Putting Toddlers To Bed - What Do You Do?

We had to move DD out of her cot and into a toddler bed a few days ago because she was able to climb out of the cot.

So bedtime has become a bit trying as she gets in and out of her bed a million times. The last few nights I've found myself getting quite irritable and it's especially hard as DP isn't home in the evenings one week out of two so I have to do dinner and the bedtime routine on my own grrrrrrrrr.

I think my plan of attack will be to basically ignore whether she's in bed or not because nothing I do has made a difference to her actually getting into bed - but let her do whatever she wants to do and I will read her a (long) story even if she's ignoring me, then leave. That seemed to work tonight.

She does seem to be able to get back into bed and go to sleep even if she's out of bed when I leave.

What's your routine?

DD was similar when first going into a bed, once the novelty wore off she started being alot better, altho now she is back to getting in and out, doing god knows what, we hear thumping but when we get up there she is back in.
Now we've set ground rules, she takes one toy to bed and books she can sit in bed read her books play with the toy til she is tired and only get out of bed if she needs to use the toliet. This seems to be working well.

We have also moved DD into a toddler bed and we do the same routine as we did while she was sleeping in her cot..She has the routine down pat.

Starts with a bottle, then nappy / clothing change (we put her in a sleeping bag too in these cold nights as shes a wriggler and ends up in the most peculiar positions), then we read her a story in her bed, dummy goes in, night light is switched on and thats it. She hasn't even escaped!

He used to wander around at night playing with all sorts of things. If we heard particularly loud/destructive sounds like thumps and bangs coming from there, we'd stick our head in and hustle him back to bed but otherwise left him to his own devices.

At first, he would end up asleep on the floor (during the warmer weather thankfully). Then he started to put himself back to bed when he was done. Now, he tends to stay in bed. We got there eventually. :)

ETA: Oh yeah, I should add that he used to escape, so we put a safety gate on, and then he used to open the door and throw things out, sing to us, etc (their bedroom door looks directly onto our one living area), so dh has rigged up a system where he can only open the door a crack, not as fun, so he doesn't do it really. He was furious the first few nights, but got over it soon enough.

Subbing - as we'll be in this predicament by Christmas! :lol:

With DD for the first few nights we went through the usual routine, book etc and then turned off the light and sat next to the bed, didnt talk to her or anything. She would then simply go to sleep but understood that she had to stay in her bed. After a few nights of this we simply then put her to sleep in her bed, left the room and didnt have any problems.

DS on the other hand has always required someone to sleep next to him, so we laid down with him till he fell asleep and then left the room.

To be honest we dont have a routein.. apart from bath at night..

But he knows he has to stay in his bed.. or else!!! ;)

I am not going to spend my evening putting him back into his bed 50 times.. did that once and never again!

We have never had a prob from day one with DS going into his bed, he's not yet gotten up once when going to bed at night. And when waking during the night (only sometimes) he just sits up in bed & calls out for me...he is 2.5.
We just kept everything as it always was, he's still going to bed so still needs the bath, milk, story etc. We turn the telly off & just chill & then to get him to his room we give him a horse ride on DH back....off he goes.
The one thing I never changed, that often I've heard of people doing (not sure why) but it could have made the difference - and that's the door. We still walk out & shut the door. If need be, I will open it later due to hot weather etc but it was always shut when in a cot, so we shut it now. If he gets up...like in the morning we can hear him. If he was to get up in the middle of the night I would hear & would be able to tell if he was wandering his room in the dark. I think it helps because its dark, the door is shut & he can't see anything so he goes off to sleep. It creates another novelty when they can get in & out of bed & then in & out of the room....just IMO!

subbing!
Want to get Charlotte in a bed when we get home...not looking forward to it! lol


Just a slight tangent? ... She still fits in her cot (length wise) well, can I just take the drop down side off and use it as a toddler bed or do I need to get a special bed?

LS, My mum just used to take the side off the cot for us when we were younger, you don't need a specific toddler bed. also buys you a bit of time before you purchase a proper single bed.

fabby thanks Trill! :)

I wouldn't go and spend money on a toddler bed, when you feel ready just buy a normal single bed.

we had to take everything out of DD's room and have only just put it all back in, because she'd be awake for hours playing (and breaking things)
our nightly routine is
We have a milk drink
We have a race to the bedroom
nappy changed, pj's on
then we put her cuddle toy sheepie to bed and give him a kiss and cuddle and DD reads him a book.
Then we read her a book tuck her in leave her to it!
i'd say 3 nights out of 7 she actually goes straight to sleep, the other nights she's up and about pottering but she's always in bed sound asleep by the time we go to bed.
Sorry not much advice on how to stop her getting in and out of bed, but so long as she's happy playing and does eventually jump back in, i'd say leave her to it. unless of course its some ridiculous hour, then go in and tell her to go to bed lol

I am subbing too. I don't think I can put off getting DD into a bed much longer, LOL!

Luckily we have the Ikea cot which converts to a toddler bed. So once we feel he's ready, we'll just do the adjustments and it takes up the same space and it will feel familiar to him!

He's so independent though, that I reckon he'll just get up and play! :rolleyes: That's why I'm leaving a bit longer yet!

We found her in bed this morning asleep cuddling her box of blocks!

Lol awwww, how cute :D
DD1 can climb in and out of her cot with ease (she uses a port-a-cot) so now bedtimes are pretty sketchy... she is staying up later to eat dinner with DH and I too so the bath/bed routine has been interrupted (she has a bath at 5:30 when DH gets home from work).
We have a babygate at the door of her bedroom (was intended to stop the dog chewing DD's toys to shreds, now the dog lives outside) and she's learning that bedtime means just that - we do the whole cuddles and kisses goodnight, a story, then pop her in her cot and if she wants to get out of bed and play with her toys, that's fine, she eventually either climbs back into her cot or passes out on the floor with a pillow and blanket. Some nights when she's cranky she'll stand at the gate and yell for us to let her out, but I try to leave it as long as possible, going down the hallway a couple of times to remind her that it's time to go to sleep or she'll be tired and cranky in the morning.

We're working on it, but I definitely like having the babygate there to stop her running amok :D It might not work for much longer though - I woke up yesterday morning and she was climbing into bed with DH and I so she must have worked out a way to climb over it :/

We changed DS over from a crib to a bed a few months ago. His new bed is a loft bed with a railing around it and a slide at the end (I was scared of him falling out at first but the railing contains him well and we have his crib mattress on the floor next to it just in case). This has been great as it's a bit more of an effort for him to get out of it since he has to crawl all the way to the end and then get down the slide. The first week or so he would get out of bed several times after we put him down, but we would just pick him up and put him back without saying anything. Now he knows not to get out. He might cry for a few minutes but he stays put and he loves the bed so much he usually go to sleep pretty quickly. I turn on a white noise machine which he also really likes and seems to get him to sleep quicker. In the morning he'll come down the slide and then crawl into bed with DH and I.