Re-caging the tiger- has anyone done this?

[WreckOfTheHesperus]

DD (nearly 2) was a fabulous sleeper until she threw herself out of her cot 4 months ago, and we took the side down to turn it into a cot bed.

Since then, she gets out of bed and wanders around her room playing and singing until late into the night. We put a stairgate on her door, and send her straight back to bed whenever we see her out of it, but are worried that she doesn't get enough sleep.

Have tried sitting with her, but she can go for hours without going to sleep, and then the evening has gone...

She sleeps well in travel costs when we're away, so we are now thinking of putting the cot side back - anyone tried this successfully (please say yes )

I haven't done this, but I did revert to a high chair with restraints (Ikea Antilop) after DS initially took to - then pissed about in - a high chair without restraints.

He seems quite happy back in the old chair, and the tantrums, which caused me to make the change in the first place, have not reappeared.

I didn't make a big thing out of it, and he seems contented enough, even wants to be lifted into it. Perhaps your DC will welcome the return of her cosy bower? Alternately, you could first try to make her "big" bed more bower-like, by adding a canopy. Sorry for the Ikea plugging, but here. We have the leaf one, with a blanket over the top, and a quite tall cot bumper to boot, and DS seems to love hiding in his little cave to go to sleep.

Hope this helps?

how late is late? What time does she go to bed if you leave her?

I would worry about a nasty fall. My dd has been sleeping much better since we put her in a proper bed, we have one from Ikea with a small rail on the side, I think she feels much more secure in this than in a cot with the side down (though our cot had the side removed completely) I have you thought about a sleeping bag, would make clambering out a bit mor ticky.

with ds 1 we put a stairgate to keep him in and he moved his bedside cabinet to the stairgate and climbed over. We took that out and he then just worked out how to ope the gate from underneath.

Ds 2 stays in his room but roams playing and bounding about. We now leave him to play a bit -in the dark surely it's not for long! and then he makes his way back to bed. Yes, we could make him go into his bed but he would protest and then we would have battles over making him stay in his bed. He's in his room and he always makes it back to bed. It's good for him to learn when he needs to good to bed. He's 2.2 and goes to bed @ 6pm and is alseep by 7 at the latest. Some days he goes to sleep as soon as I leave the room it all depends how tired he is.

What I'm saying is what is it you're not happy with? That she doesn't stay in her bed? That she's not getting enough sleep? Is she happy in the day, do you feel she needs more sleep? I think this is all new and exciting for her having some freedom. Let her enjoy it and she'll learn to go to bed when she's tired. Expect her to stay in her bed and you may create a bedtime problem that wasn't there.

Main worry os that she isn't getting enough sleep; she sometimes is still roaming sround as late as 10.30pm .

She goes to bed at 7.30-8ish, and is already in a sleeping bag, but is rather agile, nonetheless. We were also considering trying one of those duvets that's fixed to the bed instead of the bag.

She has a 45 min nap during the day at nursery; they have refused to let her drop this, although she can go quite happily ay the weekends without a nap...