Moved 2yo from cot to bed...now how do I get him to stay in it?

[ExtraFancy]

We moved our 2yo DS from a cot to a toddler bed about 3 weeks ago, as he had learned to fling himself out of the cot and I was worried about him hurting himself.

The first few nights were fine - he slept well, the odd waking here or there but settled himself no problems.

For the past week or two, though, he has taken to waking up at around 10/11pm, getting out of his bed and calling for us from the doorway (the door is open but there's a stairgate there).

At first we put him back in the bed, shushed him and waited while he went back to sleep - all fine. Now, though, he jumps up as soon as we leave the room, runs to the door, and cries for us. If we try settling him, he just lies with his eyes open, waiting for us to move - last night I was in there for two hours while he refused to go back to sleep.

We've tried leaving him to cry/mumble to himself, but he's started falling asleep on the floor of his room and waking up freezing at about 4am - so the whole saga begins again.

So, any tips for encouraging a 2yo to stay in their bed/convincing him it's a better place to sleep than the floor?!

Oh lordy, my sympathies. DS is 2 in a month and he's been in his toddler bed around 6 weeks.

DH and I take it in turns to do "woody's round-up" at bed time as he comes out about 8 times on average.

We fortunately don't have the middle of the night issue, but if he's up at 5.30am we have to start the whole process again. for weeks he would never go back to sleep, but he has JUST started to accept being put back in the early morning and we often get another 30-45 mins out of him.

Sorry no great tips, just solidarity.

Would he respond to a bunny alarm do you think? I've never tried one .

I think rapid return sounds like your best bet. Presume you're doing as little chat etc as possible when trying to put him back? Keeping lights out etc?

We had this to, put my ds in a bed at 20months, he is 2 in a few weeks and still gets out from time to time, We do rapid retun and this seems to work well, in the early days we did have to sit in his room, (well in the door way) with our back to him _ (large glass of wine and book/mag help) and slowley moved ourselfs out. If bad now we sit at the top of the stairs and he konws were there but dont come out of his room, Stick with it it does work in the end

Yup, no chat, just shushing and tucking under the duvet. He's got a nightlight which seemed to help for the first week or so, but it's lost its magic now!

I just really, really don't want to get into the habit of sitting there next to him half the night. I know he can sleep - he just won't!

Thankyou

Thanks pinkranger, I shall try the glass-of-wine and doorway trick tonight!