Temper Tantrums @ 2am

I have posted that we have had ongoing sleep issues for a while now. Mattie is doing so much better, but Lauren is another story. For example, last night we went to lay down and she proceeded to throw a temper tantrum. These come with throwing herself into the side of the crib, banging her head, pinching her and me, slapping her face and me :cray: After 45 minutes of this, I decided enough and took her to the living room where we watched Blue's Clues. After Blue went off, she told him bye and laid down. She woke around 11 and I could soothe her but at 2am, she woke up screaming, and saying NO over and over and throwing her paci, blankie, and Elmo. I could barely hold her. I brought her to bed with me after I got her to calm down. But she woke several times saying NO over and over. What is the deal? My dh thinks something is "wrong with her wiring" for her to act like this and after last night I am wondering the same thing.

Thanks for listening.

 

Wow Brady! ((hugs)) for the rough night. Could she have been having a night terror? Anthony & Gabe has had them and they are scary. Gabe had a couple that were just like temper tantrums. If she is truly just mad because she doesn't want to go to sleep....I would just suck it up, buy some ear plugs, and let her work it out. It's so hard! I don't really have a lot of advice...just lots of :love0028:

 

It could be night terrors. Does she look like she is awake when she is screaming or sleeping with her eyes open? I'd talk to your pedi about things you can do to help her. Poor pumpkin and poor tired parents. :hug99:

 

my 5 yrold went through periods of night terrors and there seemed to be no calming her down. I finally found that whispering gently in to her ear and saying things like "mumma's here etc. " and rubbing her back would get her to get back in a normal sleep. I spoke to my pedi about it and he said to call if she was still having them in a week but they went away soon after. she still has bad dreams especially when she is very tired-I know it's tough because you feel so out of control of it, but hopefully, they will also pass
good luck!!!
jennib9

 

Uggg! :hug99: Big hugs Brandy!!! We went through something like this really recently with Sam. I mentioned it to the pedi at their 2 yr check up and he suggested that it may be night terrors, but after doing some research I really don't think that is what it was. He was aware of what he was doing when he woke up screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. We too resorted to bring him into our bed for the sake of keeping our sanity and actually getting some sleep. It's like all of the sudden he just absolutely hated his crib. Same as yours, he threw a fit when we put him down at night. It was so bad that we had gotten into the habit of laying down in the floor with him and them putting him in his crib when he was finally asleep. I hated doing this, as it went against my mommy instinct, but we were at the end of our line. I swear it was worse than the newborn stage!

So what finally worked with us was to go ahead and convert their cribs to toddler beds. We talked it up big time about sleeping in a "big boy bed" and the day that we did it we picked him up from daycare and went straight to Target and let him pick out a "night night bear." This is the only bear that we let him have in the bed, and the bear only stays in the bed. He picked up on the pretty quickly. We also did the sticker thing. When he has a good night he gets to pick out an Elmo sticker in the morning, and we tell him when we put him down that if he sleeps "all night long" in his bed he gets a sticker in the morning. Usually he asks for that sticker the second his eye pop open in the morning.

We have been doing this for a few weeks now, and it is SOOO much better! The first few nights we put a tension gate across their bedroom door opening but he hasn't tried once to leave his room so we don't use it anymore. We still sit with them for a bit while he falls asleep, but I really don't mind the quiet together time, but he falls asleep in his bed. Sometimes he does wake up crying in the middle of the night, and one of us will go in there and reassure him and pat his butt until he goes back to sleep which is usually less than a minute.


So this is just what solved it for us...still working on it a bit, but it is so much better!!! Good luck! I hope you find the solution soon, those few weeks were TERRIBLE for us!

 

Brandy, many :hug99: to you. This doesn't sound like a fun situation for either of you. The first thing that came to mind was a night terror. That's what Anthony did when he had one, he appeared awake but would be screaming "no no no" and if I dared touch him he went off even more. :cray: As for her not sleeping well and throwing all the tantrums, I think it could be from lack of sleep. She may not be able to get the rest she needs sleeping with you. ardon: And then it's causing her to act out. As much as it hurts you to hear her cry, I think this:

QUOTE(mommy23monkeys @ Jul 10 2008, 09:55 AM) [snapback]869572[/snapback]
I would just suck it up, buy some ear plugs, and let her work it out.


is what I would have to do in that situation {and have done it} It is so hard to listen to them crying and calling for you but for a few nights of hearing this, you'll get a much happier, rested little girl and Momma. I"m sorry I don't have anything else to offer. :hug99: :hug99:

 

You've gotten great advice here & I can't think of anything else to add (my first thought was also night terrors) but I wanted to send :hug99:'s & say I hope it gets better for you soon. I know lack of sleep makes for difficult days!