Hi moms. Ok, I need help. My 2 year old was climbing out of his crib starting about 3 weeks ago, every single night. He would climb out and come all the way downstairs to our bedroom. We would take him back upstairs and put him back in after rocking him or hanging out by the crib till he fell asleep. Now he is in a big boy bed. Well, this is worse. He is waking up 2-3 times a night still, and gets up, comes out and goes downstairs to our room. We are bringing him back up to his bed, laying him down and will either lay with him or by his bed until he falls asleep. We are exhausted and this has to stop. We are considering a gate at his door. I don't want to lock the door on him. But i have a feeling he is going to scream and shake the gate and wake up sister right next door. Any suggestions on how to make this stop??? And why the waking up by the way?? He turned 2 a week ago. No illness, or teething or anything by the way.Thanks moms!!!
My 20 month old wakes up like a newborn as well. I was told to shorten her day nap. I'm going to try that. Perhaps you can shorten nap
time as well.
I wouldn't lock him his room either, it would make him think his room is a form of punishment. What I would to and have done with my oldest when she was this age is, when he gets up at night and comes downstairs to your room, just calmly, without harrassment or saying anything, take him back to his bed, tuck him in and leave. It WILL take several times and a few nights but he will get the idea that nighttime is bedtime, not playtime. The climbing out of the bed was a novelty, something new he learned to do and probably pretty fun for him. The new bed is the same. The novelty of having the ability to hop out of bed by hisself will wear off if he realizes that nobody wants to play at 2am. It will be hard on you and hubby but be consistant and he will learn.
Good luck. The terrible twos are a challenging time and I'm right there with you...again!
We just moved my son to a toddler bed too. He's 2 1/2. We put a baby gate on the door. I was worried he would get out of the house in the middle of the night if we didn't. We've discovered that he doesn't like having the door to his room closed. He's been going to bed much better since we started leaving the door open. Some of it may just be trial and error.
put the baby gate up in front of his door. dont play his getting up game. be firm, if you put the gate up then you dont have to worry about him wandering the house alone. if you need to take everything out of his room except for his bed so that when he wakes up he doesnt just play and make a mess.
Kids have a huge growth spurt around this age. Make sure he is getting enough calories to help this spurt and feed him anytime he says he's hungry. I always kept snack food avail too. Once the growth spurt is over he should get back in his routine.
I already had the kids in toddler beds by this point and a gate across the door. They were safe in their room so if they did wake up and want to play then it was no big deal.
Wandering the house is never a good idea so make sure each and every bathroom door has a child proof lock on it so they can't wander in. Under no circumstances should they be able to get into any bathroom, not until they are much older even if there is one in their room and they are potty training. They can topple over and until they are close to 3 they often have trouble raising their neck up enough to lift their head out of the bowl, especially if their feet are off the ground.
We had the same issue with my son when he first turned two. Here's what we did:
First, he needs a bedtime that is the same every night. Even 20-30 minutes different is too much. Our son goes to bed at 8:00am and wakes up at 6:45. It's the same every night/morning. Then, we got him a lamp that has a really low setting - it acts as a nightlight. Then we got him a flashlight - Target has a really great one. It has three settings and one of the settings makes the body of the flashlight "glow". Kinda like a glow stick. He keeps this in bed with him on the "glow" setting. Then, the last thing we did (and yes some will disagree with it) - we told him that if he cried, then we'd close his door at night. If he stayed quiet and stayed in bed we could leave the door cracked open. He resisted a few nights and we gave one warning before we closed the door. He would go to the door and cry then. So, we put up a baby gate so that he couldn't leave the room. That made him mad! So, we let him cry for a while, then came in and explained that the door could remain cracked open and the gate would come off if he quieted down and stayed in bed. And we told him that if he continued to cry, we'd take his flashlight away.
You may think that your child is unable to get this concept so young, but trust me, he's not. We had about a week of struggling with this, but then it got better. He's three now and goes to bed with no issues now. However, he LOVES that flashlight and won't go to bed without the flashlight and his kitty (stuffed animal).
I don't know what to tell you except we're in the same boat! My 2.5 year old started this in July, and it has gotten a bit better, but we've been up as much as five times a night! He's still in his crib and if we gated or locked his room, he just screams and wakes us all up anyway. It is exhausting! I wish I had an answer for you except "this too shall pass."
My son did this too. He was sleep walking which runs in my family. We would find him all over the place but usually in our room. He eventually outgrew it.You can't always tell when they are asleep.
