Once they are in big kid beds...

I was talking to this other mom, who was telling me a story about how her daughter is in a big Daddy's Girl phase and she only wants Daddy... as the story goes on she mentions that when their daughter woke up that morning and called out she went in to get her and the daughter said "No Mommy, don't get me, I called for Daddy".

So, I know all families do things differently! This girl is 4 1/2 though so I was surprised that a parent was going in to get her. Are your kids not allowed to get out of bed until you come get them? Is that so they don't wake up up? :lol: I was just wondering if this is common.

 

Their door is closed and has a door knob on it. The stairs are just out of their room and we're not risking it (plus frankly they'd just destroy the house in the morning if we didn't hear them!). So yes, we go get them in the morning. There's no room to put a gate on the stairs.

 

I get that when they are newly in big kid beds, I'm curious how long you plan to continue that though. Will you still be doing that a year from now?

 

My kids have pretty much gotten themselves up since they were in toddler beds (2 1/2). Of course, now that the twins are 6 and in first grade, I have to drag them out of their beds most school mornings.

 

The kids were in big beds when they turned three. Upstairs is their bedroom, a bathroom, and Annabella's room. They had a door knob cover on their door since they could walk. Well-last week, or two weeks ago, Anthony knocked it off-and I haven't put it back on.

We have the monitors on and go up and get them at 7:30/7:45am. Now-the cover hasn't been on in over a week. And JUST this morning, Anthony came down the stairs looking for me. LOL! They went into Annabella's room and entertained her! And honestly-today was also the first day they even opened the door! My kids are just weird.

I, personally, have no problem with them coming down the stairs. However-everyone else-including dh-are apparently nervous about it. They say the stairs are too steep and they all freak out. Yet, I am the one home with them all the time. And they had to learn to go up and down the stairs since they were young-there were TWO of them! And not to mention, a third showed up 19 months later....

So-no clue where this is going to go, or what they are going to do. But I personally think they are old enough to come down the stairs on their own. DH returns tonight. We will see what happens in the morning! His fear is they are going to get up in the middle of the night and roam around. In four years-they have NEVER done that. Or-in the last year they've been in a bed-they just don't get out of it!

 

Really, it depends on how good they are at not destroying the house, LOL. We'll probably have to leave the bathroom light on or something though... so they don't fall down the stairs.

 

When our kids wake up they come into our bedroom and wake me up. After that, sometimes they will go downstairs and play and sometimes I will turn an episode of Dora on for them to watch in our bedroom. I don't remember ever telling them to wake me up, but that is what they have always done since they moved out of their cribs.

 

They had door knob covers on until just about a month ago when we got the stoplight clock. I think bc it was on for so long they didn't even realize they could open the door LOL! Now they know when the light turns green they can get up, if we aren't already up they come to our room We don't have stairs either though.

 

I was amazed when I heard that my niece always called out for mom/dad when she woke up in the morning because the twins never did. They just got up. To this day, the first thing they do when they get up (all 3) is come to mom/dad's room to get us up.

 

Mine have been in toddler beds or twin beds since they were 20 months, but only able to open their door since about 3. We have really weird door closures in our house so that was a natural preventative to them wandering around. Since age 3, though, they mostly just sit up in their beds and talk until we come in and get them. Some mornings one will get up to go to the bathroom and then go back to bed. And maybe once every two weeks they'll get up and start playing in the family room. They did come get us five or six times when they were just about 3, but then stopped. I suspect they think it's fun to start playing all by themselves. I'm usually up before them anyway, but on the rare Saturday morning that I oversleep I usually find them singing songs or making up stories in their bedroom.

 

The girls have mattresses on the floor in our bedroom & always move there in the middle of the night. In the morning, when DH leaves for work, they climb in bed with me for about half an hour or so. When they're ready to get up, they go out to the living room on their own, get themselves a yogurt & turn on the tv. I usually get up an hour later or so. They're usually very well behaved but I have woken up to some interesting things once or twice.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

 

I do remember, when all three of mine were still in cribs, the idea of them eventualloy coming downstairs on their own really freaked me out. We have never had a problem with it though.

 

We took the gate off their bedroom door when they were 3 so they could use the bathroom by themselves. Since then they've had the rule that they must stay in bed until 7 and then after that they can either come wake me up or go play (in their room or in the den). They can't open the refrigerator yet (heavy door) so they don't help themselves to food. They also know not to turn on the TV. So all they do in the morning is read books or play.

 

I can't even begin to imagine what my kids would do in the bathroom by themselves in the middle of the night... yikes LOL. And the fridge has a lock on it... I don't know what's up with my kids....

 

My twins are 2.5 yrs old and we keep their bedroom door closed still, they've been in toddler beds since just after they turned 2. However, my older kids stayed in bed and called me up until they were about 4 yrs old. I finally taught them to just get up. Now, my oldest two are 9 and 5, and they get up on the weekend and watch tv until the twins wake me up. But we have a 9am rule, they can't get up until 9am, and sometimes they even sleep later then that.

 

It is so interesting to see how things are different in each household, especially things that evolve and you didn't "plan out" ahead of time.

My boys are 3.5 and they have the sun/moon light and that has been amazing. The only baby/kid product that truly did change our lives! Before I would have to keep telling them it wasn't time to get up but now they know it's not time. When the sun comes on they turn off their sound machine (don't really need it but they like it so we just kept using it) and turn their light on dim. On a rare occasion one will still be sleeping and we're working on getting to the point that they will let the other one sleep. I am ready by the time the sun comes on so I then go to their room. In the last couple of weeks I am noticing that they aren't getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night anymore and usually wait til the sun comes on. I guess just getting more mature bladders?! Anyway, this part of our day is going very well for now so we're all pleased. AND, little sister is 2.5 and we gave her a bed a couple months ago and WOW, so easy to transition one in a room rather than two at a time!!

Here's a link to the light we have. We resisted due to the price of such a simple thing but we're glad to have invested the $!! I think we spent a bit less than this but we didn't get free shipping so I think it was $46. There are lots out there but the simplicity of this is great.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Nite-Lite-900-381/dp/B002N4IN0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320969148&sr=8-1

 

So far (we just transitioned to toddler beds from co-sleeping) our early bird just comes to our room and climbs into bed on my side to snuggle (and chat if I am not very strict) and hopefully doze off for a bit longer because 5 am is just too early for everyone. The other one either comes to snuggle too later or - more often - is woken up by me starting the morning routine.

We told them they are free to come to our room but they are not allowed to wake/disturb their twin. So far they have been very quiet in their room in the mornings.

Their room is next to ours and right next to the steep stairs. We do not close their door or the gate at night - they have known these stairs since before they could walk, so I am wary of the stairs but still confident that nothing will happen. We also have a night-light on the landing with a motion sensor that goes off as soon as they leave their room - this gives them security in moving around and wakes me up (so if they do not turn up in our room quickly I go and investigate).

 

mine are pretty tired now so they aren't waking up too much early thank goodness! (they're in preschool and I quit naps so they'd go to bed at a decent hour). anyway... we got the red light green light alarm clock! LOVE IT!

I don't have the sound alarm on it yet, but it does do that if you want. I have it so that the green light goes off just before 7a. the kids this morning were chattering away but quiet and in their room. the light was still red, so I went in and just sat with them and enjoyed a few minutes. funny thing was they were in my dd's bed together - so cute! anyway, when the green light went on they got so excited and knew we could get up and get ready now!

the first few nights with the new clock weren't so great, but it works great for us now. they do seem to stay in their room with the light on red.

we also don't have stairs, though I have a gate at the end of the hall but truly they can climb that...

 

Mine have been in toddler beds for about six months and I leave their door cracked open at night. In the morning, they always just come into our bedroom, jump on the bed and start demanding that we go downstairs and get them their juice.

Rarely, they will go and play in their playroom for a little bit before coming into our room. I do still have a gate on the top stairs that they can't open - they have to walk by the stairwell to come into our room and I'm worried that they might trip and fall down the stairs in the middle of the night.

 

My DD has been in a toddler bed since she was 19 months (just transitioned to a twin bed last night, since she beat her toddler bed up) and my DS has been in a toddler bed for about a year. We keep their doors shut and both of them know how to open the door, but for some reason they just wait for us. I have no idea why. Both of them will lay in bed and occupy themselves with a book or toy until we get them.
Now, when my son first transitioned to a toddler bed, he was a wanderer and it made me and DH nervous the thought of him roaming the house in the middle of the night, so he did have a lock on his door but we don't really use it anymore.
Rachel, I love those pictures of the girls!
PS: I just wanted to add that we do shut the bedroom doors in the house at night because for some reason, I cannot sleep with a door open.

 

Our twins have been in full sized beds with no frame when they were 18 months and we put them on frames a couple of months ago. In short, once they went to the toddler room at the daycare center at 15 months, they started sleeping really poorly in their cribs. We put a baby gate up there when they went to the beds and took it off about a month ago when they were a little more than 2-1/2 as they would sleep through the night without waking for a long time and then in the morning they come in our room and I scoop them up and they lay with us for another hour or so. We did this with our 4 year old around the same age so we could get her ready to get up when she had to potty. We do put our security alarm on every night jsut in case though.

 

My husband is always up before they are, and has to wake one of them up on school days. Alice just reads in bed or goes pee and comes back to bed and waits for my husband, Royce has to be woken up. On weekends, Alice does the same thing until she hears Royce making noise (he wakes about 7:15) and then she gets out of the room. We never told them that they have to get us or go downstairs and play, they just figured out what to do. I like it this way because on Saturdays and Sundays, I get two kids in the bed with me from 7:15-7:45ish.

 

Kuddos to the kids who wait in bed for their parents to come get them! Mine have NEVER than that! My dd might stay in her room
at nap time for a few minutes whiele she waits for ds to fall asleep, and the comes out to play.
I want to get either the totclock or the traffic light one, which one is better? Even if it doesn't work, is a nice
try and could learn something.
I put them in crib tents until they were almost 3, because they would not stay in their bed or go back to sleep and they were
too young to be up at 3 or 4 am and then would not nap unless they were in the car or just passed out.
They both loved their crib tents from day one, and said "thank you daddy" when we put the cribs back up.
Now they are in different rooms, regular beds. DS gets up around 4 or 5, dd most of the time sleeps until 6 or 6:30.
DS goes to sleep around 7, dd 8. DS always naps, dd doesn't, so at the end, they sleep about the same.
My nephew is also an early bird (he is 6), and he was thrilled to have us stay at his house so he had a playmate
at 5 am SOmekids might sleep until 7 or 8 but they also go to bed at 9, 10, or 11. I could not deal past
9, I rather them be up early. Of course, daylight savings time switch did not help...
DS also gets up to go potty.
I try to keep the house safe so they can go around if I stay in bed. It has become harder though, since now they get
on top of chairs to reach stuff. Gates...only have one upstairs, the one downstairs they climbed over it.
I always wondered when I would know it was time to take out the gate.... they showed me when!

Ahh..the challenges...To me, what is important is that they are growing health and get enough sleep, which they do.
Of course, any advise to help them stay in bed is always helpfull!