Yesterday morning around 6 I woke from a dead sleep to the sound of Bubba, three inches from my head, shrieking “kitty!”
He’s in a toddler bed that Baby Mama cut the legs off, with a guard rail that’s worked perfectly for containment since he was 4 months old. But now he’s out, the stinker.
When I put him to bed last night he rolled onto his belly as usual, offered his doll a pacifier, and curled up with blankie. A half hour later we’re sitting on our bed watching Grey’s Anatomy, and his door opens and he emerges carrying a train, calling “Mommy, train!” Very excited. We spent the next half hour getting back up and silently putting him in bed, over and over. It wasn’t too bad, and he wasn’t upset – he was just too excited to stay in bed when he figured out that he could get out on his own.
But now what? Tips? Ideas? Do we take the guard rail down altogether, or do we leave it up in hopes that it will at least keep him in bed if he wakes up in the middle of the night? And how can we teach him to entertain himself in his room instead of standing at the gate calling for us?
When P would get out of his toddler bed and come see us, we’d pick him up without a word, put him back in his bed, kiss him goodnight, and walk out of the room. He learned pretty quickly that even though he could get out of his bed, it really wasn’t any fun to bother–Mama and Daddy didn’t play with him after bedtime. It might work!