NCL Epic-Caution if little ones sleep in your bed

[LynneL]

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.

[Pandot]

Thank you for sharing your story. There are many people who are even more likely to share their bed with their children/grandchildren on vacation, even if they don't at home.

 

You are right about the perfect storm, but the perfect storm can happen more than once, (i.e. with more than one family) so your input probably made people more aware of the gap so that they can make a decision that is safe and works for them.

 

I am happy your granddaughter is safe! Hope you had an excellent cruise despite the scare.

 

Andrea

[B_Mc]

Very scary and a good reminder that even though bed sharing might be your comfort level at home to be extra cautious in a new, unfamiliar environment.

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Wow, how frightening. Thank you for sharing your story, and hopefully it will help out others in their future Epic cruising. So glad that your baby grand daughter is just fine! :)

[scarlett81]

Thanks alot for sharing that-a good reminder for everyone.

I co-sleep with my baby, for nursing and closeness-its generally a better and quieter nights sleep for us all!

However, I never co-sleep in a hotel or unfamiliar environment, or if I do we use a special 'nest'-a protected mini bed within our adult bed. The reason is, at home I'm in my environment, and my mama instincts bolt me up out of my sleep at the slightest noise.

However, I find on vacation that I'm more tired, sleep deeper and wake less easily.

I can imagine how scary this was for you, probably much more for you than for your GD. Try to remember that your instincts DID wake you up and thats what matters.

[TheCalicoCat]

Another possible scenario - most doubles on cruise ships are in fact twins pushed together - in theory, they could come apart...

 

Luckily my son likes the couch that they turn into a bed - though he did fall out the first night...:o (He is in a toddler bed - aka crib without a front on the lowest level - at home.)