HELP! 2.5yr old NOT STAYING IN BED

[Mandymoo]

DD has just this week gone into a bed. Shes taking a bit longer to settle when going to bed but we kind of expected that. Problem is that she's waking up loads in the night and coming into us for comfort. We're settling her back into her bed and sometimes sitting with her til she settles again. Is this right or should we be doing something else? So used to having uninterrupted sleep!!! Its like having a newborn all over again!!! ANy advice most welcome X

[WigWamBam]

The usual advice is no eye contact, no raised voice, no cuddles. Take her back, tuck her back in, tell her quietly that it's night time and she must stay in bed, then go back to bed yourself. Take her back every time she comes in to you.

It's easier said than done though.

[Thomcat]

shall i link you to the thread i started on th esame thing this week

[Mandymoo]

YES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

[ghosty]

Mandymoo...
We had this problem with DS too. After months of quietly taking him back to his room etc (4-5 times a night) we got heavy and threatened to close his bedroom door. He hates having the door shut so we told him that if he stayed in bed he could have the door open but if he got up we would have to shut the door.
He is 5 now and we still have problems now ...
TBH I wish we hadn't done the door shut thing because now if he wakes up and is scared he calls out. We now are teaching him to come to us in the night rather than shouting out ... sounds a bit bizarre really but if I could turn the clocks back and let him come into bed with us for a comforting cuddle when he was 2 he may have turned out to be less anxious in bed now ...
Does that make sense?

[Thomcat]

Here you go

[Thomcat]

PS - tonight she only got up once, is now snoring her head off.

[Thomcat]

BUT, she was in to us at 6am this morning, OH NO!!!!!!!!

[chocolatequeen]

We have exactly the same problem - ds is 2.5, and suddenly started waking in the night. Always was a great sleeper, sleeping through at 3 weeks (!), so we weren't quite sure what to do either. At the moment, he is happy to get out of his bed in the middle of the night and just get in with us - he's so quiet now, we don't even wake up! We used to try to take him back but you have to have the patience of a saint, so we gave up on that one!! He's a pretty happy chap, so don't really want to make bed into a battle ground at this stage. He goes to bed fine in his own bed (I have to iron or read outside the door until he's asleep, which is about 5 mins) no crying or calling out, but it took 2 months of me lying next to him until he was asleep, and then slowly moving out of the room. Started by standing inside the door of his room with ironing board outside until he went to sleep, and now can be right out of sight. Hopefully won't be long before I don't have to stand there at all. Now we're just hoping that one day he will just start sleeping through again, but at the moment it isn't causing any of us major problems, so we're just picking our battles I guess!!

Think you need to find a solution that you feel comfortable with - are you happy to take it in turns each night to keep taking him back, are you happy to shut him in, are you happy for him to come to your bed etc etc etc.

Good luck!