Staying in bed..

I have a confession to make, Easton has a very hard time staying in his bed in the middle of the night. It is not every night but it is a few times a week he would visit Jon and I. He goes to bed fine and stays there but he would wake up wanting to sleep with us...We are not a co-sleeping family never have been. Well, I take the back. When we moved here and I was pregnant w/ Makenlee E had just transitioned out of the crib to a bed. He then started having nightmares and to calm him down and so we all could sleep (remember I was TIRED and preggo), we let him sleep w/ us some nights. But as my due date approached as well as the fact our queen bed was not big enough for Jon, me and my belly let alone a 2 yr old. We buckled down and tried charts, rewards, discipline, etc.....hardly a thing worked he would keep getting out of bed and visited us in the middle of the night.

For the last 2+ years. I have been woken up to him standing over me in the middle of the night or the last year he has been waking up at 6am....I am not a happy person when being woken up and the morning does not start till 7am anyway. So we would always tell him to go back to bed and so on. He is of the age where he should stay in his bed. heck, he is 4 1/2, right....

Well, I looked into ordering this Good Nite Light....But at $34.99 I said, NO!!! A little outrageous. So when I read Mama Manifesto about one of the Mama's having a similar issue. Her son is the same age as E. I totally had a friend buy me the same light from IKEA when she was in MN in July and I bought a timer and essentially it is the same thing....

I set the time to go on at 7:30pm and then at 7:00am and it turns off.
We tell Easton he is to stay in bed as long as the light is on and when it is off he can get out....He can get out to go potty but then right back to bed and he does not have to tell us he has to go potty. He can take care of business on his own.

The last few mornings I looked at my clock and
E yells, "My light turned off. I can get out of bed now."

It has been 2 weeks and he is doing well.

VIOLA..the boy stays in his bed!!!! Why, did I not do this 2 years ago!!!