open or shut - door for sleep

[JessandKirra]

i shut the door for sleep and naps. I plan to leave it partly open when she gets a bed. She is 18months and very short for her age. so when do you get them a bed? maybe i shoul do 2 posts. They say get a bed at a certain heigh but omg that will take till shes 5 or 6.

So any hoo back to my original question - open door or shut? Do they run in and out when in a bed? bet thats fun. NOT.

advise please.

[Worm'sMum]

Hi! I'm not sure of the 'right' or 'wrong' way but DD has just gone into a bed and she'll be 2 in November...she's also a little'un so I thought a bed was gonna be too early...but DH and BIL made her a beautiful little bed that is low off the floor and fits her cot mattress...she loves it. Oh and I keep her door shut, but it isn't shut tight, just looks shut if that makes sense?? but I also still have the monitor on in our room so I can hear her. If she did get out, she can't really go anywhere anyway as we close all the other doors (except ours) and have a safety gate to stop her getting into the kitchen. Hope that helps

[mummyOf_3]

Hi there,

When my little boy was 18months we put him in a bed, me and hubbie had talked about whether or not we should keep the door closed or not.....

Our HUGE mistake was leaving it open, he ran in and out of our bedroom many times throughout the night.
Quite often he would just stand there and stare at us while we were sleeping and wouldnt say a word......kinda freaky.

We then decided to close the door ( he can't reach the handle ) however we are always listening through the monitor as to what he is up to and if he is safe or not....shutting the door was the best thing that we ever did....he is now 21 months and is sleeping better than ever from 9pm till 9am!

:fingerscrossed: Goodluck :fingerscrossed:

[SilverStarfish]

As DD usually goes to bed about 7:30 - 8pm at the moment I usually pull her door almost shut. It keeps the light from the hall out of her room and is a signal to our doggy that he's not to go in there unless he hears her wake up :)

[drewid]

Andrew went into a bed just recently, at 19 months. It is a low-ish bed from Ikea, that he can easily climb in and out of, and he is on the short side (like his mother!!).

He has always had the door closed when sleeping, ever since he moved into his own room (about 4 mths old). He just won't sleep with the door open - ever! Now that he is in a bed, he climbs out after a sleep and plays in his room a little and I hear him on the monitor (I always wake up as soon as I hear him in the morning) and sometimes he knocks on his door just to make sure I've heard him!

I'll start opening his door at night, when we go to bed, in a few weeks (or months...not really sure yet!). I'm sure he will come straight into our room, but I will have all the necessary doors/baby gates closed at night, so he will be safe in the morning if he ventures out into the lounge room. He already knows how to turn the telly on, so I'm sure some day we will wake up to find him watching cartoons in the morning! :D

[cwsmum]

Doors open in our house :yes:
I have never felt right sleeping with my bedroom door open and don't feel right closing the kids bedroom doors either...unless we have people over and need to keep the noise out...
DS went into a bed at about 18mths, he climbed/fell out of his cot so we packed it up that day, no easing my son into the idea :o
He was fine with sleeping in the bed, even tho it was sudden. It took about a month before he worked out that he could come out of his room and annoy us. We just put the safety gate on his bedroom door so that he could see out but couldn't get out, this was also great in the mornings when he wanted to play at 5am coz we knew he was safe in his room and couldn't go anywhere else. Some nights we would find him sleeping with his toys or against the gate but after a while he decided that he would stay in his bed to sleep.
Even now, at 3yrs old, he still plays quietly in his bed before he goes to sleep, most nights he either reads books to himself (or his monkey) or he lays on his bed and plays with his cars, then when he's tired he lays down and goes to sleep...usually within 30mins of going to bed :)

[cwsmum]

He already knows how to turn the telly on, so I'm sure some day we will wake up to find him watching cartoons in the morning! :D

Can you program the telly to turn on? I have mine programmed to turn on to the abc kids shows at 6:30am for DS...you couldn't program our old telly so DS would turn it on then come wake me up to change the channel for him. I also programmed mine to turn off so that if for some strange reason DD and I are still sleeping at 8am DS will come wake me up. He knows how to turn the telly on, but he also knows that if it turns off and I'm still in bed to come wake me.

[BlessedWithBlue]

DS1 went into a bed when he was 18 months and always had the door shut with the touch lamp on low. Just recently he has started to ask for the door to be left open so i leave it open now but he still likes the lamp on low.
DS2 is 20 months and went into a bed about 2 weeks ago, we have always left the door open a bit for him and he doesn't like having a lamp in his room.
He still has the door open a bit but no lamp on but i put the baby gate on the door before i go to bed to make sure he doesn't venture downstairs by himself in the morning without out me knowing about it lol. However during the day when he has a nap i close the door and it doesn't bother him. I always hear when he wakes up anyway. I always leave our hall light on at night.

[Briannabear]

Our DD has always slept with her door shut. Best habit we ever got into because its made the transition to the big bed soooooo much easier!:yes:
And she was also 18 months when she went into the big bed.

[pookiesossige]

DS and DD goe to sleep at 7pm with doors shut with no light on just to start with- it blocks out kitchen/tv/computer noises and the light coming down the hall keeps DS awake. We open them a few hours later when we go to bed and turn the monitors off. He's happy to have the door shut and is still in his cot (although he has a car bed in his room too).

[MrsMiggins]

Claire is and always has been a very light sleeper. We left her door open for the first couple of months, but then we had a/c put in her room, so had to shut the door anyway. We found she slept much better with the door shut, so we kept doing it.

[LucyE]

We coslept until about 22 months (in our bed at first and then a side car arrangement) so had DS in our room. The only reason we put up a baby gate was to keep DS in and out of mischief :p

When we moved house, we moved him into his own room without a problem. We left the door open because I don't like the feeling of him not being able to get out in an emergency or even if he's just scared. He's current bed set up is the cot with one side removed and a single bed pushed up next to it. He swaps between where he wants to sleep and has complete freedom to come and go.

He is now 2.5yrs and we are about to move him into a proper big bed (just ordered the mattress and am buying the bedframe today).

[EskimoMumma]

For me and my family, we have the doors open. (UNless there is company) As some other ladies have posted, i just dont feel "comfortable" with the doors shut in case something happens. Although sometimes DS will say to me to shut the door halfway for some reason :rolleyes:

When DS was going into a big bed, i had no problems with him leaving the bedroom or anything.

If you are worried, why not shut the door when they are trying to get to sleep, and before you go to bed open the door a bit or all the way?? :o

[~mia&ryan~]

I close the door while she is going off to sleep, she wont sleep with the door open:rolleyes: But we open her door a little once she has gone off to sleep. Just enough so we can see her, cos she seems to wake if we open it all the way:laughing:

[JessandKirra]

thnakyou ladies this information has been a big help. over the last few nights DD has been absolutely hysterical about not wanting to go into the cot. I now have decided from all of your input that she is ready for a bed. weather i like it or not. I am going to shut the door unless she asks for it open. huge change!