He keeps getting out of his bed!

amother

Wed, Oct 26 2011, 10:47 pm

DS is 2. He's been sleeping in a regular bed since he turned 2, 3 months ago and from the beginning, it was story, shema, bed and he wouldn't get out of bed until the next day.

But for the past few weeks, he just won't stay in bed.

I'll tuck him in, say good night, he'll cheerfully kiss me goodnight and wave me off, and 3 minutes later, I'll see him standing next to me, long soft blond curly hair framing his face, both hands in front of his face, hiding a nervous smile...

What's that all about? He'll do this 20-30-50 times. I've been doing like Supernanny and just taking him back persistently, silently and emotionlessly. After a few times, he gets upset and cries and then he starts saying "NO! NO! NO!! NO!!!" And then he'll freak himself out into exhaustion. Eventually he'll either cry himself to sleep or I'll sit with him for a few minutes until he calms himself down. But by then he's too tired to fight me when I leave... And this whole process can take an hour. Which I guess I could handle if my other two kids didn't need me to tuck them in bed too and if my 1 month old didn't need me to feed hime every 2-3 hours...

So how do I get him to stay in bed?

mummiedearest

Wed, Oct 26 2011, 10:57 pm

I let my kids pick an animal and a toy to take to bed with them. they can take a big toy as long as they fit in the bed with it, so they sometimes take a toy castle or circus or something. I don't allow electronic toys in the house for the most part, so I don't worry about noise and lights keeping them up. they have the lights off, but they can see well enough to play quietly. they don't really bother with the toys anymore, but I never had a problem with them coming out of bed.