Hi All,
My DD is a textbook/spirited 21 mo old. She has been teething canines for the last month and the bottom two are about to break through (although I've thought that for the last week or two
). She pretty much hangs on the edge of OT while teething. The last two weeks she's had swimming lessons in the morning, so the earliest I can get her down for a nap is 12 pm, which is basically her normal time. She usually wakes between 6:30 and 7 am (although 6:15 to 6:30 am is more likely while teething).
Last week, she handled everything fine and hung in there even when she woke a little earlier. We were out of town over the weekend, though, and she's pretty much gone downhill since then. This week, she's mostly woken around 6 am, with some mornings at 5:45 am. Her naps haven't been much more than 1 hr 20 min, so bedtime is between 6 and 6:30 pm. You get the picture!
Yesterday, she woke around 6 am, we got home from swimming a little after 11 am, I fed her a quick lunch, and whisked her off to bed. I'd obviously missed her sleep window, as she was pretty much falling asleep on the table at lunch. So, she played around a bit, and fell to sleep around 12:15 pm (not great, but not terrible). Well, she woke an hour later quite unhappy. I left her to whine and cry a bit, but went to her as it escalated (maybe 10 min after waking). I tried to just rub her back in the crib a bit, just to comfort her and help her calm down, as since about 12 mo, I've not had success in extending a nap. She asked me to hold her, so I picked her up as I thought we'd just cuddle a bit.
But, quickly after picking her up, she got more and more upset until she was writhing around in my arms, kicking her legs, and crying hard. This has happened once or twice before (also when teething), and nothing I do seems to help. I try to stay really calm and comfort her the best I can, but honestly sometimes I'm afraid I'm going to drop her as she's so squirmy and upset. So, I've tried to just sit with her on the floor or right beside her, but she frantically crawls back into my arms and clearly wants to be held. Often, just walking around the kitchen in circles with her is the best way to calm her down, but on these days, this doesn't work either.
It is the hardest thing to watch for me, and I feel very inadequate as I can't seem to comfort her. I'm pretty sure she;s screaming because she's OT, and her body must know it should be sleeping, but her brain can't do it.
Now that swimming is done, I'm able to be more flexible in when I put her down for a nap, so that should help. But, for future knowledge and comfort, have any of you experienced this? And do you have any advice for how to help her out when she's so upset?
This post got much longer than I expected. Thanks for reading!
