to want to lock DS in his room?

[BettyButterknife]

DS is 2.9 and has been in a single bed since January. This past week we decided to leave him on daylight saving time, ie just do everything an hour later - meals, bedtime etc - with the hope he might stick to his normal routine which would mean waking an hour later. This is because he's always been an early riser and is often up around 5.30am.

First couple of days were ok, and we even got a lie-in until 7.45am one day. However, after a week he now seems completely scrambled and has been a nightmare to get to go to bed and stay there. (plus the past 3 mornings he's been up at 6.30am, but is only getting about 10 hours sleep which is less than normal). He's been out of bed anything between 20-50 times each evening, and we've been trying to do rapid return. I'm pregnant and finding it exhausting carrying him back and tucking him in each time, and it's driving me crazy. Last night I ended up yelling at DS like I've never yelled before - feel so bad about it

Last night, I ended up holding his door closed from the outside. He put his light on, but seemed to quickly get the message and went to sleep about 10 minutes later.

So is it a bit extreme to fit a lock in order to keep him in his room each night? Have I lost all sense of perspective?? Can anyone help with the rapid return?

We had some stairs in our last house which i felt were unsafe so we put a gate on the children's room when they changed to beds from cots - maybe try that?

agree with a gate option.

I have one of theseon DS3 (also nearly 3) and 2's room which I put on each night after I put DS3 to bed.

I hoik climb over it if I need to go in, and DS2 just hops over.

I just take it down again in the morning when he gets up.

What sort of door do you have?

If you have a solidish wooden one you can cut it in half (like a stable door) and but a little bolt on the bottom half. You can put one on the top half pointing downwards so you can make the door whole again (if needed).

We have done this a few times over the years. Less restrictive than locking the whole door and more adaptable than a stairgate.

I predict his climbing skills will vastly improve once you've cocked your door up

Blackout blinds?

I will have you know BOF that my doors looked lovely only a bit --wonky-

Trick it not to cut them too low down and not have any chairs in the bedroom

I would just keep expecting to see Mister Ed looming over the door

We used a stairgate on ds door from 2.6 when he went into a bed. We only shut it after warnings and always made sure he was ok. After a couple of weeks he got the message. The gate is still on but we don't shut it anymore. You must remember to open it after he is asleep though for fire safety reasons and also so they can get you if they need you. Plus I don't think it is very nice if they cannot get out if they have had a bad dream or need the toilet etc. It worked for us. However, we did have lots of negative comments from other people about this method so be warned. I think people felt it was a bit barbaric. But, ds would have been in and out of bed having a lovely game for hours and all of us were tired and stressed. The strategy worked well for us. In fact in the end ds would ask us to shut the gate - think he felt secure!!

We used the stairgate option too and it really worked. For the first few nights DD1 fell asleep with her arm or foot through the gate, but she quickly realised her bed was warmer and cosier! The same happened for the triplets, though we did have to remove chairs as they tried co-operating to get out!!
As to waking early, we used the 'rabbit clocks' telling the relevant child/ren that it wasn't morning until the rabbit woke up. We set it to wake at 6.30am initially, then 7am, and eventually 7.30 at weekends :-)

Are you sure he's a)tired? and b)not overtired? Both, in my experience, can mean disrupted sleep patterns. Kids change all the time and if he's really not tired there's not much point locking him in his room.
By the way I don't think YABU either way, just thinking out loud.