When my son was 15 months old, he started crib jumping.  It scared me, but it didn’t really surprise me.  The odd time that he was able to scale out of his crib, he did so with ease.  We decided to keep an eye on it, but did little else. After a couple of weeks he lost interest.

Fast forward two months later and our escape artist was on the move again. This time testing his limits, becoming more like Superman in his craft, a little less like Spiderman. As the jumps got bigger, so did our fears. We weren’t really sure how to address it.  Maybe if we ignored it, it would go away again. This time, it didn’t.

For three nights in a row we sat and waited for the telltale thump, which was always followed by a small cry. A few cuddles later, we placed Henry back into his crib and he went back to sleep. On the 4th night, the pattern changed: there was no cry after the thump, only silence. Henry had hit his head hard enough that he had rug burn on his forehead. He was alert when I entered the room shortly after he left the crib. He seemed to be fine, but I wasn’t.

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