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Epic-Caution if little ones sleep in bed with you

LynneL

By LynneL,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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LynneL

LynneL

Posted
Posted

Just returned a week ago from a great cruise on the Epic. We did have one frightening incident involving my 20 month old grandchild, which I had another nightmare over last night so figured I'd pass this along...

 

My husband & I offered to give my son & his girlfriend a night out alone during the sailing. For reasons, which are unimportant, we decided to just have my 20 month old granddaugher sleep over in our cabin rather than us sleep in their cabin for that night. We figured we'd let our GD sleep between us in our bed.

 

We climbed into our bed, snuggled her up & shut out the lights. Since she has never slept in a bed before I was a little nervous about all the bed pillows so I reached over, pulled away the ones in the middle of the bed in her area & placed them on the floor.

 

For those who have not sailed on the Epic, the room furnishing design is curved. The foot of the bed is rounded out and the padded headboard is rounded in towards the wall in center. Since the bottom of the mattress was rounded, I mistakenly thought the top of the mattress was also rounded. I didn't notice it wasn't since I moved the pillows away in the dark.

 

During the night I heard a strange muffled whimpering coming from my granddaugher. My husband & I both jumped up only to be able to see her body from the shoulders down. As it turns out the top of the mattress is cut straight across, thereby allowing a gap between the center of the mattress and the center of the headboard where it curves in. It appeared my granddaugher must have inched her way up during the night & her head went down between the mattress and headboard. In her attempt to free herself, she wedged further over to where the gap narrowed. Her neck was compressed between the mattress and head board! My husband quickly straddled her & pressed down on the mattress while I slid her over & back out of the center gap. It was truly such a frightening experience that could have had a tragic ending. I never would have forgiven myself.

 

The purposes of this tread is not to debate whether paents, GP, or other adults should allow children to sleep in their bed. I know nursing mothers who do it, people who believe in family beds, or a child gets sick or has a nightmare. I'm not hear to judge their parenting decisions & hope no one else is either. The point to be made here is my situation had that "perfect storm" going - my bringing her into my bed, the odd bed design, my moving the pillows in the dark & not noticing it, and her movement during the night. This may never, hopefully, happen again to someone but I felt sharing this info was necessary. As said, twice in the week since my return home I have bolted up in bed after having nightmares about what could have been.

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garycarla

garycarla

Posted
Posted

Wow. Thanks for posting. If it saves even a little injury to somebody else, then great.

 

I think there is a board about traveling with children here someplace. Might be good to post there. Sadly this post will be lost in a few days as it slides to the 3rd and 4th, etc pages, never to be seen again.

 

Glad all worked out.

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peg013

peg013

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Thank You for posting. I am glad she's okay. I would be having nightmares also. I second posting this on the "family" boards.

 

Did you let anyone onboard know what happened? NCL should know so they can rectify the problem or at least warn other cruisers.

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LynneL

LynneL

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Thank You for posting. I am glad she's okay. I would be having nightmares also. I second posting this on the "family" boards.

 

Did you let anyone onboard know what happened? NCL should know so they can rectify the problem or at least warn other cruisers.

 

You and Garycarla were right in suggesting posting on the family boards. I have just done so.

 

I did not let anyone onboard the ship know what happened. I should have gone down to the customer service to report it. I think I was too busy thinking how do I tell this to my little princess' mommy & daddy & what will they think. :o

 

I will drop an e-mail to NCL and mention it. Thanks for the suggestion.

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camz

camz

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WOW what an unimaginable ordeal! Thank God you were able to hear her and woke up to assist her. Was the sea at all rough when this incident occurred? Just wondering if that could have been a factor. Good of you to post a warning here. Gives us all something to think about.

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LynneL

LynneL

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WOW what an unimaginable ordeal! Thank God you were able to hear her and woke up to assist her. Was the sea at all rough when this incident occurred? Just wondering if that could have been a factor. Good of you to post a warning here. Gives us all something to think about.

 

No, sea not rough. Possibly because she never slept in a bed before she was restless and moved around. Not sure what made her edge up towards the headboard. It just really is an odd design with the bed. It looks pretty when all the pillows are there. The gap was not noticable until the pillows were gone from the center. In giving this thought, possibly the mattress was supposed to have been pushed all the way to the wall so there wouldn't be that gap. There wasn't much walking room between the foot of the bed & the wall cabinet opposite (the cabins are narrow on this ship), but not much different than when I moved around in my son's cabin so it didn't particularly strike me.

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che5904

che5904

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Awww that must have been very frightening for you and DH.

 

Not sure if there is a lesson in here or not since as you say it was the "perfect storm" but at least it makes others aware of the strange top design of the bed that they may not notice either.

 

Thanks for sharing your story, hopefully writing it will help relieve you of future nightmares (sometimes it does). Glad it had a happy ending.

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nikimouse

nikimouse

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Thanks for shareing and I am glad she was okay. All my kids have slept in my bed and the youngest still does. I hope the bad dreams stop, I totally understand because I sometimes dream my youngest is drowning and I cant relax when we are at the pool I watch him like a hawk, the thought of anything bad happening to any kid terrifies me. I am so glad you shared this.

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bplazo

bplazo

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When I was still in high school, my neighbor took her 7-months-old to bed with her. In her sleep, she rolled over the baby. He did not survive.

 

Those memories still haunt me. I never let our kids sleep in our bed.

 

I think that this is also important for people to realize that this can also happen I used to let my daughter sleep with me and never realized that it could be dangerous.

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