Getting out of bed a million times at bedtime

[:: ANA ::]

Lord give me patience!

What do you do with toddlers who won't stay in bed until after one hour past their bedtime??

DS gets out of bed many many times each night, he wants to chat, play, just hang, he wants water, wants to invite a toy to sleep with him, sometimes he just says "mooom, I don't need anything" LOL, but still kicks and screams when I take him back to bed.

I know he is tired. He could definitely sleep if he could just stop himself from stomping his little runaway monkey feet out of the room! 
And of course DD can't settle with all the noise.

I'm not comfortable with putting a gate across his door, though.

Anybody BTDT?

[Buttonbobs]

I don't have any btdt with this yet but just wanted to check quickly, are you happy with his EASY? Is he still napping? Certainly he could be tired enough and still act this way, but he could be slightly UT/OT and this would make training him to stay in bed harder.

Just some thoughts, although I'm sure someone with btdt will be along soon, could you talk to him about it in the day and do something like a sticker reward chart for staying in his room at nighttime?

How long has he been out of his cot? Has he slept well without cot sides so far? Is anything else changing in his life right now?

[:: ANA ::]

Sigh

It could be anything, really.

Major changes: We moved a couple of months ago.  Baby sister was born 4 months ago.  Stopped attending kindergarden (because we moved to a different city).

When he began sleeping in his bed, he was in a very clingy stage (because of all these changes I guess), he wanted me to stay with him until he fell asleep, etc.
Now he asks me to leave, and then he sneaks out, turn lights on/off, says he doesn't want to sleep...etc.

Regarding his EASY, there isn't any really.  He stopped napping looong ago (around 20mo), but before February, let's say, he had a pretty regular 12 hour day/routine, sleeping through from 7 to 7 with the occasional NW, but great sleeper in general.
Now we're also having pretty regular (meaning daily but at random hours) NWs.

Worst thing is, by the time we begin with this getting up thing,  I'm too drained from the day and lose my patience pretty quickly.  I need to find a way to cope because really, who knows how long it will last. 

[HenaV]

Big Ana, it sounds exhausting!

I like Naomi have no btdt experience of this per se. The closest we've got is whe. The side of the bed came down R used to think it was great fun to 'appear' BT out bed at night. And more recently when we had a bereavement in the family she started displaying very random behaviour - getting out of bed, collecting things (nt,BT, ew and NW). I'm just wondering if this is reaction to all of the recent changes?

If so, maybe tell him that he's not to get out of bed and if he does effectively do Wi/WO?

Also, have you thought about a gro-clock/lights on timer?

Hena

[Buttonbobs]

Good ideas Hena - what about a sticker reward chart?