bed time fight with DS 2.9. HELP!

[supadoula]

My DS has just started this hilarious game of getting out of bed every evening, several times for as long as it takes for him to become sleepy enough to sleep.
He has just moved to a "big bed" as he was climbing out of his cot bed anyway.
We have tried being nice and intimidation but nothing seems to work.
Any help very much appreciated as this is driving DH and me round the bend!!

Did someone suggest you had a stairgate on his door before he went into his big bed? Hope so. If not consider one?

Bedside light and a pile of books to look at? You can remove them and turn the light off when he falls asleep.

Tape player with stories on so he can lie down and listen and hopefully drift off?

We put ds into a bed when he was 2.4 and the first month was fine (I don't think he had twigged that he could get out). Then he started getting out and the fun and games started. We already had a stairgate on his door in case he accidently went wandering in the middle of the night. We tried various interpretations of rapid return but he just thought it was a game and it would take 1-1.5 hours every night.

What worked in the end for us was making sure he went to bed with a couple of toys (whatever he happened to have been into that day). The first night we said 'if you get out of bed we will taken toy1 away'. So when he got out of bed we took it away. We then said 'if you get out of bed we will take toy2 away, if you are still in bed when we check back in a few minutes you can have toy1 back'. So when he got out of bed we took toy 2 away. We then told him 'if you are still in bed when we check back in a few minutes you can have toy1 back'. Although he wailed quite loudly he did then stay in bed and got his toy back. The 2nd night we only had to take toy 1 away before then returning it when he stayed in bed. Since then we have rarely had to take a toy away.