What do I do if he wakes up?

[SleepyMamm]

In the horrible situation of my toddler can climb out his cot but is also really upset sleeping in his toddler bed and wants his cot back. It's not a cot where I can take the side down. I've been trying for a week to get him in the toddler bed and have ended up putting him in the cot during bed time as he gets so hysterical and getting out and hitting door within seconds.

By some miracle I've done bed time and he is fast asleep in toddler bed. I'm so anxious about the night, he will wake up and get out I'm sure, what do I do? Do I just keep going in and putting him back in? Do I go in and cuddle him back to sleep? What do I do if neither works? He's only just 2

An anxious bump

Hi op
Wonder if it’s worth looking on marketplace for a cot that can be used with three sides ? You can get them cheap/ free
Tuck a sheet round him nice and tight for added secure feeling ?

We had a "bed guard" on their grown up beds, both to create a sense of enclosure and stop them falling out.
If he's climbing out of the cot, there is no question about continuing to use it. Just not safe.

We put a baby gate on out kids’ bedroom doors at this stage, so they could get out and roam their (childproofed) rooms but not the whole house, and they still felt there was a boundary. Not going to lie though, it was a tough transition for them both, that took a couple of months of tears at bedtime as well as sometimes during the night. We just stayed firm, because the crib isn’t an option when they can climb up and out of it. You do have my sympathy though! I have friends whose three-year-olds angelically nap in their cribs, while my two both were in toddler beds by 19 months!

DS2 didn't want to give up his cot, either. We put his 'big boy bed' mattress on the floor so he'd feel more secure (from falling a 'great distance') and let him pick out his own 'special' sheets and bedding (a God-awful Batman 'motif') and made a big deal of his 'Batman bed, why, it's just like Batman's'. It actually worked. Maybe worth a try, just grin and bear it if he picks out something horrendous.

Oh, and if you have an older child, niece/nephew, or the older child of a friend your toddler adores, have them make a 'big deal' out of the new bed.

DS1 (5 years older) made out he was 'jealous' of the Batman bed. That helped quite a bit, too.

Remove/dismantle the cot so it's out if sight and not an option. We always had a baby gate across the doorway at that stage. Agree with putting the mattress on the floor, or put lots of pillows on the floor along the edge.
Has he got a teddy or something that he could out to bed?

Did he pick his own 'big boy bed clothes'?

We make a big deal about DD's 'special' bed when she wants to sleep in with us.
If we tell her daddy's going to sleep in the special bed she runs and jumps in before he can then settles straight down laughing 😂

We had a cotbed. And when I went to lower it. I stupidly. Somehow broke it.
So we brought a new junior bed. Dd was 13m and had a bed guard. She loved it. Never climbed out till about 18m which she did in the mornings. We had a gate on the top of the stairs so she could get out and come into us or her big brothers room. Bathroom door kept closed or she'd be in there hands down the loo haha.

Our ds 18m is no where near a bed yet. He wakes multiple times and would be in and out like a yoyo. He's a climber though and can nearly get out his cot on lowest setting so could be sooner than we wish

My eldest at 14m kept climbing out cot on lowest setting. The night er ended up the hospital with him concust from falling was the last straw. So we got a full size single bed and guard with a pull out bed under which we pulled out to soften to fall if he fell.

We just took one side off a normal cot and it was still completely stable. Actually it was a drop side cot and we took the drop side off.