The Skinny on Safety

Well, we are just about finished with our baby-proofing! There are gadgets and gizmos set up all over the place. I think we have every potential danger covered, but surely she will come in here and hit her head or bump her knee on something we hadn't thought of. I know I can't protect her from the normal every day stuff. Accidents are gonna happen. I mean, I can't very well put knee pads and a helmet on her. Hmmm...or can I? Yes, of course, I am only kidding!

Seriously, though, there are some great products out there so I thought I'd share some of our finds and what we have done so far. 

Kitchen:

Safety First drawer latches on knife and utensil drawers. Bought at BabiesRUs.

Safety First Cabinet locks for under sink cabinet with cleaning supplies and garbage disposal and cabinet with misc appliances. Got these at BabiesRUs, too.

Safety First Oven lock. This thing was a bit tricky to figure out, but easy to install and use once you realize it slides from the hinge and not the slidebar-looking thing on the front. In fact, the thing that looks like it should slide doesn't slide at all and baffled the both of us for a few minutes. It was one of those things that once we did it, we were both like OH! Of course!

Stove guard. Our friends have this and recommended it. The sticky tape that comes with it doesn't work so get yourself some strong-sticking velcro and you'll be good to go. Also helps if you don't stick and unstick it looking for the right placement a couple times. :-) Both oven products were bought from One Step Ahead.

We have 2 baby gates for the kitchen. One blocking the TV/playroom so I can use that area as a sort of safe play-pen type area while I cook since the room is right off of the kitchen and next to the corner where I'll be working. The other gate is for the back winding stairs that go up to her room. I have fallen down these steps myself a time or two so we don't want her going up or down that way. 

We also had to do some real thinking about our basement door. We didn't want Ruby falling down the steps or getting into the stuff in the basement, but couldn't keep door locked because the cat needs to get down to his box. Couldn't do a baby gate cause we couldn't find one with a cat door in it. Don't want the cat box upstairs where her curious fingers might get to it and didn't want to drill a hole in the very old farm house door that leads downstairs. The solution? So simple that it's funny. After scratching our heads for weeks, Jeff said, how about a long hook and eye? Brilliant! It's short enough to keep door closed so Ruby can't come through, but long enough to keep door open about 4" for Max to crawl through. Perfect!

TV Room/Play Room:

First, we put soft corners on the TV cabinet. 

Then we bought screen guards for TV, DVD, receiver, and CD player. 

The sliding glass door alarm is brilliant and was a bargain at $9.99. Keeps door locked and goes off if someone tries to open it.

Jeff is still re-wiring the whole room so all are safety tucked away in the wire covers I bought...

 and all the TV wires are neatly put in this handy black tube thing below.

Again, all from One Step Ahead, except some wire covers from Home Depot. Now all I need are the toy storage bins I've been eye-ing up at Land of Nod and we are play-time ready in there! 

Her Bedroom - There was a big debate on whether or not we needed to tether the dresser to the wall. Our parents thought we were nuts, half our friends said we absolutely HAD to get them, while other friends said they never did and their kids were just fine. It seems to all boil down to whether your kid is a climber or not. Well, recently another friend told me her story and it was all I needed to hear. One child was climbing up the dresser and pulled it down on both her and her sister. Had it not been for the bed that stopped one of the drawers and got it stuck, they could have been crushed. That's enough motivation for me! Call me paranoid or call me smart, but I'm not taking any chances! Besides, it's such a small effort to ensure our daughter's safety. Our friend said to do the "drawer test". Go up to whatever furniture you aren't sure about and open all or most of the drawers. Now lean on it a little. Even Jeff was shocked when we did this to Ruby's dresser and how easily it tipped for such a heavy piece. So off we went to Home Depot for a solution. I wanted to use tethers like the ones below, but we they need to go in studs and we have plaster walls and hard to find studs so went with shims instead. You just put them in tightly under the front legs and it forces the piece back against the wall so it can't tip over. Again, such an easy thing to give such peace of mind!

Tethers available at OneStepAhead.com, BabiesRUS, and maybe Target. Shims you can get at Home Depot or any hardware store. 

We also put locks on the windows in her room. May put them on a few others on the second and third floor, but luckily, a lot of the old windows are half painted shut and really hard to open so we feel okay there. Going to test every single one. The fire place in her room is another issue. We don't use it and I painted it with non-toxic paint. We are going to shove insulation up there or an old pillow so she can't climb in it, although the opening is narrow and it would be very difficult for her to do that. Still, we may just put a big soft something in there to block it completely, but I haven't figure out what yet. Any ideas???

Of course, we also got baby gates for the top of the side staircase and 2 for the center stairs - one for top and one for bottom - and we ordered new carpet today for the stupid floor I tried to sand. It's really in bad shape, all splintery and would cost far more to refinish.

You know, between the rearranging, floor renovation, and safety-proofing... part of me wonders if it would have been easier and cheaper just to move into a whole new house! LOL. At least we can rest easy in the knowledge that Ruby has a safe, protected environment to come home to. Now, for the park and outside the home....I'm going to need some coaching from you experienced moms on how to relax! My diaper bag already includes a plethora of first aid stuff, band-aids, handy wipes, and alcohol swabs. No, I'm not a paranoid first-time mom or anything. Not me. :-)

Jeff just read this and said, "Why don't we just get her a big bubble, Jen?" LOL!