Baby Jail

We managed to pick up this fabulous enclosure for only $5 from a yard sale down the street a month or so ago and it has SAVED MY SANITY. Our youngest, Caden, almost eight months old, started rolling around the house at 5 1/2 months. He was full blown crawling by 6 1/2 months. I was certain I would have a few more months of peace only chasing around Kya and Wyatt. Now I have three kids to chase. I wondered how I would ever go the bathroom much less take a shower unless I got up at the crack of dawn (like 4:30 am) before Caden's first feeding.

As a side note, my schedule is crazy these days. Caden wakes for his first feeding at 5:00AM and usually is awake until his first nap at about 7:30 AM. Wyatt usually wakes up at 6:00AM and Kya sometime between 6-7:00 AM. Wyatt usually goes to bed around 7:30 PM, Kya at 8:30PM and Caden does not go to sleep for the night until 10:30 or 11:00PM. So, between the kids' sleep schedule and my after-everyone's-in-bed-chores, I get, on average, about 4-5 hours of sleep a night...assuming no one wakes up needing mommy during the night (rare). So you see how getting up at 4:30AM to shower and prep for the day isn't a very attractive option to me at the moment.

OK, back to baby jail. Because of my kids' ages and maturity levels, keeping them safe is pretty much a full time job.

Enter baby jail. This expandable enclosure, with child safe doors on each side, can be filled with toys and children, and only one of my children can actually open aforementioned doors (and she usually doesn't if I ask her nicely.) So, a mommy in my predicament (I mean, "blessed state") can safely leave the room for a few minutes without worrying that someone will put a fork in a light socket, play in the dog water, eat a crayon or climb INTO the dishwasher (it happens.)

I highly recommend baby jails. I don't know if this is actually what they are called, but that's what we call it. The gal at the yard sale said they paid like $100 for it! We paid $5. Best deal we've EVER gotten! And because it isn't as confining as a playpen, Caden seldom balks about being left in it, especially if his siblings are in there with him. On occasion, Scott and I have spent some time in baby jail as well...I have even fallen asleep inside with the kids crawling all around me because I can be assured no one will escape or injure themselves! Hey, I take sleep where I can find it!

Author's notes:

*Baby jail is pictured outside, but usually it is in the middle of our great room, where I can easily drop Caden off on my way to whatever chore or child needs tending next.

*If you are reading this post on Facebook, please check out our blog for more Haner Family Happenings: http://hanerhome.blogspot.com/