Not sure what the best way to handle this is.

[sherry lynn]

DS just learned about climbing over the gate to come get mommy in the morning.  
He is back to EW.
Mommy is very pregnant and daddy is on night shift right now.

**** Background ****
We have just ended an awesome sleeping streak. It lasted a month and is probably the best run of sleep we have ever had.
I figured it was because of teething and he needed more sleep. He is still working on the top two - two year molars. So I don't know if we feel into an OT cycle again or what. 

DS was taking good naps. He was regulating the length on his own. If he took a long nap, it didn't seem to impact his nights, he seemed to need it. Some days he would take a slightly shorter nap and still be find at night.
For the first time since he was about 9 months old he was averaging 11 hour nights.

Then the other night I think DH put him to bed too early. It took him a long time to fall asleep at night and he was up early the next morning. And it's pretty much all fallen apart since then. He's taking shortish naps, no matter what. Yesterday he took a longer nap, but I think I put him to bed too late.

Also what has been great is even when he wakes early-ish in the morning he has been waiting contently for me to come get him. There have been many mornings when he will wait 1+ hour in the morning. Almost always up until about 7. This a completely new behavior for us.

Well yesterday I took too long to get there when he started fussing. I was really tired. He wasn't crying, just fussing. And he climbed over his gate for the first time. By the time I got to his room he was in the hallway. I didn't say anything to him. I just opened his gate and turned his noise maker off.

At nap time he went down fine.
As soon as I heard noise when he woke I went straight to his room. He rolled around awhile before he saw me and then came to the gate.
He went to bed fine last night. Even though it took him awhile to fall asleep. I think I put him down too late.

So this morning I woke a tad before 5:40am. And I didn't look at the monitor yet. I was busy stretching a very sore body. And all of a sudden I hear his VERY LOUD feet running to my room.

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I don't know what to do. Seriously. I haven't even been addressing the EW with much gusto because MIL is coming on Sunday and he's going to end up OT anyways. He is a very light sleeper and they are sharing the same hallway. And on top of that she is taking care of him while I'm in the hospital recovering from my c-section Friday - ?  And she doesn't really take his sleep seriously.

She's staying awhile, and then other family is coming. So I figured it would be an unsettled couple of weeks anyways.

However, I know Tracy says "go as you mean to carry-on"  so with this new problem I'm not sure what to do.

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Lyle is on the lower end of communication capabilities for his age. So I don't think he would understand the whole light concept. We are trying to work on the whole "waiting" concept in other areas during the day and it's been pretty slow going.

He could care less about stickers. I don't know if that's because he's not in daycare so he doesn't see other kids getting them and see how excited they get; therefore, he doesn't know he's "supposed" to want them and be excited about them, or what, but he could really care less.

*****
Should I just let this go and ride it out for now? But, I know if I do - he is soooooo strong willed it will take months and months to "undo". Heck it might take months and month for him to get any sort of plan. It seriously took us like 6 months to work on him sleeping independently after he went to a BBB.

Ideas

[anna*]

(((((hugs))))) how about seeking out a taller gate? I know you can get really quite high ones (my friend uses one for her 10 year old daughter who has autism)

[sherry lynn]

Thanks Anna.

DH - who had more sleep then I did came up with a good solution too. Similar. He said to get another gate and put one on top of the one we have. We actually need two new gates, so I'll look for a taller one also. Off to the store we go this afternoon.

It's amazing how well the brain works when you get some sleep. I didn't fall asleep until after 12am last night and then he was up at 5:40. So I was quite tired this morning. He was cranky also, so it made for a rough morning. Oh well.

[anna*]

Oh, I know that brain fog ALL too well...

[Colin Macs Mom]

Should I just let this go and ride it out for now? But, I know if I do - he is soooooo strong willed it will take months and months to "undo".

Definitely not. You are not going to want to be working on that with a newborn to deal with as well. Firstly, I would say to have a talk with MIL and explain that it's important that you do things a certain way with his sleep right now because you simply will not be able to be in two places at once when the new baby is here. Surely she could respect that.....?

My other suggestion would be to get a baby gate that you can position as you wish. When we had that problem we used a gate that.... hmmmmm how do I explain...... It wasn't like a door, but you opened it with a lever and had to replace it when you passed. It had sort of like rubber feet that go against the wall, and it was made up of two panels which would slide open or closed to be the width you need. But it also could be placed as high or low in a doorway as you like.

[shresmummy]

Hi Sherry, sorry to hear about your rough night I don't have a lot of experience with baby gates as we haven't needed to use any just yet. DD can't walk yet 

But I just had a thought on the baby gates. The other day I saw one particular one at the shops from the "First Years" brand name. I think it's called the "First Years everywhere safety gate"

THe good thing about this gate is there is no climbing panels and apparently a toddler just cannot get out. In reality I don't know how effective it is. So in case you can't find one of those really tall gates you are looking for, this might be something worth considering.

From a brief look I had on the internet, I think it's available from Walmart for you ladies in the USA.

Hope things get easier for you soon!

[sherry lynn]

Thanks guys.

We did get our gate at Walmart. The First years one they had there was the same height as the one we have. He is literally putting his leg over the gate and hoisting himself up Silly monkey.

We got an evenflo that is twice as tall as the one that we had before.

The gate kind we saw there and it's really nice. It wasn't priced though and we figured it was probably significantly more than the gate we got. I feel hopeful that he won't be climbing out of it for a little while at least. I am worried that he is going to wake crying in the morning though so we might have to come up with a plan for that.
But, I'm trying to remain hopeful

[shresmummy]

Good luck with the new gate