Going to Bed

Give him an early bedtime the next night if he gets out of bed. Kids hate that stuff, especially when they have to go to bed and it's still daylight out. Nip it now or it will only get worse. Believe me, I still have a 10 year old that has problems at night. It's harder with that age. Good luck.

I had this problem with my son. Both of my children still get in my bed from time to time. I talked to my peditrcian and she suggested this. Have your routine, bath, story and then give them a hug and kiss and tell them good night, it's sleepy time. If they cry after you have left the room, wait 5 minutes, go in and consule by a kiss, but no talking. Go out and wait 10 minutes before going back in, etc.(add 5 minutes every time) For the child who gets out, keep putting them back into bed, without engaging in conversation. No water, no extra stories, nothing, unless they have to use the potty. I just kept repeating, it's time to go to sleep. We will talk in the morning.Honestly, it took me 2 months of doing this before it worked, but he didn't regress. He is now 6, I had problems for 2 years, before I went through it because i would be so tired and just give up, but trust me it was worth it!

My daughter was 2 when we moved her to a twin bed because her baby sister was due in about 4 months. At first it was a huge struggle. What worked for us was putting her back in the crib--which we actually never had to do! We told her she'd have to sleep in the "baby bed" that night because she wasn't staying in her big girl bed, and just the IDEA of having to go back to the baby bed was enough! I don't know if you have a bassinet or pack-and-play that you can use for your infant temporarily, but perhaps moving big brother back into the baby bed for a few days would help. Good luck--this was a tough transition for us, too.

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L.,

Something that I found helpful with my 4 year old didn't take quite as long as some of these other suggestions but it did work quite well. I took him to the store and he helped me to pick out some special decorations for the wall and a night light for his room. We put the decorations on the wall and we put the night light in. Then at christmas time I found this amazing bed tent type thing and put it on his bed, he loves Thomas the Train, so all the wall decorations and the bed tent are Thomas. Now he sleeps in his bed and it looks like Thomas the Train and his wall has wall clings that he can see at night so all his Thomas friends are there with him. With all of these things in place within a couple of nights he stopped getting out of bed. Check out allaboardtoys.com for the bed tents. They have all different ones depending on what your child likes or do a google search.

Hope this helps, good luck.

It's exhausting, I know. But he's two and has a new sibling. This is an exciting time for any kid.
My oldest would come into our room (and they always pick Mom's side...); and one night I finally said: "I'm tired, I'm going back to sleep and so are you"
It's a battle we all go through. May the rest of yours be simple to figure out.
Wishing you a good nights' sleep...

How tall is your gate? We bought the 3 food tall ones and they work great. My son only figured out how to open it a month ago at 3 1/2. He now opens it for us but knows he is not supposed to open them with out our ok. Our kids are tall and the normal size gates never would have worked in our house.

go to supernanny.com, she worked for my very stubborn and stronged will daughter

I just moved my 2 yr old twins to big beds and put a child lock on the door. We can easily open the door from the outside but they can't get out. My son is a major climber and so I knew a gate would be useless. I was nervous they would get out while I was sleeping and wander around the house getting into trouble.

Occasionally they play in their room for an hour or even longer, but usually it's just a little while. I go in and check about every 30 minutes (not more often because I'm hoping to avoid a habit or game), tuck them back in, gently remind them to stay in their bed, sing our night time songs again, and give kisses. Usually I only have to go in once and then they fall asleep. Basically my stance has been that 7:30 is bedtime, after that they must be in their room without mom and dad. They will fall asleep eventually.

Of course, I do have 2 and I realize that it's probably easier for me and them because they have a playmate and a little security in their sibling.

We go with the Supernanny approach too. It was really bad for awhile right after our baby boy was born, my toddler fought hard and no approach really seemed to work. So I just resigned myself to not make it into a struggle, to take a deep breath and remind myself that she is only two and it's her job to test her limits and figure out where they are. So every time she got out of bed one of us would silently lead her back into bed. It took a few weeks, some nights were better than others.

My son is now 7 months, and my daughter 2 years and 4 months, and it's pretty decent. She'll normally get out of bed once, maybe twice, but she knows it's not going to get her very far or gain her any attention at all. We ignore her completely as her room is gated and she isn't a climber, but often she'll poop a few minutes after lights out.

It's so frustrating, I know!

We also had a son who could climb out of the gate. We got a second gate and put on and he figured out if he laid on the floor and kicked he could kick the bottom gate open lol. Put a hook and eye on his door and tell him if he comes out the door gets closed. it will make him angry so be prepared for a couple of nights of him coming out, you closing the door and him screaming. but it only takes once or twice for that. make sure the room is childproofed. as they will climb to the ceiling at that age if possible and if you can't see him you won't know what he is into. we ended up putting childproof locks on all his dresser drawers as he pulled them out like stairsteps and climbed up and then we had a fingerprint masterpc on our wall of vasoline. but like i said it only takes a short time to get them back on track. another thing that plays in is how much does he sleep in the daytime? he should by this age only be taking 1 nap and not a super long one. maybe 2 hours and i would try to get that scheduled no later than noon. good luck

I feel as if this was me. I think that most kids do this why i really dont know cause mine still does it and she is 3. We also have the big girl bed. She dont care. All I can say is patients and lots of it. Maybe 7 is to early for him does he nap??? Rememeber as they get older they try to see how far they can take it. You just keep putting him back and good luck to you.You are not alone. GoD BleSS!!!