Pajamas

Ever since his move to the big-boy bed, Isaac has been sleeping in fleece footed pajamas. Prior to the fateful afternoon when I observed him swinging his leg over the edge of the crib, Isaac slept in lightweight cotton footed pajamas plus a fleece sleep sack to keep him warm. Since he can now climb down from his newly configured bed by himself, keeping him in the sleep sack seemed like a bad idea. (When you get out of bed in the middle of the night you don't want your legs hobbled together in a fleece bag, especially if you're a little bit scared and are hurrying over to the closed door to cry for your mother.)

But without the sleep sack, he needs warmer pajamas, which is why he's been wearing the fleece ones. We have several pairs; they were hand-me-downs and are a bit shabby, but we figured they would do just fine considering the weather will be warming up soon -- who wants to buy brand-new winter pajamas at the end of March? Unfortunately they are too short for him, even though they're size 18 months. (Isaac is a tall kid; the last time he was measured, three months ago, he was already 33 inches tall -- that's at the top of the size charts for most 18-month size clothes.)

But like I said, who wants to buy new winter pajamas at the end of March -- especially as it's 80 degrees today? So we crammed him into the fleece pajamas anyway, as they only seemed a little too short. After a week of this, however, we noticed that his shoulders hunched when the pajamas were zipped up, and that his toes curled inside the tight-fitting feet. So last night I cut the feet off the pajamas to make room for his extra height, figuring he could wear socks to keep his feet warm.

It seemed to work fine at first. I left the elastic bands that had been right above the feet, and they fit neatly around his ankles just like they were supposed to. Then, as Isaac sat in his dad's lap to listen to bedtime stories, the elastic bands crept up, and I could see they were going to cut into his calves. When I snipped the circle of elastic to loosen it, the pajama legs sprung up -- they were no longer ankle-length, but mid-calf. Well, I thought, with socks it would still be okay. But the pajama legs continued to creep upward, and soon they were just below the knee, like knickerbockers. By the time the bedtime stories were through, the bottoms of the pajama legs were above his knees.

They were more like bloomers than warm winter pajamas. And as the top of his socks ended four or five inches below the bottom of the pajamas, his poor calves were chilly all night long. Plus, man, did I feel bad -- clearly the pajamas had been more than just a little too short. How terrible a mother am I to make my child wear ill-fitting pajamas just to save a few bucks?

Well, new fleece pajamas from BabyGap are $25 each, which honestly seemed way too expensive! However, last night I ordered two pairs of thick cotton pajamas in size 2T from Old Navy for $9.99 -- and as they're already footless, I'll be able to cram Isaac into them until he's three or four years old.