2 1/2 Year Sleeping by Herself...

I too have a 2 1/4 year old that is sleeping in a big girl bed. She has no problem falling asleep by herself....but I have seen on the "Super Nanny" that you start out by the bed then continue to move away a little bit at a time every other day or so until you are out the door. As for getting her back to bed...Mine is at my side almost every night. UGH!! I have to be awake enough to put her back in her bed. You just have to be consistant. If she is potty training - she may need to go to the potty. My little one always ask for "juice" but she only gets water which is followed by a banana...maybe she is growing...I hope she grows out of this waking up almost every night soon. It can be exhausting! ;-) Good luck to you and I will keep you in my thoughts (especially between 3:30 and 4 a.m. when my little wakes me up - shuffling her little feet into my room) Ahh - we will miss this one day!!

We have a special circumstance in our home, our Master bedroom is on the first floor. I had to ensure that our son could NOT get out of his room. I put a safety door knob contraption on his knob the day I put him in the "big boy bed". I couldn't chance my 22 month old falling down a flight of stairs. I still have it on at 3.5 because we now are forced to use the room as "time out" space on occasion.

I just made a ritual every night, we'd lay in bed, read 2 books, turn off the light and sing 3 songs. 10 - 15 minute process, but better than laying on the floor in the dark! I said "see you in the morning" and out I went. I just do "tough love" sometimes, I try not to give in to requests I don't want repeated. So much easier with baby number two.

Those are things that worked for us!

OH, I want to add that my friend put the training potty in her daughters room in the event that she had to use it - if she did she knocked on her door and called "mommy" - and if the knob contraption sounds cruel, I always hear my son on the monitor before he even gets ou of bed, I always know whats going on.....and he never uses the potty in the middle of the night.

I sat in my kids rooms until they went to sleep. Not a bad habit...it's just the age of the kid. Of course, I did this while they were in a toddler bed at age 18 months or younger. But, gradually you are able to leave and say I'll check on you, have to go do 'this' or 'that'.

Also, as far as getting up in the middle of the night..my 2nd child was really bad about that. I just either walk them back or carry them back. Not much talking (to wake him up) and kiss and hug and tuck him back in. Did he get back up again? Yes. I just repeated what I did over and over until he gave up. I was nice about it, etc.

This one is very simple. Take her back to her bed she she gets up. if she won't stay in her room put a gate on her door she can't climb we found an extra tall one at Walmart. No matter how much noise she makes don't let her out.

Night by night I would reduce the amount of time that I stayed in my daughter's room until I was just giving her a kiss and a good night greeting. If she woke up during the night, after addressing what woke her up I would walk her back to her bed and go back to mine.
P. S

There are so many things you can do. With my son I used a cookie cutter to trace moons out and then cut them out and taped one to his wall. Each night he went to bed nicely, teeth pj's and sleep, in the morning he would get to put a star sticker on his moon and after a few stars he would get a suprise. In the beginning it ws three stars then it worked it's way up to seven, then we phased out the moon. A treat could be some kind of food, dollar store toy, money to save and spend at the dollar store, a bike ride where he lead the way where he wanted to go, etc. This didn't work every night. I had a febreeze bottle decorated with paper and do dads and if he was scared i would squirt it around his room. I told him monsters only like stinky smells not flowers. Some nights nothing would work and he just had to be sad and angry.

Hope i helped!

Cheryl,
My daughter did the same thing. She was so excited about her new bed and when it came time to sleep, she said she wanted her crip back! She would get a few times too. I think at this age, kids need to be reassured especially when change comes about. We maintained a bedtime routine of reading to her and then prayers. We explained to her if she learned to stay in her bed Sun-Thurs nights, then she could sleep with Mommy and Daddy on Friday night. This worked great. She is 10 now and we still have family cuddle time and TV in our bed on Friday nights. You can be firm but also realize that change is what most likely is causing the anxiety. If she cries, comfort her and let her know that she needs to stay in her big girl bed. I am not one that buys into the "just let them cry it out" process. Kids cry and want our attention for a reason. Sometimes they do use crying as a means to getting their own way but I think its our job as Mom to comfort them. I hope this helps!
K.
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Go through your normal bedtime rituals and put her in the bed. Tell her you can't lay on the floor as it might make you not"feel good" and you will be in the_________room and will check on her before you go to bed. If she gets up put her back in the bed.You must be consistent. If she gets up in the night you do the same - put her back in her own bed. You must be consistent and within usually 2 or 3 days it becomes routine. V.

We would put him down, sit for only a few minutes telling him that we had things to do before we could go to bed ourselves. Then we would leave with a promise of coming back in a few minutes. If he cried for us, we explained that he was interrupteing our chores and it would take us longer to get them done and sit with him. Yes, we would come back in and sit with him-or at least check on him. 99% of the time, he was asleep by the time we returned. We did sit with him for about 20 min the first week or so that he could feel comfortable with the new bed, no crib walls, etc.
If he got up during the night, we would walk him back to bed, quietly, tuck him back in, sit a minute or so, and then go back to our bed. If needed, we repeat it per wake up. We did have a gate if he got up multiple times. We also explained that if it was close to his normal wake up time, he could play quietly in his room until we got up....usually, this was within 30-45 min of our normal wake up time for work, and this worked well.

We read 3 books and I have started singing a song or two. Books, turn the lights out, nitelight on, sing the songs and rub her back or something, then leave the room and crack the door with the hall light on. She still fights it. every day is a battle. Some better than others. She will get up on some nights and say she has to go to the bathroom, is scared or what not. I have started just taking her by the hand and putting her back in bed without a word. She usually has a fit and I have to do it a few times, before she eventually goes to sleep (cries herself to sleep). I'm tired too at this point. I have been falling asleep right after I put her to bed finally (usully at like 10pm by the time she actually falls asleep). But she is tired in the morning and I tell her, you need to get up, if you go to bed when you are supposed to and listen to mom, you wouldnt be so tired....Not that she listens...Just keep trying.

Supernanny techniques work very well, but the key is consistency, consistency, consistency!

http://www.supernanny.com/
best of luck.

My daughter never slept in a crib as we co-slept. I thought it was going to be so hard to get her into her own bed once we made the transition. She was about 2 1/2 when we did it and the first night, she came right back to my bed. The next day, I took her shopping. I figured that I always got my kids involved in the shopping process for potty training and it helped because they got to pick their items out. I thought I would try the same thing for her bed. So she picked out bedding for her bed and hasn't skipped a night. She'll be 3 next week and still gets excited about going to her Spongebob bed.