For the past few weeks my dd has been waking in the middle of the night. She can open her door so she opens her door and in seemingly stealth mode comes into our room. I am a VERY light sleeper and usually wake as soon as she enters the room but there have been times I didn't wake until she was climbing into our bed. I tried to let her sleep with us a couple of times but she will lay there tossing and turning and not falling back asleep. I will walk her back to her room and change her diaper and without a word put her back to bed. Sometimes she will stay there but most the time within an hour she is back in our room. While I don't like this my biggest fear is that one of these days she won't come into our room but go to another and get into something potentially dangerous. I have begun locking her bedroom door after she wakes and gets out of bed but doing this scares me. If there were an emergency I would want her to be able to get out. I guess I am looking for other suggestions and what everyone thinks about the locking the door thing. I am not sure which is the lesser of two evils, having her locked in or having her potentially wandering the house in the middle of the night. I should add she has a few minor delays and has NO words yet so she really does move in silence. Her room is completely childproof and when the door is locked if she wakes up before us I can hear her playing contently with her toys without a care in the world. The door locks from the inside (her side) but she hasn't figured out how to unlock it yet. I have a feeling this will be a hot topic so thank you in advance for your opinions and realize I want to make the safest choice for her.
Couple of questions to think about...
Have you looked at her nap, especially if she's not crying or acting scared. She might be getting too much daytime sleep. Try cutting back a little.
Also, have you tried letting her sleep with an older sister?
Good luck.
My dd did the same thing & we put a safety gate in the doorway so she couldn't leave (we also still use the 'baby' monitor so I could hear her fussing). She couldn't get out & wander around & I could get in easily in case of an emergency. Hope it helps :)
The vote is: baby gate. I am with the other mommies! That is the best way to keep her in her room without keeping her door locked. If you are worried about noise something will just have to give. She seems as though she is adjusting. Their patterns change from time to time. Let us know what you decide to do!
Hi T.,
Hot topic you bet ya! But there are other solutions. Get a gate and put it on the door. I had a climer too so I put in a door the was one of those half doors (the bottom closed independently of the top. I kept the other and when he was old enough I put the other door back on his room. I locked the bottom but I could reach over the top. But never lift them over the gate or door. They are smart and if you lift her over she will learn to climb it. I wouldn't like being totally closed off from her but I would also concider a second gate at the end of the hall way. There is also the option of putting an alarm at her door if it opens it rings. That you will here. Good luck but dont lock her in. This could be dangerious.
Wishing you good luck
M.
Hi Tamera
I also have a 2.5 year old that moves in stealth mode in the middle of the night :)
I would suggest a baby gate that way you can hear her and get to her should you need to.
Also maybe a water sippy cup. I know my son always needs something to drink, his throat gets dry at night...especially in the winter if the heat is on.
Good Luck
J.
If you are only concerned with her getting into the rooms that she shouldn't be in, there are doorknob cover that prevent children from turning the doorknobs and entering a room or outside, they are 5.95 for a 4-pack and you can find them at this link:
She could be sleep walking or having night terrors. But with night terrors they usually wake up screaming like they are hurt, but don't know that you or anyone else is there.
I wouldn't lock her door, but maybe put up a gate, that she may not be able to climb over. If there were an emergency, having a locked door could be a potentially dangerous thing.
My dd also tends to get out of bed very early in the am and play in her room until she hears us stirring. She also will go out into the rest of the house and find something (not harmful) to play with and bring it back into her room until her brother wakes up. They share a room and play together.
Our twins know how to open and unlock doors, so we have those safety door knob things on them, so they can't get outside.
Hope that helps.
Take care,
God Bless,
J. D
Blessed Momma to Ashleigh & Austin ~ 3 1/2 yrs old
Hi T.~!
That makes ya wanna screen the house in chicken wire, doesn't it? Hahaa...now that was a joke, not a suggestion! :) Well, here's a little outside insight. Your daughter is "checking up" on you. Little toddlers are just older babies. They think like babies, they act like babies, they are babies! A baby's natural instinct is to FIND MOMMA! Well, NOW she has little legs to get her where momma is! (Yay for you, huh? :) Think of your daughter like a little baby lamb. She's sneaking through the night so as not to wake you! She knows that waking "ewe" up is not good, so she does her best to just check on you without being bad. If that doesn't melt your heart? :) Here's a couple of suggestions to help relieve her anxiety:
1) Does she have a favorite bear/dolly/blanket? While she may not be actively talking yet, she listens! Tell her WHENEVER she misses mommy she can hug her bear. Now is the age to start the attachment to a comfort toy to help with her childhood fears. You're the mommy, you know how to talk to her.
2) Put a bell on her door! Not only will it fascinate her fiddling with it, it will give you some comfort on when that door opens, that bell's gonna jingle! (Don't lock it, jingle it!) Put those bells on every door you worry about. Tie them good and tight!
3) Sleep aids. No, I don't mean BENADRYL. (I am so sick of hearing that from people.) I mean Chamomile tea! I don't know if you've ever tried it, but it is delicious! It's on the tea aisle and one is called "Sleepy time tea." Oh, it is wonderful, makes me sleepy thinking about it. The box has a little bear on it and is just a charmer! (Think of all the fun things you can tell your daughter to encourage her to drink it.."Let's get some bear juice!" etc.) The tea is perfectly safe for babies and toddlers alike. In fact, in addition to it's natural sleep properties, it's an excellent tummy soother. You can put this in a bottle or sippy cup and put her to bed with it. I've used that for my little daughter (now 15 months) ever since she was born. She has no sleep disturbances and I directly attribute it to good sleep relaxation. Work this into your normal bed routine, rock her a little while, give her that good secure feeling, her teddy, and her tea...and prepare for zzzz's!
4) Safety concerns. While you work her into a better sleep pattern, secure the house! Spend a little time installing those cabinet latches on all doors that have potentially dangerous items inside. (Kitchen! Bathroom! Etc.) Target has a great selection made by Red Cross..these little buggers are tricky even for me! So, lock those cabinets. Put up those baby gates that are permanently installed. They are made like a wooden "scissor" (you know, like those mug racks!) and are effective against the climbing toddler. They bolt in with little eye hooks and good locking latches. They stretch out enough to go across doorways, walkways, hallways, staircases, everywhere! They run about $30, but they last a lifetime. (And you can paint them to match your house and you aren't stuck with a giant plastic thing scaring off the family.)
I think that about covers what I wanted to say. If you don't try anything, please, try the bear and the tea.
Momma love,
M. and baby Maggie Grace
Oh! So familiar!!! My now 2 yr 10mo. old started that at about the age of 2. Every single night (no exaggeration) she would get up anywhere between 1 & 5am and come to our bed. I went into the hospital to have my 4th baby. I was only in the hosp. for 2 nights. When I returned home... she didn't do it for several weeks. Now she does it again every now & then. It's just a phase your child is going thru. My pediatrician had recommended to me to just guide her back to her room & place her back in her bed. He also suggested putting a baby gate in her doorway, but then you wouldn't be able to shut the door. He said that would kind of reinforce to her that she needed to stay in that space during the night. I never tried the baby gate. I can't lie, I enjoyed her climbing into my bed & snuggling with me! LOL MY husband works away for a month at a time, though.
what about a baby gate on her room that she couldn't open? i would be very worried about locking her in.
We put the baby monitor in our childs room plus put a baby gate. This way we can here her talking as she gets up and usually can meey her at the gate. We were afraid of her getting hurt wandering thru the house so we use the baby gate. The monitor is just an added bonus. My mom suggested for us to sew lil bells on some old socks if she sleeps in any
that way when shes walking you can here her. I havent tried this but its just a suggestion.
Maybe one of those alarms that you can attach to the top of the door would be good for that situation. Once she starts realizing the door will "tell on her" she may stop the behavior. They sell those at most hardware stores.
i always say the first thing to check with nightwaking is due to peeing. it sounds like what you are doing is fine - you just have to feel okay with it. locking her in sounds bad but everything seems fine concerning that. you can try to limit her liquids in the evening, or get her a fancier diaper that might be more comfortable. maybe you can put a new diaper on her while she is sleeping before you go to bed, but she might be waking just because she feels the urge. i doubt she will get into anything that is truly dangerous, and if there is, you can proof it.
something that also might help her since she sounds like the light sleeper you are, is a ten dollar portable fan for white noise in the room. if she just wants you, well, you do what you can, and she seems to be coping.
We have the same problem with our daughter. One night she actually got up, went downstairs, opened the fridge, & pulled out the carton of milk! haha We have a gate on her door, but I don't mind if she would just come into our room & not go downstairs. I've decided that I'm going to get extensions for our 2nd gate so that it will fit across the hallway. Our bedroom door is straight across the hall from her door, at the very end of the hall. So we could put up a gate in the hallway to only allow her into our 2 bedrooms, or perhaps later (when she's potty trained) we could move the gate further down the hall so that she could also get into the bathroom. Perhaps your house is setup for you to do this too?? There is a 3rd bedroom next to hers (my craft room) but we keep that door shut & she can't open it yet, so no problem there yet!
Another possible option if you can't do the gate thing, get one of those alarm things that you can put on her door. When the door opens the alarm will make a noise that would wake you up & you would know she is out of her room.
Good luck!
I went through this will all three of my kids. The smallest was around 2 and would wake up every night and start wandering all over our apartment! I purchased these things that fit over a door knob. you have to have bigger hands and a little bit more strength than a child to squeeze then open the door. I put one of these on the inside of the front door and the kids bedroom door, and the outside of the bathroom door and my bedroom door. I made sure the older kids could open all the doors. After a few weeks of convincing my eldest that removing the new door knobs was bad(he didn't want to have to try to open the doors in the middle of the night so he took the knobs off and hid them, but he got over that), everyone slept better. The youngest would get up, find that he couldn't open the door, and get back in his bed and go to sleep. He was, at the time, having occasional night terrors, so if he was upset in the middle of the night, I was close enough to hear him. He finally grew out of both the night terrors(still happens every once and a while) and getting up through the night(most nights).
We installed regular screen doors on our bedroom doors to keep the animals out of my daughter's room. What I found was the noise of her opening and letting the screen door slam woke me up. We used cheap doors from Lowes.
Wow I hate when people have to talk about this!! How scary. I had a friend that locked her little girl in her room also(like you said is really scary). She did try several things you might try. I do remember her telling me she asked the Dr. and he said she could be waking up hungry. And she has Down syndrome (used few words) so she did tell or couldn't tell her she was hungry. Anyway she would fix her child a scrambled egg before bed or something filling what she would eat and she did sleep mostly through the night.But you can e-mail me anytime. ____@____.com I can get more ideas from her!!!
I have a friend who has a baby girl 2 years old. She does the same thing your daughter does, gets up in the middle of the night, & comes to the parents room. But instead of waking her Mom or Dad up, she gets into the makeup, & bath items. Plus, gets into other things, such as poison's, but is unable to get the tops off. But the Makeup & Shaving Cream, she has a good time with this. So, in saying all of this, the Mom has decided to put BABY LOCKS on the doors of the bathroom, & other rooms that have things that could hurt her child. Keeps Emily (child) room open, & her Mom's room open. But LOCKSA on everything that will hurt the child. Hope this is a Help to you.
