I personally think that baby gates are one of the best inventions of modern times! As a mom with an 11 month old, I thought that I could get away without having one, boy was I wrong. It all started last December when Miss Lily learned to crawl, and our lives changed forever!
At first she did the rolling thing, finding her way eventually across the living room floor just by propelling herself somehow, undetectable by the human eye, until 5 minutes later, we were both asking, "Where`s the baby?!?" . We would see a little round bald head from behind the side of the couch, and peer over to see her looking up innocently with a big, toothless grin.
There are a lot of different kinds of baby gates to choose from. You really don`t put much thought into this until you have a kid of your own, and you think about those precious little fingers getting pinched. There is the traditional wood kind, spring loaded, put in a doorway to keep kids and dogs out alike. There are also plastic ones, usually white in color, but have grating to see through them, and oh so fun to chew on. I didn`t know this until late, but I saw at my in-laws house, that there are kinds that are wood, but have a hinge, and you need an electric drill/screwdriver to attach the locking hardware to either side of the wall. I liked it because they hook and unhook, providing an actual swinging gate to open and close when needed.
Right Time for Baby Gate?
December 25th was the big bang; she cut her first tooth, learned how to sit up on her own, and started to crawl all on the same day! She wasn`t fast at first, but she was thrilled with her new mode of transportation, her own knees! I started to ask my husband, "Do you think it`s time for a baby gate? " He says, "Where would we put it?" And he was right; we have an open living room, not really any place to block her from. But we just knew from watching our nieces and nephews and how their parents blocked off certain areas that a baby gate was a valuable investment.
Baby Gate Safety Products
Through my research, I learned a lot about baby gate safety. I always like to look online at the different products such as car seats, stroller, and baby gates to see which brands have been recalled and what the customer reviews are. I also asked around to other parents to see if they liked their baby gate and how it functioned.
I think I found the best kind to suit our needs. See, upstairs, like I said, we had a pretty open living room, and had no need for a baby gate, but I neglected to think about downstairs. We live in a split level house, and there is a door to the basement, no need for a baby gate there! But it was one day when I was doing laundry downstairs and letting Lily crawl around down there that I really came to understand where and why we needed that baby gate!
Our entire downstairs is set for entertaining, a bar, couches, chairs, music, all baby-proofed, of course. Lily has all sorts of toys at her disposal, and since we spend most of our time upstairs, when we go downstairs, it`s like a whole new world all over again. I did the famous "I just turned my back for a second" and when I turned around, I saw her tumbling down the 2 stair landing onto the hard tile floor.
What prevented her going up the entire flight of stairs? We didn`t have a baby gate yet, nope, it was actually our 2 year old Jack-Russel/Lab mix, a female, faithfully standing on the 2nd step, preventing her from crawling up any higher.
Baby Gates in Many Styles
Just like a momma dog protecting her pups from a cliff, our dog Little Bit . It was the very next day we decided to install our very own new wood baby gate with the hinge at the bottom of our stairs in the basement. She may use it to teeth on, stand up and peer over, but thanks to our dog showing us the possibility of danger, we now have our own handy wooden baby gate. Of course the variety is astounding. You can find gates that fold and slide as well as remove completely. You can find white plastic baby gates and painted baby gates wherever baby supplies are sold!
BDST: 1729 HRS, Sep-07, 2013
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