DD thinks getting out of new bed a game - HELP!

[sleepinghunter]

DD1 now 25mo. Loves "big girl beds" so have just moved her into cotbed from cot. Did the choosing new bedlinen with her etc. in advance. She loves the bed - on and off it like a yo-yo during the day, wants to go to bed before bathtime - sounds great. Unfortunately she goes to bed happy as larry only to get up after a few minutes and appear out of her room. This goes on with silent rapid return for about an hour (still going tonight) with DD thinking that the game is to see if she can get Mummy to talk (she can't) or give her milk (no way!). She remains horribly happy though.
How do I deal with this? Can't believe the little minx thinks it is all a game- was expecting a bit of bed anxiety but not this. Help!!!

I sat outside DS1's bedroom door reading a book for a couple of evenings. Every time he came to the door, I would say "GO BACK TO BED". It was a bit of a PITA but was only for a couple of days and he got bored of it.

problem continues! Bump.

Have you got a gate on the door??
We have a travel gate on DD's door so its not in use during the day and she can plat etc, but at night the gate goes on and although she can get up and play/read etc after "lights out" she cannot get out and come and find us!!!
Frequently she falls asleep on the floor just inside the door and then we canm just pick her up and put her in bed.

just keep putting her back. it is a pita but eventually it works. also make sure she is really tired. i moved dd's bed time to 7.30 from 7.00 and make sure she runs around alot, abit like have a labrador tbh.

Definitely put up a stair gate - we had the same thing with DS - and the game got longer and longer, as he found it really funny, us putting him back again and again. In the end, we resorted to the gate, and going downstairs and ignoring him getting up - as he couldn't get out he soon got bored, and now he doesn't bother, just goes to sleep. There were a couple of evenings when he screamed as well in anger at the lack of attention - we ignored that too, and he crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up after 45 mins the first night and 10 the second. Since then, nothing. The novelty will wear off, I promise. I reckon it was about a month until he was totally settled. We still take a travel gate with us whenever we go away though, and he often opens the door, checks whether there's a gate there, and if there is, he just gives up and goes back to bed. I think the move from cot to bed is quite a big thing for them.

good luck!

tried the travel gate, but DD is SOOOOO feisty that she worked out that if she put her full body weight against the bottom corner of the gate, she can get it to pivot enough on its top rubbers to squeeze her way through. If she's not in the SAS in 20 years time they missed a good one! Thanks, will keep trying

So glad I logged on this evening sleepinghunter as we are having the same issue with our DD, who is also 25 months! Been in big bed for about 10 days, in preparation for a holiday where there will be no cots (and we can't take the travel cot). Also she was too long for her cot and waking herself up when she bumped into the bars.

Like your DD, ours is very happy about the whole thing, except for when it gets to morning. For the last 10 days, she's appeared on the landing at anywhere between 5 and 6am. The trouble is, she's really quiet about it, simply sitting down with a couple of books and her teddy, so we aren't exactly sure when she's getting up. But she's so knackered by about 5pm that we reckon it's pretty early.

The problem is that she's also refusing to have an after lunch nap now too. She used to have a good 2 hours, and has gone from that, to absolutely nothing at all. I spent a fruitless 45 mins today putting her back countless times, only to give up and pop her on the sofa with some Cbeebies instead. DH reckons (rightly I think) that because we can't enforce the naptime, she's assuming it's ok to get up when she wants in the morning too. Also, I read somewhere that if children go to bed absolutely exhausted then they tend to fall into a really deep sleep for the first part of the night and early morning waking is almost inevitable.

We have a static stairgate like the one you have, and will definitely give it a go, but it involves having the door fully open, which makes her room even lighter than normal at 5am (despite blackouts).

Both DH and I think it's not a good idea to regress to the cot again. Are you having the same problems with daytime sleeps?