My two year old BGG triplets share a room. Currently, they do not have ANYthing in their room. They used to have a dresser w/ a cd player and a baby monitor, 3 toddler beds, and books. They fought over the books- they climbed the dresser and played with the cd player and baby monitor- and flipped and rearranged the mattresses on the beds. I had taken everything out except the beds until one night, one of the girls got stuck under a mattress with the other two on it. Needless to say, I took everything out. They now have pillows and blankets on the floor.

I want to put the beds back in. I know some of you will say "they are probably not tired". And yes, some days they nap and some they don't. But I like to give them the opportunity, so I put them down and if they are not asleep in 30 min, I let them out. But it is amazing how much mayhem can ensue in 30 mins.

Also, I have to let them share a room for lack of space (until we get the basement finished). I thought about putting them in pack and plays in various rooms, but they climb out and destroy the room.

The kids are sleeping great and actually have taken better naps without anything in their room. The beds have been out for about a month and I am considering putting them back in, but I was wondering if any of you have had any experience with this. I have had people suggest tying the mattress to the bed, but I don't think that is safe (if they get caught in the rope).

Any thoughts?

Mom to 1 + 3 (10/11/07 @ 35 weeks)

Get tough with them. You say they will climb out of PNP's, but you tell them in a stern voice that this is unacceptable and seperate them, wherever you can.

Kids are very smart and I think alot of people don't give them enough credit. My youngest is 2.2 years old right now, he has climbed out of his crib twice, but he knows that this is unacceptable, I put him right back in and tell him that and he stays until I decide to go get him.

for us, nap has always been 3 hours, no matter what. So you stay in your crib or bed, just put the girls in beds now, they are 4 years old. They are not allowed to get out until Mom or Dad comes and gets them.

You should not have to take all that stuff out of their room and one reason is, because you have all 3 in their, that is just going to create mischief. Find the room, use a laundry room, basement should be fine for a nap in a PNP, your room. At bedtime I have 2 together and 1 seperate. The kids need to learn that it is dangerous to behave like that and catch it quick and nip it in the bud. Take away their favorite things if need be, all I need to do is threaten taking away their favorite thing and 99% of the time they listen.

HTH

Jennifer

I too have NOTHING in their room, but their beds. Their sound machine and monitor are in the closet (which they can't get into. My problem was not them going to sleep and destroying the room, but when they woke up. When they woke up, they would take the mattresses off the beds, get into the dresser, etc. I would have to be RIGHT there when they got up in order to keep them out of things. So, for now we have everything out and it was been working great since we taped the mattresses down. We have a small house with an unfinished basement. Mine can climb out of PNP and we never used them here (we used them at my parent's house).

I used masking tape and taped the mattresses to the beds. It works great! You can't even really see the masking tape because the sheet goes over it. Still easy to change also. I used masking tape because I am hoping it won't damage the mattresses and beds like ducktape would.

"

http://jordantriplets.blogspot.com

Stay in their room until they go to sleep. That's what I did.

Michele
Sarah, Gregory, Amanda
born 1/22/04 at 35w1d

Our surprise baby Austin born 06/15/2005

www.fourtimesthefun.blogspot.com

Ditto. It would take them about 10-15 minutes to fall asleep but it was well worth the waiting. If not, then I had 4 toddlers that would not give me a minutes rest the rest of the afternoon. Small investment but worth it.

Stephanie

Mama to Beautiful Quads
30 weeks, 5 days

and ^Angel Baby^ 1/05

At two I think I was still using crib tents.

Now they are 4. They don't nap, so when they go to bed at night they usually fall right to sleep. But I still stay in there until they are asleep. My DH hates doing this, but to me it's better to stay in there 20 min. than fight the battle.

They have nothing in their room but 3 simple platform beds my husband made, a basket of books and a cd player.

They still LOVE to "mess up their room" during the day. They push the mattresses off the side of the platform bed and create slides, etc. I just let them do it because they are happy and playing together nicely.

You could always put the mattresses down w/o frames. I have a friend with triplets who used double-sided tape between the mattress and floor so they wouldn't be able to slide them around.

Good luck!

Susan

Thank you for all of the suggestions! I appreciate each!

jostach—I agree with you, kids are not given enough credit. I just don’t know if I have the patience to keep up with it. One day I did put them in PNPs. When I went in 10 min later to check on them, they had flipped all the PNPs and took the pads out of the bottom. The room looked like someone had ransacked it. :) I think I could get my girls to cooperate eventually. But my little boy is a different story. Just to give you an idea-he has been in timeout about 8 times just today for climbing on the entertainment center. I have told him over and over that he could get hurt, but he goes right back up.
I will have to try taking away favorite things- that could be motivation! Thanks!!

jabjordan—I was wondering how you taped the mattresses to the bed. I thought of that too and was worried about the tape ruining the mattress and/or bed. But masking tape should be a little easier on the stuff. Where did you put the tape? How much did you have to use?

MSTAR—I know that is probably what I should do. :) If I stay in there for any amount of time after the lights go out, they freak out when I leave. I guess if I stayed til they were asleep, that wouldn’t be so bad. How long did you have to stay in their room til they fell asleep? And until how old?

Susan 31—Do you know if your friend used just regular double sided tape (or found a giant roll)? And how much did she have to use so they couldn’t move it?

Again thank you, thank you, thank you!

Mom to 1 + 3 (10/11/07 @ 35 weeks)

I know what you mean about the patience thing. That's why I quit naps - I was always yelling and getting frustrated when trying to get them to sleep. Not very relaxing for anyone!

As far as the tape, I would probably find the widest I could. I didn't ask for details at the time, because my kids were infants and that seemed like SUCH a LONG time away! I would also ask at a hardware store - maybe they could direct you to something that wouldn't damage the floor/mattresses.

Susan

I have no advice, but had to smile as I read your post. I have 2 and a half years old triplets, and we are going through the same thing. Their room has nothing, no wooden or plastic toys, no furniture, no books, no drapery, nothing, except for crib mattresses with seats, some stuffed animals, and their blankets.

I checked in this forum tonight, because just today one crib mattress got destroyed by them, (they tore small hole to make it bigger, and started digging out form inside it.) Now they are strong enough to lift crib mattresses, rearrange them, flip it up, and play with it.

Today, they refused to nap, and while they were in their room for about two hours, they were putting one crib mattress up like a wall. Two of them held it up, and one of them was standing on the other side as a McDonald drive through person. They were playing, ordering mac double cheese burger for the entire time,,,. Now, we are worried even just mattresses on the floor is not safe for them, and we are trying to figure out what kind of bed arrangement is the safest.

When we went through many of their unbelievable behavior challenges, I have received many advices to be firm to them, with stern voice, but sorry,,, it does not work with my kids.

I would need to stay in their room 24/7 if I need to discipline them with firmness. It does not work with them or me, so we are doing things a little different.

Now, I am thinking of buying a platform full size bed, low and close to the ground. They love sleeping together (when they do fall asleep), and I thought full size bed is big enough to keep them together for the next few years.

I am also thinking of putting in some cardboard large blocks inside their room (not plastic, which can potentially used as a weapon to hit others, or not form, which can be torn up and got eaten, scary,,,), so when they wake up, they do play with it instead of mattresses. I do sneak in the toys after they fall asleep.

If you got other ideas, please let me know!

Mika
mom to Kai, 10, Tomo,7
Aya, Koto, Naoto, 2 and a half years old, born on 07/27/07

My kids did the same things. We took everything out of their room except soft things and we switched out their toddler beds to a queen, which sits low to the ground. Two slept at the head of the bed and one slept sideways at the foot of the bed. I covered the bed with a fitted sheet and the kids each got a pillow and a blanket. This worked for awhile. We eventually had to give ds his own room. He was the instigator of climbling and he would bite everytime he would get mad at his sisters.

Since then, the girls have not climbed anything and they got their dresser back along with a tv which only plays the same version of Little Enstiens over and over. They also got to have their play kitchen and babydolls back.

On that same note DS still climbs his gate. However, he has a few toys and a dresser that is really tall with a tv on top. When he continually climbs the gate because he does not want to nap or sleep I start taking things away from him. I turn off the tv, I turn off his lamp, and the thing that works the best is to take his blankie, better known as "GiGi", away. Once he starts to comform I replace it all and he finally will go to sleep.

Tabitha - Parrish - Chloe
01/01/2007

My BBG triplets shared a room also, until recently, and I have the same type of problem more times than not. If I turn my back for less than a minute, somebody is getting into something they shouldn't be in. What works for me (most of the time), is sitting in the room with them until they go to sleep. I turn off the TV in the next room and try to get the house a quiet as possible, and then I sit down in the foor in front of their closet and wait it out. Of course, some days are easier than others, but it works most of the time. Now they are finally getting to a point that I can actually leave the room before they fall asleep...sometimes

This is exactly why my 2 year old and my triplet 1 year olds are still in cribs with crib tents. I'm scared to death of what they would do. They will be in cribs until they don't fit anymore.

The only thing I can think of is nap mats (like the ones they use in daycare). More comfy then just the floor but they wouldn't be able to hurt themselves like with mattresses. It doesn't really help with getting them to sleep, but would keep them safe until they fall asleep on their own. This one claims to be indestructible:

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca%7CsearchResults~~p%7C2534374302101344~~.jsp

Don't buy a cover. Crib sheets fit these type of mats perfectly.

We used masking tape/painters tape. DH held the mattress up and I walked around the mattress taping it to the bed frame. I did in the middle and on each end. So, each mattress has 3 strips to tape. I just wrapped it around once. Works WONDERS! No one has been able to take their mattress off! And the tape does come off very easily without ruining the mattress or leaving any residue. They did pick at the tape for a day or two, but lost interest.

"

http://jordantriplets.blogspot.com

Oh if I could make a list of things my kids have torn up after we removed everything from the room. They always find something...door stoppers, they have bent the air vents right off the walls, put every thing including poop down the air vents. So as of right now I lay in their room with a book until they fall asleep and then army crawl out. We also purchased a cheap wireless secturity camera from walmart. So when they wake up I see them on my flat screen downstairs. I had been putting off the security camera cause I kept looking at the baby minitors and they were so pricey finally it crossed my mind that I could just by a normal one. haha I'm a bit slow but it has helped me out a ton and saved many pooptastrifies.




http://www.burtfamilyof6.blogspot.com/