Dylan has always been my super sleeper. He didn't reliably sleep through the night until 7 months, but since that day, I can count the amount of times he has woken in the night on one hand and they generally involve him being physically sick. As a one year old, he would happily go to bed at 7 and not rise until nearly 10 some mornings, with 8:30 being classed as an early one, and he loved his naps, often standing at the bottom of the stairs after his lunch, waiting to be taken up.
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We decided to take the sides off of his cot just after he turned two, and it went so smoothly, I was feeling rather smug! Unfortunately things started to change a few weeks later, and our 9am starts moved forward a couple of hours. I started to get used to 7am as both my children suddenly decided that they were not happy unless they could see the sunrise.
A couple of weeks after that, we had problems getting Dylan to bed. He would happily go into his room, snuggle up with his Ducky and shut his eyes, but as soon as I got back down the stairs and dug out the Cadbury's, I would hear a pitter patter of little feet on the landing as he explored. It would take several attempts to get him to stay put, sometimes up to two hours and it was all the more frustrating because of how easy we had had it for two years. He didn't cry, didn't cause mischief, just wandered, sometimes coming down the stairs and standing silently outside the living room door.
Slowly but surely I have regained some sleep, and pushed the morning back to eight o'clock (most days) - a much more reasonable time, but we are still having problems getting the little guy to stay put. We have tried reasoning with him, bribing him, putting him back silently, all to no avail.
This Christmas, Santa was very kind and got Dylan a brand new Duvet and some lovely rocket covers in the hope that this novelty would be a new incentive to stay tucked up inside them. Unfortunately it does not seem to be working and the night wanderings, whilst only lasting around 20 minutes on average now, are still an everyday occurrence. We have been considering going one step further and upgrading his cot bed to a full sized single, a big boy's bed and something higher off of the ground and not as easy to climb out of. We have even considered going the extra mile and going for a guest bed with storage, as who can resist a huge double bed for yourself, and his room would look so tidy with some underbed storage for the toys! It would also be perfect if we have visitors, (providing they don't mind sharing with a few teddies of course!). We have discovered that Carpetright now do beds too and very reasonably priced!
We have discussed the idea of a stairgate on his bedroom door, but I hate the idea of going backwards and introducing our first stairgates to the house when Dylan is nearly 2.5 years old seems strange. Other than these we are stuck! Does anyone else have a bedtime wanderer? What did you do to get them to stay put?
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