I would like some ideas about how you've kept your kids in their rooms at night. I have 2 1/2 y/o GBG triplets, the girls share a room and I have one, Anna, that continues to get out of her toddler bed through the night, ~5-6 times. I've tried the safety things you put on the door knob so they can't open the door, but my other daughter, Karly, gets up and breaks it so Anna can get out . Now we have a tennis ball but same issue, Karly gets up and opens the door for Anna (Anna is much shorter). I've ponder the idea of a lock on the outside of the door but have reservations about that as well. I've in the past turned her toddler bed around which essentially puts her in a crib again but I don't want the confusion. Any ideas? I'm tired of interrupted sleep at night.

Thanks for your time and input,
Jenny

I had my door cut in half so the bottom half can be closed while the top half is open. I also switched the doorknob so that the lock is on the outside of their room. At night, the bottom half stays closed and locked so they can't get out, but I can still hear them b/c the top half stays open. Oh, and the bottm 'half' is actually about 5 1/2 feet high, so there's no way they can climb over it!

HTH!

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

Ours were in cribs until 4 years old, that way they were old enough to understand they had to stay in their room.

Good luck!

We still use a wooden baby gate to keep ours in and they are 4 years old. We have no clue as to why they don't try to climb it or knock it over. We are thinking of moving to a house with more acreage and are thinking that will be when we take down the gate.

Suzan

g/g/b August 21, 2005
my miracle 24 weekers!!!!

Hi Jenny,

We have everyone in their own room. The safety door knob covers worked for two of mine. For the third, we actually resorted to tying her door knob to the stairway banister. We would tie it until she went to sleep and then untie it. I was worried about her being tied in there if something awful happened like a fire or break in. The concept of locking a child in her room was hard for me, but we just didn't know what to do. We were in the same place of really needing sleep.

We were just about to move to locking her door, but she quit trying to escape. We tied her door shut for probably 2 weeks and then were able to stop. She doesn't try to get out anymore. In fact, she'll yell at us now when she needs to get up to go to the bathroom. It's funny how their little minds work.

Susanne

gbg @ 31.6
5/2006

>I was
>worried about her being tied in there if something awful
>happened like a fire or break in. The concept of locking a
>child in her room was hard for me, but we just didn't know
>what to do. We were in the same place of really needing
>sleep.
>

You have to weigh the likelihood of bad things happening and make the best decision based on that. The likelihood of a fire or break-in is just so much lower than the likelihood of a toddler getting hurt while wandering around the house unsupervised in the dark! That's why I wouldn't think twice about locking them in if needed.

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

Susanne,

We did what you basically did with my oldest singleton dd, who was also transitioned to the toddler bed at a relatively young age. We would keep the door shut until she fell asleep either by sitting on the other side of the door and holding it shut whenever she tried opening it or tie it closed with a rope until she fell asleep. Like you, once she was asleep she was free to open the door if she happened to get up at night. For us, it was a method we used to get her to fall asleep at night and wasn't something we did in order to keep her in her room during the night. It also took about 2 weeks, 2 very long weeks - lol! Oh, and I remember feeling bad about doing it, too. -- Gloria

Mom to five girls: ages 11, 10, and 8/8/8

If I was afraid my kids might get out of their room at night, I would turn the doorknob around and lock them in and not think twice about it. It's just too scary to think about all the things that could happen if a toddler decided to go wandering. What if she decided to wander right on out of the house? Or if she fell down the stairs and you didn't hear it? Or countless other things.

I waited much later to put mine in toddler beds, so it may be different, but everytime my kids got out, I turned the beds around so they were cribs again. They lost their big kid beds for a week everytime it happened. Didn't cause any confusion at all - they knew exactly why they were back in a crib, but they were older. Truly, if she can't stay in her bed, I would put her back in a crib (with a crib tent if necessary) for as long as needed. She needs to stay safely in her bed while you are sleeping.

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

Well I am sort of at the same stage as you. Mine kept jumping out of their cribs so I switched them to toddler beds. I didn't want to spend the money on crib tents. However, mine do stay in at night, but they have not been taking naps and they are soo grouchy. They think naptime means playtime. I put an extra tall gate on their door. I bought it at babies r us a while back. Its metal and has a swing through gate. It reaches me to my waist and they havent attempted to climb it yet. The next step for us will be locking them in. I also turned the knob around and locked the closet because I dont want them to take everything out of it.

Kelly
GGB born 10-13-07 @ 30 weeks
Addison 3.4lbs
Aiden 3.6 lbs
Averie 1.9lbs

<a href="http://lilypie.com/"><img src="" width="400" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Second Birthday tickers" /></a>

My dds were in toddler beds right after they turned 2 years old. I personally never felt comfortable with locking the door at night, so I never took that route. Every once in a while one would come to our room and crawl into our bed. If it started to become a habit, I would explain to her that she needed to stay in bed and stop coming to our bed at night because it would wake Mommy and Daddy up and make Mommy very grouchy! Believe it or not, that would usually stop the problem for a few months. Then it would start up again, and I would have to remind them of Mommy becoming very grouchy when she didn't get enough sleep. In the beginning I was worried that the girls might wander around the house at night, but that never happened except for one early morning when I found them in the pantry eating Halloween candy. If they woke up, they would simply go to our room (maybe stopping in the bathroom for a potty break along the way to our bedroom - they were pt by 2 1/2 years). They did once go into their older sisters' room and wake them up . . . again, I just explained to them that they couldn't be waking up their sisters in the middle of the night. I was surprised just how much my dds understood when I explained to them about staying in bed and Mommy needing to sleep enough, but I guess kids can sometimes comprehend more than we give them credit for. GL! -- Gloria


Mom to five girls: ages 11, 10, and 8/8/8

Hi Jenny,

We took the door off the hinges. We drilled in two gates (one on top of the other). This way, we could hear everything that was happening in their room but they could not open or climb over the gates. We had Safety First gates that are hard for most adults to open.

This worked for us for years. Now they are potty trained so the gates are off. So, we now have to figure what do about them all coming in during the night to sleep with us...Maybe we will put the gates on our door. lol

Take care,
Alicia

Bedtime story videos - Read by a grandma of triplets: http://storiesbynana.blogspot.com/

When they were 2.5 i had to seperate them we have 4 kids so one went in our bed, one on the couch, one in each of the 2 rooms. About 20 min after they fell asleep we carried them so 3 were in one room and one in the other. we had no luck to get all 3 to sleep in one room. now they are almost 4 we are making the 3 go to bed in the same room and they are old enough now to listen and follow more directions. If they don't we pull the bad one and put them in the room with the single bed.
One prefer's to sleep by himself so does get upset when we have to put him in with the 3 and put the bad one in his room.
once again this has only worked the last 2 months

I used positive reinforcement when I switched them to toddler beds (1.5 mo ago) and it has worked out great. They are 2 1/2.

I put them in bed and tell them they need to lay down and be quiet. Tell them they can read books (they have glow worms) or sing quietly (singing is popular at night here).

I close the door almost shut. In the begining I would wait as few as 45 sec before opening the door. Then anyone who was laying down got a sticker, I just quietly handed them a sticker and softly said "good job laying down".

Anyone not laying down I simpley lay them down, covered them up and leave the room. no words, no negotiations.

Then I keep going in at intervals to reward laying down quietly. I make sure everyone has been rewarded before I start stretching it out.

Moving toward less and less "rewards".

Now I put them in bed, read story, and leave...if its a little loud sounding I go in, and give stickers for anyone laying down. We are down to about 1-2 times going in after they go to bed. They fall asleep in about 20 min.

Same routine for naps.

So far it has been great. Even though they were sitting up in bed and really chatting/playing in the begining. They dont get out of bed. In the morning they wait till I come in to get them out of bed. They chat but fall asleep pretty good.

We switched the lock around because 1) I didnt know if I would need to lock them in and 2) I didnt want them to accidentally (or not) lock us out!

Stickers work great for my kids. Doesnt even matter to them that they can't really see them (they use glow worms). They end up on blankets and the bed but easy enough to remove.

If ever things get really roudy (mostly naps in the begining) then I start removing things like glow worms, books... I say "sorry, its nap time and you are being too loud you can try again tomorrow with your __glow worm__"

Good luck!!

AZTripmom
Born at 34 weeks 4/6/07
Lily 4 pounds
Faye 3.5 pounds
Jack 5 pounds

Visit us at: www.aztrips.blogspot.com

My triplets are 3, and something that has worked for us is a "Tot clock". You can set the clock for awake time, nap time, time outs, rewards, and bedtime. It has a different colored light over the face of the clock for each of these. My kids have learned that as long as the face of the clock is blue (bedtime) you do not get out of bed. We set the clock to turn yellow (awake time) around 7am, and one of my sons will proptly come to our room and say "My clock is yellow, I can get up now".

You can also set it to play music or read stories and play white noise at bedtime, wake up time and nap time.

Amy

Amy,

where did you get the tot clock. I think I may give it a try

thanks
karen
mom to ggg trips born 4/5/07

www.mytotclock.com

They also have them on Amazon.com

Amy