back into cot???

[geekgrrl]

tearing my hair out here with dd - 3.5 yrs old with DS.
She has been in a big bed, in a room with her 5 yr old sister, for a couple of months now and it had been going well. Mainly, I must add, because it took her about a month to work out she could get out of the bed herself.
Of course now she has realised the delights of being able to get out anytime, and the consequences are getting worse.
She has started trying to get into her sister's bed during the night, and is quite persistent there. It's been going on for almost a week now and just cannot continue like this - not fair on poor dd1 who needs her sleep.
Last night, whilst dd1 slept undisturbed as she is visiting London with dh, dd2 roamed the corridor again during the night, I sent her back to bed (she always goes back straightaway, but seems to only stay there for a minute), and when I gave up and got up to get her at 5:50 am I discovered that she had done a big poo in bed which had escaped her nappy and was spread nicely round the room, on soft furnishings, toys etc.
I am so fed up with this. Ds now sleeps in the cot but I can buy a cot bed for dd if that's what's best, but it would be admitting defeat, particularly after it took us a while to get her used to the big bed.
On the other hand, we need our sleep and for rooms to be poo-free.
Don't know what to do?!

I think you need to sort this out now or you will be having night-time distruption/visits/stress for years to come. Believe me, I've got friends whose 10 year olds still visit them in bed every night OR one of them has to sleep with the child every night.
First, can you put them in separate rooms? I'm sure you would love them to share and for it to work, but reality means that maybe that's not a good idea (if you've got room). Second, put on a bed guard and/or stair gate in the door. She needs to get the message that she stays in her room (if not her bed) at night, plus there are safety issues. If she can feel happy and secure in her room now it will pay dividends. I know it may not seem nice, but I really think you need to PREVENT her from getting out of the room and help her to learn that "her" space is the right place to be at night-time.

We have this exact same problem geekgrrl.
DS3 is now almost 6 and is still unable to sleep alone. He slept in our bed from 3.5 until about three weeks ago, he is now sharing a bed with his 11 year old brother in his brother's room.
We are in the position where he will have to share with either his 11 or 8 year old brother.
My mum has ordered him a special bed with slide and we keep showing him the picture of it. He does have enough understanding to know that this is a bed for him.
However I am concerned about how deeply
entrenched the habit has become. If made to sleep alone he just screams and cries, we took what we thought was the right option at the time but I now wish that we had toughed it out with him three years ago.
Whatever you do, good luck, sleep problems are very wearing.

Is this the shape of things to come??
Have deepest sympathy with you geekgrrl. We are just attempting to get dd in a big girls bed now. I was getting so fed up with her constantly getting her limbs caught between the bars, I found it so difficult to free her especially as she was understandably stressed out.
It was mid July, just got another safety gate put on her bedroom door ( she could open the last one!) we were going to change her cot bed into a cot the following weekend. She got her foot stuck for the last time, so like a mad woman armed with a small spanner I set work myself, frantic as it was stuck behind the cot with two kiddies screaming at me and the phone ringing. Like you, it seemed to be going very well at first, I was amazed at how she would still be sitting up by her pillow in the morning, not attempting to get down on the floor and play with her toys. Why?
My problem is her being such an active sleeper- she seems to be spending more time on the floor at the moment- I'm building a lovely file of photos, mostly of her hanging off or underneath her bed.
I certainly agree, get a gate- I wouldn't sleep at all unless we had one on dd's room.
Good luck and keep us posted.

thanks for the responses,sorry I didn't get a chance to reply before - roll on 2nd of september!!!!
I've drastically dimmed the numerous nightlights in the kids's bedroom (dd1 has a somewhat overactive imagination and scares herself into all sorts of things) and that's really helped with dd2's sleeping (finger crossed anyway!!!). Moving them into separate rooms is the last resort really, we do have the space but it would be such a shame, they get on so well most of the time. I really really hope it was just a blip....

We had a visit from the OT the other day who mentioned there is a disability advice service or something that gives specific help on issues such as sleep and potty training. Again I don't know if that is something you have come across and also whether it is just local to here, but it might be worth a try? She is supposed to be contacting them for me so I can probably find out more.

Dingle, you may already have one but have you thought about getting one of the Safety 1st bed rail things. They just go along part of the bed so the child can still get out at the bottom, and are lower than the side of a cot but at least stop them rolling out once asleep. My ds2 has recently moved into a bed and I often find him pressed up against the rail so I know he would be falling out all the time without it.