Padded Cell, oh, I mean their bedroom...

So the girls are 2 years old (26 months old), since they started climbing out of their cribs, I put their mattresses on the floor and have had to take everything (including stuff on the floor of the closet and rearrange the whole upstairs. They are still managing to get into the closet and thankfully they only unlocked the bathroom door once... We have limited space and as it is, I already feel like I have lost storage space since we really can't use their room anymore for their things. (funny how you spend all this time getting their room ready for their arrival, only to dismantel it and empty it out when they are 2 years old).

So I have tried, taking away stuft animals, lovies, pillows, etc.. That doesn't work as yesterday they pretended to be me doing it and all of the stuft animals and blankets ended up in the hall...

I tried sitting in the room, but they just poke at me and get excited, and then I am fighting falling asleep.

If I go in because I hear something they are not supposed to be doing, then I do not speak to them, I just put them back in their room.

And, there is a baby gate at their door, so they can't escape and run around the hall...but I don't know how long that will last. They are tired....and so am I.

 

oh, and the baby gate just got figured out...... :grr: :gah:

 

Oh I feel your pain. I feel like I'm buying out Babies R Us' stock of extra tall gates. I would highly recommend it!!!! It's called "Summer Extra Tall
Walk Thru Gate." We just had to put my twins in toddler beds cause they kept climbing out of their cribs (they are 29 months old) Sometimes when I go to get them in the morning they have dumped out all the toys and most of the clothes in the dresser (mostly one of the does the dumping...the other one just keeps screaming, "Noooooo!!!!" I usually make them clean it all up with my help of course. That seems to be helping. They seem to be better at bedtime now that they are out of their cribs because they got a real rush out escaping from their cribs, etc. Now if they cry at bedtime they usually just find their way back to their bed or the recliner and konk out. At least I know they can't get out of the room with the extra tall gate and that helps me keep the last shred of sanity I have left.

Good luck! Hopefully we will both survive this stage!

shannon

 

They do make closet door locks, you might want to look into those so they can't get in.

We have bi fold doors and I still use these


This is what I used for the doors in our house.

 

We put these on the inside door knob handle and shut the door - we did have to tape it as I think the frist night one of my boys was able to take it off pretty easily.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3502254&prodFindSrc=rv

and these on the closet doors since our slide from side to side

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3747465&searchURL=true

hope this helps

 

This may not be ideal for you, but bedtime was making me bonkers and this is what I have been doing and it has worked for us. I take the girls in their room and with the lights turned down, help them get settled down in bed, give kisses, pray, and in a soft voice talk to them about their day and tell them how much I love them, etc. and remind them that they need to stay in their beds because it is important that they get rest and for mommy and daddy to rest too, so we can have lots of fun in the morning, etc.

Then I sit quietly between their beds until they fall asleep. If they try to get out of bed I tell them that I will not stay in the room with them if they get up. I warn them that I will count to 5 and if they are not moving back toward their beds that I am going to leave. I haven't had to actually leave, thank goodness, but I would if I had to prove that I would do it.

The next phase will be to sit closer to the door, then outside the door and so on. It hasn't been perfect but it is worlds better than having them scream and cry, get into EVERYTHING or climb all over me in my bed til they fall asleep and I have to carry them into their room each night.

In hindsight, I wish I had handled bed/nap time differently from the beginning, but I've never been able to just close the door and just let them tire them selves out. No flames to anyone else, honestly, I just can't emotionally handle the crying for mommy and carrying on.

ETA - Also, my girls have never had play time in their room. We have been lucky enough to have other space for their playthings/playtime, etc. So, their room has really only been used for sleeping, at the advice of my pediatrician. She beleives that as much as possible, the bedroom should be a room that children associate with sleeping, as opposed to playing, etc.

 

definitely find a way to lock the closet. ours slides from side to side, and I got the flip up type that is usually used on sliding glass doors, works like a charm. you can also turn the actual door lock around so that you lock it from the outside... just make sure you have a key hidden somewhere they can't get to inside the room in case they figure out how to lock you in!

I attempted toddler beds at 2 yrs and gave up for frustration. we have TWO very active children. now at 3 yrs it's better, but still very frustrating. i actually have found that they fall asleep better on their own, so I have one at the dining room table kinda strapped in for "time out"... and give them a pillow to lay forward on while the other in the bed falls asleep. then I transfer the one back to the room after both are asleep. this has worked a bit for the last couple of days, but isn't really a good solution full time!

 

AAHHHH! So, I tried sitting in the room with them....I distract them even reading in monotone stuff that they can't even understand... I thought those locks suggested with the pocket doors for the bathroom would totally work (and they did last night, but the true test is the nap....) well they figured that out- I have no idea how- their bedroom has always been for sleeping/changing clothes, NOT playing. AND My bathroom is an absolute mess right now. If this was NOT 4th of july weekend I would pack them up in the car and drive around until they fell asleep then park at the beach until they woke up....but since people started setting up shop at 7am I don't even want to think about goin there. Maybe after the 5 mile run and the hour zumba, I should suck it up and walk back down there ( then I could add a little over 4 miles of walking to my workout)....

 

It is funny how we spend all kinds of money on cribs, bumper pads and sweet decorations when really what we should do from the beginning is turn the nursery into a padded cell and remove the closet all together! we could all live in padded, gated communities!! Maybe we should all go in to business designing homes for real families ~ we could be RICH!!

I am stressing because of our new baby and this kind of thing. We have moved into a house that I love but is SO baby unfriendly!! and I need about 12 tall gates, and door locks, oh I just cannot even imagine the things this boy will get into!! I am in trouble!

 

so... what kind of door do you have?? a pocket door? what type of lock did you have??

I would try and try again for figuring out how to lock it up. is it a door from their bedroom to an adjoining bathroom?

I will say that most of the time when my kids are hugely wild & crazy, truly they aren't tired! most naps and night they aren't tired, and I'm thinking that our naps should be phased out. today I wore them out with swimming and sun outside and no naps, and lo and behold my dd is asleep at 6:40p tonight on the couch and my ds was in bed by 7:30p. I might have to keep up the no napping thing if they will get in bed so easily at 7:30p!!

but yes, that's a great idea to create a room idea for "real families"!!

 

Awesome and cheap solution for baby proofing a pocket door... with the door closed, my husband drilled a hole straight through it in the top corner near the door frame and we put a 4" long metal rod through the hole (a pencil would probably do the trick, too). When you try to slide the door open, the rod prevents the door from sliding into the pocket and the door will not open. The rod can be pulled out or put in from either side of the door. We have these in all 3 of our pocket doors and it has NEVER failed! The downside is that you have to drill a hole in the door but it is so far up in the corner, it's hardly noticeable. Let's see them figure THAT one out!!!

Good luck!

 

I ended up putting two of those attachments on the pocket doors. Which they stayed out of yesterday, but with all the illegal fireworks going off were freaked out so I ended up sleeping in their room anyway. They go to daycare today, so I am going to look at their sleeping arrangement and figure out if maybe the position of the beds is off.

I think with the naps we are just in that transition phase- they still need it because they are a mess if they don't. I hold the belief that sleep allows sleep. I think I need to figure out how to not get worn out wearing them out... When it is nice out we are always doing outside activities- I don't like to be inside unless it is dark or cold. TV is limited too.

Add more insult, we don't want know if we are going to keep or sell our home, so then there is the whole not wanting to spend money or do something drastic until we figure that out!

Heather- I totally wrote that in my blog the other day- about the absurdity of preparing a nursery for the arrival of the babies, only to tear it down! Although, I think it is part of the process of preparing for new humans coming into your life and change is happening!

 

Our boys figured out one of our walk-thru baby gates too. So at first we used a camping mat strap to wrap around it and basically tie it shut, but that was a pain to undo and redo for us to go through it. I then found something called a "cable cuff" at Home Depot. It is orange plastic and has a hook thingy with "teeth" that can only be opened by pulling the "trigger" back on it. Basically it works like a handcuff. And it was big enough to wrap around 2 gate poles. We are able to open it one handed now to unlock the gate. Anyway, that may not be something that works with your gate but thought I would share.