So, after they are out of the crib.........

[muskiesusan]

how do you keep them in their room? For the most part Nick is good about staying in his room, but he will pop down to see what we are doing if we haven't gone to bed yet (the first instance he caught us eating cake, so he probably thinks we have a party every night!). He can climb gates very quickly, so that's not an option.

Also, do you keep toys and stuff in their room? Does that distract them from sleeping?

Thanks!

Susan
Mom to Nicholas 10/01/01
& Baby #2 due 4/23/04!!!!

[brubeck]

LOL, your cake story made me think of that Pillsbury commercial where the parents are eating cookies while the kids are supposed to be sleeping. :)

We have a gate in the hallway so Amy can't get out further than we want her to. The bathroom is behind her gate for pottying if needed. Before she was using the potty we just locked that door.

There are some toys in her room, but there are no lights. Since she's in the dark, playing gets old quickly. She sometimes looks out her window, but so what? When she's tired she falls asleep. I don't know how you do naps, but we have been putting our kids down in a safe area with toys and letting them nap when they want since they were only a few months old. The nighttime thing is similar. When they get tired they go to sleep.

[Lyanna]

Have you tried using a gate on his door at night? We use this for our 2 1/2 yr old daughter and it works great.

We do keep her toys in her room, but she knows that when it's bed time or nap time, it's time to sleep and not play. She has stuffed animals on her bed that she can play with in bed, though.

Hope that helps!

Lyanna

[egoldber]

OK, am I the only one that closes their child's door at night? (We still use the monitor.) We do have toys and things in the room, but for nap and night she just doesn't bother them.

HTH,

[raynjen]

We used to close the door at night, but about two weeks ago she hit the developmental milestone where they get an imagination. She went from "scribbling" to "drawing" in one day. Not that there is any difference in her pictures, but she sees what she is drawing or sculpting now and will talk about what it is (see mom, the pretty snowman?) Back to subject... when she hit this milestone all of a sudden she was "scared" to sleep in her room at night. She would cry when we put her to bed saying "scary, scary".

I admit, I'm a sucker for fears as I STILL can't sleep with the closet door open (and I saw Poltergiest almost 20 years ago!) so when she said she was afraid I jumped. It actually worked out for us though, we now have a pact that I will leave the door open at night if she will stay in her bed. Believe it or not this works about 90% of the time. We also made a "special" light to go in her room (a plain night light covered in a butterfly vellum paper).

We do have a harder time with naps, but even then she's pretty good about staying in her bed if I leave the door open (now what she does in her bed most folks could only accomplish in a gymnasium, but that's another story.)

So...I guess encouragement, encouragement, encouragement. We all go through the ages and stages!

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (who is 2 yrs. 3 months)

[muskiesusan]

No, we close the door, too, but he just opens it. We also would put a gate up, which he can climb in a matter of seconds, so I stopped bothering with that. The scary part for us is that he is sleuth like with all his actions. We use a monitor as well, but we still can't hear him a majority of the time until he appears in front of us (I have tried several different monitors). For the most part, he does stay in bed, but he does and will get out occasionally and that concerns me.

BTW, I started putting toys in his room, and he just says good night to them before he goes to sleep!

Susan
Mom to Nicholas 10/01/01
& Baby #2 due 4/23/04!!!!

[mom2kandj]

DD had a gate and now stays in her room with the door open. DS just moved to the twin in his gated room and so far, is not climbing! :)

My best friend had a climber and she just put two gates in his doorway(tension gates on top of each other) for a few weeks until he got the idea that he needed to stay in his room until daybreak. HTH!


Rose
mom 2 Katie 12/02/00
& Jack 04/16/02

[JulieL]

DS is still in the crib, but I always close the door and will have to in the future as well. Our apartment is small (1200 sq ft or less). His bedroom is right next to ours and right behind the hall way that connects to the bathroom then into the kitchen/dining area. So the door is shut or else mom and dad would just keep him awake.

[twins r fun]

I haven't tried this because mine don't climb over a gate (and are back in cribs after a short toddler bed experiment), but I've heard of people putting those childproof door knob covers on the inside of the door so the child (theoretically) can't open the bedroom door from the inside.

[abigailsmom]

This sounded crazy to me at first and I'm sure that someone is going to point our the safety risks, but... I know a couple that turned the lock on thier daughters door around. As in lock her in and not let her lock you out. She knows that she goes to bed when the door is closed and that she can't come out until she is let out. Kinda sounds bad when you put in black & white, but if she needs anything she goes over to hte monitor and calls for Mom or Dad.