax squawking a little bit on the monitor, which is pretty unusual for Jax unless he is sick or something. So I called Jon on my cell phone (yup, that's right I take my cell in the tubby with me!) and asked him to poke his head in. Not 10 seconds later, I hear a blood curdling scream. I jumped out of the tub, grabbed a towel and ran down the hallway. By the time I got to Jax's room, Jon had him out of the crib but he was still screaming at the top of his lungs. I knew Jon could handle calming him down, but when my baby cries like that I HAVE to hold him. I need wipe away the alligator tears, I need to rub his back, I need to feel his little heart beating, I need it all. As I rocked him in his chair, Jon told me his little leg was wrapped around the exterior of crib railing and his blanket wrapped around his face and he wasn't able to get it off because he was trying to his leg free, on top of being super disoriented being woke up and in the dark. My heart ached and dropped at the same moment. I couldn't help but feel HORRIBLE! So back to the premise of my post.....I hate when I think Jax is ready for something, so I go for it and he is not. Needless to say the bumpers are back in the crib (and I am pretty sure they will be until he is in a big boy bed. However we will be switching them out to some mesh ones as an effort to wean him). The blanket has been taken out again but the lovey has stayed in. Sometimes I forget, Jax does better with baby steps. He is not the throw him in the deep end kind of kid. At the end of day, some people might call me a softie mom (haha, I'm really not) but I am just trying to raise Jax with my head and my heart, allowing his personality to thrive in the best ways I know how.