We have had one on the inside of their bedroom door since we put them into toddler beds. The first week was crazy early mornings exploring their new found freedom, but things returned to normal after that. Currently, we go to bed at 6:45 ish and wake up around 7ish. If they wake up too early (they usually being Grace, who then wakes up the rest of us), we leave them in their room to play with stuffed animals or get undressed and sing until it is a decent hour.
Well, now that he could undo the knobs we knew our days were numbered. A few mornings ago he unlocked it and they waltzed right into our bedroom at 7am. They were giddy, it was sort of funny. No big deal. The next night Sean put tape all around it to keep the knob on. The next morning was Saturday and I already posted about the madness that ensued after they slowly peeled off the tape. The next night we put the tape on the knob and the gate on the outside of the door so even if they got it open, they couldn't get out. This worked for one day. But they still were up hollering at 6am. Yesterday morning Tate scaled the gate using all of their pillows as a booster. First order of business was to very slowly close my bedroom door (sneaky little guy!) and run down the hall. Of course I heard them at 5:30 am when they started plotting. See the trend here? Wake up time has gone from 7am to 5:30 am over the last week!
People keep suggesting perhaps they aren't needing that much sleep anymore, but I find it suspicious since the morning escapes have become SO exciting as of late. So last night we did a controversial thing by locking the bedroom door from the outside. We reversed the knob. I have conflicting feelings about this for safety reasons, but they couldn't let themselves out of the room (in theory) with a safety knob anyway, so why is a lock any different? Really, I feel more nervous about them getting out at night and getting into the knife drawer, laundry detergent, or even worse, unlocking the front door and disappearing!
The other piece of the puzzle is Benny. If this was just disrupting my sleep I might suck it up, but all the noise has been jarring Benny awake way too early and creating a cranky, cling monster until nap time. It seems unfair to him too!
So this morning we heard them at 5:30am ignored them until 7am. I think we got maybe 20 minutes of sleep while we just lie in bed listening. It reminded me of the stressful nights 2 years ago letting them cry it out for the first time. It was more about training than sleep at that moment. My hope is that over the next few mornings they see the party is indeed OVER and start sleeping in again. This also involves a lot of negotiation at bed time where we remind Gracie that "yelling in the morning wakes up Benny and makes him SO sad, so will you please, please talk quietly until mommy comes to the door?" She responded with a lispy "Yeth mommy!" We also give Tate a pep talk, "If Gracie wants you to wake up its ok to say no thank you sissy, I'm still sleeping." Heh, It's worth a shot.
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