Morning ladies, I too need advice on my 2yo sleeping in her bed. We recently took off her side rail because she was climbing out and put up a safety first gate that we can adjust the length to. That worked for about 2 weeks, then she decided that she wants to sleep in our guest bed and my husband caved and let her. NOW I am trying to get her back in her bed after sleeping in the guest bed for a week and as soon as I leave the room she is out of bed. My husband wants to put the crib back together, but I am against it. I would hate to have her fall out and break something. It is one of those huge sleigh cribs someone gave to me.. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have a newborn and it is really hard to breastfeed and get up every 3 minutes to put my toddler back in bed.
Thank you to everyone who gave advice, I REALLY appreciate it. I've tried putting up the gate a few times and she screamed bloody murder until the entire house was awake. Not only that, she climbed over it and it's a tall gate. I've also tried just letting her sleep in the guest bed, she won't stay in bed. No matter where I attempt to put her to sleep, she gets out of bed. I saw a post on Babycenter.com that said every mom should have one. It was a DVD or Book by Dr Harvey Karp called "The happiest baby on the block" (which will help with my infant) come to find out they have one for Toddler's too. I checked it out from the library and started reading right when we got home. Wish me luck. I am out of patience.
K.,
Can you just let her sleep in the guest bed? Since you've got a newborn I'm guessing she's acting out because she wants to feel like she has some control over something going on in her life. Having a new sibling really rocks a toddler's world. I'm guessing if you just let her sleep in the guest bed, she'll lose interest quickly enough.
:-)T.
What about a sleeping bad on your floor for if she wants to come in? I don't know if it would help, but it's an idea :)
Hi, my advice would be to sit down and explain to your daughter again that this is her bed, this is where she needs to sleep at night and maybe get her to pick out a new special pillow case/blanket/stuffed animal that will be there all night with her. Then if she gets out of bed, your husband (seeing as you are busy with another child) should tell her softly that it's time for bed and take her back, after that just say "bedtime" and take her back and then if she continues to get up simply take her back with out any words or eye contact (I got this from the SuperNanny and it worked for us) and you may have to take her back to bed 30 times the first night but it should get better quickly and just don't give in to her but be gentle and compassionate the whole time (as hard as it is, it makes a big difference if you can stay calm and not get angry with her). She will learn you are not kidding and get out of bed less (hopefully). Good Luck, M.
It does sound like he wants to be in a bigger bed. If he's happy sleeping in the guest bed, why not let him stay there? Our oldest went straight from a crib to a full size bed, at 19 months (when her sister was born and I refused to have two cribs in the house). The middle one was also in a bed- twin size- before two years. My daughters do share a room. Other than occasionally having to tell them to stop talking to each other, they have no bedtime issues.
Hello,
My son was a little older when he left his crib (at his request). For about 3 months, I just put the crib mattress on the floor and then I purchased him a big boy bed. For awhile, we had no issues with him getting up.. eventually, he did start to get up so we began to make a bedtime rule, which we repeated and repeated and repeated (we would also ask him to tell us what the rule was) -- it was not to get out of bed.
Perhaps, you could try a "new" toddler bed or regular size bed (I can't tell if you crib is a convertable kind of if you've just taken off the side to the crib) and see if that makes a difference. It sounds like she is interested in sleeping in a regular bed. Maybe if you got a new bed (even if just a matress on the floor for awhile) with some fun new bedding she'll be interested in sleeping in her "big girl bed".
Good luck. You'll probably still need to put her back in bed and remind her of the rule. She is only 2 afterall.
Good luck
L.
When I was pregnant with my second and still rocking my 2 year-old to sleep, I knew something had to change. I bought one of those kiddie gates and put it up in her door way. We did the whole bedtime routine; bath, story, and songs. Then I would say good night and put up the gate. The first night she ran to the gate and screamed, I think I went into her room and put her back in bed about 4 or 5 times. Each night I went back into her room less and less and then 4 nights later it was done! She actually asked for us to put the gate up at night. It was a sense of security for her. Good luck.
I agree with Stacy, I have a gate up by my sons rooom, it is really a good thing. I put the gate up lay him on his bed he does get mad and throw him self on the floor or have a fit, but I come back out of the bedroom, and ignore him (eventually he gets on his bed and goes to sleep), keep doing that it will be a success. My son will be 3 very soon.
Hi K.-
We have, until very recently, always put a gate across the door of our son's room. He can get out of bed, but he can't leave the room. We really haven't had any problems and it has worked so well for us. It is just a pressure mounted gate and I know that he could knock it down if he wanted to, but I think it just set the little boundary that he needed to get used to sleeping in a big boy bed.
Good luck!
I agree with Mary's post. We tried the technique from Supernanny and it worked beautifully. The trick is to remain stoic and not to make eye contact. Just put her back in bed over and over without getting upset or even saying a word, even if you are still doing it the first time until 2AM! The next night it will be shorter until she finally realizes that going to sleep is no big deal. It worked for us and we have a hugely strong-willed boy (3yrs old now)! :-)
Also, make sure you have a strong bed time routine that she can count on night after night. Make sure she gets the complete routine or else she may start the "I need a glass of water" , or "I need another story" to stall the process. If she has gone through the routine, there should be nothing left to ask for! Good luck!
This technique also worked for us for time-outs by the way although we save time outs for important infractions.
