Not Crying Wolf

Violet had been taking naps for us every day since Baby Lila arrived.  Today, of course, Violet was wound up and didn't settle in for a nap.

I had gone into her room once to "reset" her back to bed.  But it didn't work.  She was still jumping around and being crazy in her bed.

A little while later I heard Violet through the baby monitor saying, "Daddy, come in here."  She said it over and over and over again.  For a while I ignored it, but she persisted.  The ill-fated nap had gone on long enough that I figured I'd give up and just get Violet up.

I went into her room and she just said, "Daddy," but her voice didn't have the normal "I'm glad to see you, nap is over, right?" tone.  She sounded scared and upset.  Then I noticed that she wasn't bouncing around the bed.  She was staying in one spot.

I came further into the room and saw that she seemed to be stuck.  She sleeps in her "big girl" bed, and the headboard and footboard of the bed have rows of white slats.  I never thought anything of it, because the slats were slats like a crib.  And she's two and a half.

Each of Violet's legs was stuck in a gap between slats.  She looked freaked out, like she'd been trying to get out for a while and couldn't.  "Daddy, I'm stuck."

I went a little bit into panic mode.  "Oh, Jeez, Violet.  OK, I'll get you out."  I looked at her legs, and they didn't look too badly stuck, so I tried to just pull her free.  I yanked her back away from the slats.  She screamed and screamed but didn't pop free.  I thought maybe if I pulled a bit harder I could free her that way, but she screams were too much.

Violet started screaming, "Mommy, mommy," trying to get some more gentle help.

I regrouped.  "OK, kiddo.  We'll figure this out."  I looked at the situation, basically two little legs coming through the footboard and Violet from the thighs and up, sitting on the mattress.  I tried to flex the slats but the didn't feel like they had any wiggle.

Finally, I slid Violet's legs down the slats toward the floor.  In the middle of the slats, they had enough flex that I could push her kneecaps back through without causing very much more pain.  With both knees in the side where they belong I picked her up and she clung onto me like a barnacle.

I brought her and some icepacks to her mother, and Nurse Mommy took over.  She got Violet comfortable and soothed.

The saddest part for me was seeing Violet's legs after the bath.  Each side of either knee had some kind of bruise, and the worse one was about the size of a quarter.

Certainly, Violet would have been just as stuck if I had gone into the nap sooner, but not for as long.  What can you do?  I really think she's petrified of the footboard and she won't do that again.  We'll just have to look out for that for the second kid.