Megan's crib tent

I have had a bunch of people ask me about the crib tents; what are they, what do they look like, what are they used for. So here goes:

I was not familiar with crib tents for anything except keeping cats out of the crib. It turns out, that's not all they're used for. Crib tents are wonderful tools for keeping your kids IN the crib. It is a mesh tent that is placed in the crib and the crib mattress is placed inside the tent. The tent is secured to the actual crib to prevent any injuries. Once the child is in the tent, and the tent is zipped up (zipper is on the outside), she cannot get out, nor can she throw out any of her things: binkies, blankets, pillows, lovies, etc. (Not that you are supposed to have any of that stuff in a child's crib to begin with. But hey, I don't always follow the rules.)

Crib tents are a huge topic amongst the multiples community and the only reason I can think of why is just the simple fact that there are multiple children going through the same milestones at the same time and frankly, we as parents cannot do everything at the same time. (We don't really have super human powers.)

So, Megan was jumping in her crib. So much so that she was just about bouncing herself out. Matt and I were concerned enough for her safety, that we decided to convert her crib to a toddler bed, (removed both sides and the top half of both ends of her crib.) Now she could get in and out as she pleased and there was no serious fall threat. (We also put a baby gate in her doorway to prevent her from leaving her bedroom in the middle of the night.) However, Megan was not comfortable with this arrangement. She was up and down, up and down, in and out of her bed.

She slept on the floor, she cried, she even took Morgan's blanket out of her crib and threw it over the baby gate outside of the room. Not a good thing. After several attempts to get Megan to sleep in her toddler bed, we opted to put her in a pack 'n play until we could order the crib tent. We chose to order both babies one so that Megan wouldn't feel like she was being punished by being in the tent and not Morgan. And the plus side is that both babies can now stay in their cribs longer without risking climbing, jumping or falling out.

Both babies took to the crib tents very well and have been sleeping in them just fine.