3:30 am visitor | Imamother

miami85

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 6:49 pm

My 3.5 year-old has been regularly crawling into my bed around 3:30am. DH can't see without his glasses/lenses, and I'm usually not interested in getting out of bed. He goes right back to sleep until 6ish, so I haven't made a big deal about it. Lately though, he's been taking over my bed, and if I get up to go to the bathroom, I find he's given me very little room.

The strange thing is that I've seen him fall out of his bed and put himself back in and go back to sleep.

He used to complain of "monsters", and I took away the alleged source of the "monsters" but he's still coming.
He knows how to open the door knob, and if it's locked he just pounds the door until we open it.

I once tried escorting him back to his bed, but he must have still been somewhat asleep because he just WOULD NOT stay in his bed kept saying something about needing to go to the "big bed" I.e. mine.

Any suggestions?

bnm

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 7:03 pm

having similar issues besides for the fact that son CAN'T open my bedroom door and will tantrum till its open. Last night was the first time I slept through the night in a week because somehow he got in and I had a bottle prepared on my night table that he found. I woke at 6:30 to find him in my bed.

ElTam

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 7:19 pm

We bought a package of Matchbox cars. He got one for every night he stayed in his bed. It took about a week and a half until he got in the habit.

morah

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 7:33 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

Put a small mattress or pile of blankets next to your bed. Let him know that if he needs to be in your room, that's his bed.

We did this too. He wen from waking us up every night to never waking us up. And he now only comes once a week or so- but we don't know till morning anyway. The point is, we're all sleeping and not fighting.

miami85

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 8:36 pm

We did that recently when we had an overnight guest sleeping in our living room (where DS bed is) and we couldn't stay with him until he fell asleep so we set up his preschool mat and his blankets. He eventually fell asleep, but I think he did eventually make his way into my bed.

I think its that he wants a real bed, but he does go to sleep willingly in his toddler bed. I'm trying to figure out what's waking him up that makes him come to our room.

I don't think it's something within his control--that's why I don't want to make a reward/punishment out of it.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 8:44 pm

3:30 every single night? It's his sleep rhythms. DD wakes up consistently at 2:10am, and she's 11 now. She's been that way her whole life. That's when she's in a particular part of her biorhythm that wakes her up.

As a baby, it was feeding time. When she was a toddler it was nightmares. As she got older it was when she needed me to take her to the bathroom. A few years later, she started sleep walking. I'd walk her to the bathroom, and then back to bed. Now she wakes up, and wants to talk for a minute, and then I can tuck her back in. It's maddening, but that's just the way her brain is programmed.

I absolutely second having little mattress for your child to sleep on, instead of your bed. I made that mistake early on, and it took me forever to get her to sleep in her own bed. Using the floor mattress was the transition that finally worked.

Mon, Jul 28 2014, 8:45 pm

Is he in a toddler bed? Perhaps get him his own "big bed" unless he's comparing his twin sized bed to your king sized, in which case I doubt you're going to upgrade him.