PLEASE HELP Advice seriously needed for 2y ds's bedtime!!!!!

[Lauraa83]

Hello

Ds has slept throught the night since he was 8 weeks old.......has always been perfect sleeping 12-15 hours each night, dropping off on his own, never waking in the night etc.........like I say just perfect...(I got him into a good routine with controlled crying which worked really quickly when he was about 5 or 6m).............

until now.......

In August, he managed to climb out of his cot but was banging his mouth on the way down, flinging himself over the egde...lol........tried it with the dropside left down but he was nearly tipping the whole thing up.............so we got him a big boys bed and for over a month he was just as good as before.......he wouldn't even get out of bed in the mornings, he would sit there calling "mama, dada!" for us to come and get him out!

So because we thought everything was ok we have now chucked his cot mattress away so going back into a cot can't be an option really

Anyway, 2 weeks ago, he just started getting out of bed as soon as we left the room to play with his toys........I tried the put-him-back-in-to bed-and-say-nothing thing..........then ended up taking all his toys out of the bedroom........................next he was running out onto the landing........so I stuck to what I had read about and without talking (or sometimes I just said "into bed") took he back with no fuss about 60times. I thought it would work but it didn't. In the end the only option I had was to stay with him with my head on his pillow talking about trains lol until he dropped off with me there.
Next night that didn't even work so I gave in and took him back downstairs until dp got home and ds fell asleep on him then he put him in bed.
Obviously though, whatever we do, as he will only settle off with us there, everytime he wakes in the night he runs in our room!

I understand that taking him back downstairs and lying on the bed with him is the wrong thing to do...........I've read all these parenting books

Anyway, so last night I thought right I want this sorted.......I am going to be strict and stick to what most the books say........so everytime he got out of bed I took him back and I was there from 6:05pm till 9:15pm and from a rough calculation I must have put him back into bed over 500 times!!! Seriously, he was leaping out of bed before I had got to the door sometimes!

So I can take it that this one does not work for my ds!

Please give me your advice/stories.........I will try anything......

Trouble is I have read everything I can and I can rule out controlled crying as he will not lie in bed to cry! If I hold his door shut he just runs around his room happily occupying himself!

I just don't know what has happened! And it probably feels even worse to me as he was always so good with sleep/bedtime!

TIA

[colditz]

Does it matter if he is running around in his room? Ds1 has always done this, sure sometimes he ends up sleeping on the floor using a tractor as a pillow, but usually he gets into bed.

He is happily occupying himself, if he gets bored and calls to you, just shout 'night night' and he will eventually get the hint and go to bed.

[waterfalls]

Put a stairgate up so he cant go onto the landing, put toys back in his room and let him play if he wants, my dts (2.10) play for about 30 minutes every night then get themselves back into bed and go to sleep.

[colditz]

Yes, stair gate essential IMHO. That is what they are for.

[waterfalls]

Oh hi Lauraa83, did'nt realise it was you, lol, I never look at who is asking for advice

[Lauraa83]

Hiya

Thanks for replying......

No not really it's just that like I said he runs out onto the landing and everywhere really playing with no intention at all of going to sleep. So to do that I would have to have a lock or something on his door(might sound a bit drastic)but should i do that????? Another thing..... at the moment no matter how much I tell him he keeps touching sockets! We have covers for them all but I suppose if I did keep him shut in the room I would worry about that I suppose lol but that could be solved easily I'm sure so forget that lol
But actually as I'm sat here typing this I'm just imagining it and that does sound like a kind of good thing to try
Thanks

I feel as if the answer must be an obvious one that's simple! I hope

[Lauraa83]

oh thanks to you too waterfalls!

Sorry........I really don't mean to be awkward lol but because of a wall at the top of the stairs we can't have a stairgate on his door.

[Lauraa83]

So as you have both said similar things....shall I........

1. put the toys back in his room
2. try and think of something I could use to stop him coming out of his room not a stairgate but like a stairgate lol... I suppose I could try holding the door till it works?

Do you think?

[Lauraa83]

have managed to fit stairgate in his bedroom doorway

so will put his toys back in and let you know how it goes

thanks so much for your help, even though it isn't nighttime yet I feel better already

Anyway, thanks again and i'll be back tomorrow night

[waterfalls]

Hope it goes well, my dts like to pull all the clothes out of thier drawers, so they now face the wall and I have to shift it round every time I want to get in

[Lauraa83]

Hiya

Yeah lol he done that a bit last night but he usually does that in the day anyway

Spent all yesterday afternoon fitting the stairgate and attaching those safety straps to fix his wardrobe to the wall lol......

Well, last night I done exactly what you said and he played for about 45mins or so, then cried at the gate asking for us, so every 5-10mins one of us just stroked his head and said "yeah into bed it's nighttime" then in the end, bf lifted him into bed and said "lie down I'll be back in 5 mins" and by then he was asleep! He only woke once in the night which is good compared to 2 or 3 every night for the last 2 weeks! And when he did wake, bf done the same thing and it worked again. By sticking to this I'm sure he won't wake in the night at all soon and I (hopefully) think it will all go back to how it was

I don't know what I'd do without MN! Thanks so much to the both of you - no book I read had this answer!

And it might seem obvious but a stairgate and letting him play in his room was something I didn't even think of! Because like I said he's always been so good at night the first time I heard him out of bed and playing with his garage I thought "right that's it into bed!" so I suppose I caused most the problem myself really but I just didn't think of it like that.

So thanks again and I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy

[colditz]

Glad this worked for you, it worked for me too. I also insisted that ds1 stay in bed at first, but really it's a battle not worth fighting. If they know they're not getting out until; morning, they'll go to sleep when they're tired.