Any alternatives to taking the cot sides down?

[elcap]

My dd1 2.5 climbed out of her cot last night and was very proud of herself, despite her bump on the head. We took the sides off as I didn't want any more head diving. However if took 2hrs to get her to bed, she fell out at 4.30 took a while to settle and then pottered down to the kitchen at 6am to look for some milk.... this is combined with dd2 (4months) waking for a feed at 2am & 4am.

I had a serious sense of humour failure this morning and have put the sides of the cot back up and the mattress and base on the floor. I am hoping that the extra 20 cms will give us another month or so and I might have sorted dd2 sleep by then.

My questions are : Has anyone else put the base on the floor (in desperation really) and will it work? Any other tips to allow the sides of the cots to stay up? (she is already in 2 sleeping bags) SHould I bite the bullet and remove the sides, and if so how can i get her to stay in the bed!

Thanks in advance for any tips

I put the mattress on the floor and a stair gate on the door and pretty much ignored all 'noises off'. It worked for us. dd1 was a weird child who didn't get out of bed until we went and got her, but preferred to sleep in her cupboard. dd2 was a bit of a shock with her random night time wandering.
Both of mine were out of their cots at about 2.6.

Have Alison at the gro duvet

Alison?

A look.

It's the novelty. It'll wear off after a few nights. Ds2 was just a year old when he went into a bed. I say bed - it's a mattress on the floor under ds1's cabin bed

Both boys went to bed at the same time, and we shut the door and ignored any noises. First few nights when we checked on them an hour or two later and moved ds2 from the interesting positions he'd fallen asleep in (certainly not in bed!), but then after that he was grand.

We keep doors closed at night and he can't reach the latch so we don't need to worry about early/nocturnal wanderings.

Dream tubes - they are amazing (they sell on Amazon).