Please help me to keep 3.5 yo in bed!

[nossi]

 So my 3.5 yo is waking me up more than my 10 wo!!  It's driving me crazy.  He comes into our room at least 2-3 times per night asking us for silly things - like a tissue, or to put the covers back on him or to find one of his stuffed animals.  He does this for several nights at a stretch very frequently.  It's not every single night, but he'll do it maybe 4 nights in a row 2 or 3 times a month.  Just enough to exhaust and completely frustrate me, especially since my 10 wo DD is also waking up at night.  We've tried sticker charts, talking to him about it and explaining how tired it makes us, being nice, being stern, taking things away, giving him rewards, etc.   He's been in his own bed now for at least 6 months and he was doing before his sister was born, so it's not that.  Any ideas??

[Mjaz]

Is he still napping?  I find this sort of thing happens with my 3yo when he's UT.  We also use a gro clock - so if he wakes and sees it is still nighttime, he is supposed to stay in bed.

Just thoughts

[nossi]

Thanks Melinda!  No, he dropped the nap about a year ago.  He's actually been getting a little less sleep the last few days because of daylight savings.  We have that clock, but have never had to use the function that tells them it's still night.  Maybe I'll try it this week.  I suspect he'd just ignore it and come up with a clever excuse for why he's still coming into our room, but it's worth a try!!

[Mjaz]

Hmmm do you think the NWs are more frequent when he's OT or getting less sleep?  Could you start keeping track and seeing if there's a correlation?  Yes, our clock is a moon until 6am and then it turns into a sunshine.  Hard to know if it's working, but mos days he's up right around then.  I'm not sure what else to suggest...

[nona]

have you tried a gate at his door? not that i should be giving sleep advice but we had issues at 3 adn we made a sleep routine chart, used a clock like the gro clock and also put a clear gate at the door (we had to use 2  - one on top of the other in the doorway to prevent climbing out). the gates were clear so he could see us.

when he woke yelling for us wanting out, we woudl say "remember the sleep rules" or "its time for bed" (can't remember been awhile) but after about 3 nights we were no longer having issues. the first night was the worst.

we did NOT go into the room to tuck him back in  - we said it thru the gate.