Well, one thing is for sure. Aubrey is mobile. She still isn't crawling, but she is definitely confident enough in herself to use a combination of scooting and rolling to get where she wants to go. And fast. The other day we were in the middle of a diaper change, and she decided she'd had enough. Before I even knew what was happening I lost my grip on her, she rolled a complete 360 to get away from me, and we had a very unfortunate poop incident. She is just plain wiggly!
Her new found freedom is also providing plenty of new bumps and bruises. At least 5 times a day she whacks her head into the entertainment center, or a wall she's trying to get around. We've also had a couple of close calls at the top of the stairs. On Sunday we let Aubrey play around on her own while we were getting dressed for church. All of a sudden I looked out into the hallway and realized I couldn't see her anymore. I had a minor heart attack, and raced to the top of the stairs just in time to see she had gotten herself too close for comfort.
It's funny because baby proofing a house is something we just haven't had to think about for a long time! We put it in the back of our minds because Aubrey was so easy to contain, and so far from crawling. Well, those days and long gone...and we're so happy about that!
So, I am curious about baby gates. We feel like it's time to get one for the top of the stairs, but we aren't sure what we're looking for. I remember from my days working at the crisis nursery that all baby gates are not created equally. So, I'm asking all mothers who read my blog and have baby gates...what has worked best for your home? Have you had one you hated or that was hard to open/install? All suggestions are welcome!
5 comments:
we don't have stairs in our place, so we just bought a cheap wooden baby gate to block off the kitchen. i wouldn't recommend a wooden one, it is really hard to remove (we just step over it every time we have to go into the kitchen...and from all the times it's been kicked, it looks like it's going to snap in half any minute!)
We bought a gate for both the bottom and top of the stairs. We rarely attach the one at the bottom of the stairs because Brooklyn is pretty good at going both up and down stairs but we still keep the one at the top just in case. I think it's a safety first that screws in on both ends and then swings open. It was only around 20 bucks and although it can be a little hard to open/close sometimes we've been pretty happy with it. Good luck!
I have a fisher price one that's old and an evenflo one that we just purchased a week ago. Neither are for top of the stair use, but I really like the evenflo one. It's soft and easy to adjust/takedown/store and fits from 38" to 60". The walk way into our kitchen is so wide a normal gate wouldn't fit and since we're renting, wall mounted hardware is out of the question. The gate is called the soft and wide gate in taupe. The dream baby gates are really good for top of the stairs, from what I found out. That's my two cents!
I have never had a problem with the cheap wooden ones. I think they work just fine.
I have two different ones on the top & bottom of the stairs. You're welcome to come look. I picked a less expensive on at the top, but it is the hardest to open and has cracked from the required up/down to release the lock. The one at the bottom is just like the one to the kitchen and we really like them. Still affordable too. Feel free to come on over and have a look.
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