Help!!

I love Shelly's idea! Figure out her currency and bribe her!

Our 3 year old has a flashlight that she takes to bed with her. We still lay down with her until she falls asleep and have recently started thinking up good bribes to get her to go to bed solo. It's only 5-20 minutes to get her to go to sleep, but it would be nice if we didn't need to lay down with her to do so. What's weird is if she does wake in the middle of the night she just wants us to tuck her back in (she doesn't want us to let her climb in with us). I'm thinking we should have taken a smarter route but were in your exact situation and buckled in order to get the crib available for our son! Good luck!

My son had problems with the transition too. The first thing we did was turn his door knob around so we could lock him in. I didn't want to worry about him wondering around the house in the middle of the night ! We had the monitors set up so we could hear his every move. I gave him a flash light, a cup of water, some toys and stuffed animals to bring to bed with him. He played in his bed instead of the room. As soon as he got out of his bed, I went in there and put him back to bed. I was very persistent! I always gave him one hour to fall asleep, during nap time. If that didn't work, I just got him up and tried later. It took a few weeks for me. But he eventually liked it. I hope this helps you too !

My M. told me that when my brother wouldn't get out of the crib, she adopted our family dog. She promised my brother that if he slept in his bed- the dog could stay with him at night. It worked a charm and the dog became a wonderful family member.

We played up the big girl bed so she wanted to sleep in it, then set it up in the room with her crib, we start the night in the big bed, but the first time she gets out, we gave her a warning, on three strikes she went into the crib for the rest of the night. When she didn't need the crib for a week we took it down and haven't had problems since.

What about one of those things that goes over a door handle for baby proofing. i have only seen them for round door handles. if she tries to turn the knob it will just spin. might require you change out the knob on her bedroom door, but it will keep her safe.

I will be in this situation very soon, I'm sure of it... I am totally not looking forward to the transition, though my son is going to be doing this at a younger age (he's 17 months now, and we need to get his baby sister into the crib he currently occupies - she's 4 mo.). We plan on using the door knob method, as well as the gate AND a monitor so we know when he's out and about. I am putting it off because right now, I am fully enjoying a full nights sleep for the first time in almost 2 years.

I tell ya, if it's not one thing... it's another :)