Please help - anyone else had this problem? (sorry - long)

[BettyTurnip]

We have three dds, age 4.6, 2.7 and 9months. After months of putting it off, we finally moved dd2 into her sister's room on Tuesday night to share bunk beds, and tonight moved the baby out of our room into the smallest room (previously dd2's room and cot).

My worry is that dd2 is a real handful - a physical, climbing everywhere, into everything type of toddler. She was watching with great interest tonight when I was putting some of the baby's toys etc into her old cot, and DH and I have an awful feeling she will be up through the night or early in the morning (ie. around 6am) going to "visit" her baby sister. She is able to climb into the cot and I am worried that she'll get in and land on dd3, who will probably be fast asleep up til that point.

I've got crap hearing and Dh sleeps like a log, so the first we'd know about it is when the baby squawks in terror at being crushed by a hefty toddler. We're considering putting a bolt on the baby's door but I'm concerned about fire risks. Anyone else had to resort to this?

Never had any problems like this with dd1, so any advice much appreciated!

Well how about taking the baby toys OUT of the cot, so toddler has no need to climb in it.

Please don't put a lock on the door - it's dangerous. In the extreme.

has she worked out how to break through a stairgate?

otherwise, could you not manage a few more nights with the baby in with you? because it isn't very long for the new room to have become the "norm". i'd leave it a couple more weeks and spend the time thinking up boobytraps/early warning systems

we put a round door handle on the nursery room - they were all quite old before they could master that!

She wouldn't be going into the cot for the toys - more to cuddle her sister (but obviously at her age she can be a bit rough and needs to be supervised).

You've confirmed what I thought in my head about the lock - had awful visions of the house aflame and dd3 locked in her room. Eek.

I think maybe a stairgate on the baby's bedroom door would be the best way to deal with it. Or does your dd2 climb/open them?

Yes, she can open all the stair gates we've got. We were trying to think of booby traps to keep her in her in her room as she'd started climbing OUT of the cot, then thought we'd bite the bullet and put her in the bunk beds as I was concerned she'd hurt herself clambering around in the dark.

Will look at replacing handle with a round one but have a feeling she will master that - she is a force to be reckoned with!

You might find that the new room is more entertaining than going in to see the baby!

I'm thinking mazzy might be on to something - leave it a couple of weeks whilst she 'claims' her new room and mentally lets go of her old room/cot.

Yep, probably the best way. Was just so excited at the thought of...ahem... having our bedroom back to ourselves again that I couldn't bear to leave it any longer (Oh, and of course, dd3 getting to sleep on a proper cotbed mattress rather than a travel cot, so much more comfortable for her)!

Our friends reversed the handle on their doors so the handle had to be lifted, rather than pulled down to work