Well at 2 years and 5 months Evan is a tantrum throwing toddler and he is driving his mama crazy. It's really nothing I can't handle during the day. I can take the tantrums that he throws over being told he can't wash his hands for 30 minutes, or drive the car home, the list goes on. What I can't handle are the tantrums he has when I wake him up in the morning or when I put him to bed at night. For two years and 4 months Evan was the BEST sleeper. Sleeping 12 hours a night and a problem free 3 hour nap per day. Well ever since the big pacifier take away that went out the window. He refuses to settle down for a nap or go to bed when he is told. Most of the time it's fits of screaming, flailing, screaming, moaning and did I mention screaming? And in the morning he is so tired from fighting sleep the night before that when I have to get him up to get him ready for daycare he is not having any of it. He fights every step of the way, diaper change, changing his clothes and all the way to the car seat. But hopefully we might have solved this little issue because a friend suggested we play a movie to distract him while I get him ready. I tried it Wednesday and it worked like a charm!(thanks Jennie!) We'll see if it works on Monday when I got back to work, fingers crossed.
So sleep issues are really prominent in our lives right now. Tantrums and fits don't really worry me though.
But the thing that concerns me the most is the night terrors.
Ever since Evan was about a year old he has had night terrors. For the longest time we didn't know what was wrong with him when he would wake up in the middle of the night screaming. It was as if he was in a zombie trance, still sleeping but screaming his head off and thrashing around in his crib. This happened about once a month so we did some research and consulted our pediatrician. The trigger for his night terrors is almost always lack of sleep. If he misses his nap or goes to bed really late we can almost always count on a 2am night terror. And they are so hard to watch. They can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Most research I've done says to just stay with him and make sure he doesn't hurt himself. They recommend you do not try and wake the child up. But on a few occasions (only after more than 30 minutes of screaming) we have taken Evan outside and usually that will wake him up and he snaps right out of it like nothing happened. Some nights nothing works and I just have to sit and listen to his horrible screams - I always feel so helpless and more often than not sit next to his crib and cry right along with him.
When he turned two we didn't see a night terror until we took his pacifier away. Without that to soothe him to sleep he has missed many naps and bedtimes. And in the past two weeks he has had one almost every night. I have no idea what to do. I've tried modifying his bedtime but no matter how early (or late) I put him down he is defiant and will not sleep until he has exhausted himself by screaming and crying.
All that said today has been an exception. He quietly went down for his nap and take his normal 3 hours and I had to wake him up. He was in a great mood when he woke up and we only had one small tantrum tonight - pretty good considering some nights he can have 4 or 5. And we just put him down for the night and no screaming yet. He did have us go through a 20 minute ordeal before he would go in his crib. I asked him why he didn't want to go night night, I asked if he was scared and he said yes. I said what are you scared of and he pointed to the window and said "outside". So I asked if he would feel safe if we covered the windows with blankets and that seemed to make him happy. I really hope we are turning a corner here and these sleep issues will be gone soon. It's so draining both physically and emotionally.
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