Tuesday, September 1, 2009

To Bump or Not to Bump...

...for babies, party people.

babywhumpus is an "active sleeper." That's a nice way to say that he's all. over. the. effing. place. Thrashing, crawling, rolling, hitting, kicking, you name it. In his crib, he repeatedly hits his head on the bars, and we think that's one reason he often wakes up.

We were thinking "bumper pads," but I have read that bumper pads are not safe. Now, I try not to be hysterical about these things; heavens knows we are not *gasp* very safe co-sleepers. (I know, we are not supposed to say such things out loud.) But I already have trouble sleeping if he sleeps for too long, convinced that he has suffocated. Clearly, if he is still asleep, he must have died. I am of the opinion that, knowing the recommendations, if I add bumper pads, I will be more jittery about my own sleep, which is the last thing this little family needs right now.

I am doing a little research, and I found pads that fit around every individual rail and a little wedge that runs around the lower edge of the crib. The first are very expensive and piss me off because I did not think of them and don't have time to make them myself. The second is probably more suited to Finn's headbanging tendencies, but though it says "odorless foam," it does not indicate whether or not it's synthetic.

What did you do, moms?

2 comments:

Brenda said...

I used to cram extra baby blankets between the mattress and rails in the vicinity of where her head was when we first put her in the crib, which mostly worked unless she spun all the way around (which usually meant she was far enough away from the rails to not bang her head as much). I'd leave a couple of inches of blanket sticking above the mattress level to cushion the blow before she got too close. And I did (and 17 months later, still do, although now only if I happen to wake up in the night) check to make sure blankets weren't smothering her in her sleep. I've heard of a bumper made of "breathable" net-like material, but that was more to keep babies from waking up b/c their legs had gone through the slats. Probably wouldn't cushion the head-banging. Maybe you could just pull towels through the slats and leave the ends hanging outside the crib (or rubberband them like a ponytail to keep them in place), like a cheap and messy version of the individual rail cushions?

Eva said...

Hey cutie! Eva here and I'm no mom but my mom used those bumper pads all along the bottom of our cribs and we turned out just fine. What exactly is the problem with them? Did someones kid accidentally eat one or something? I think with common sense (which you have in abundance) and hands on parenting (which you do obviously) Capt. Finn should fare just fine with some ol'fashioned bumper pads. xoxoxo