my 3.5 year old is kicking my butt

[koalove]

and its so hard because he is giddy and joyful at doing it. he is constantly wiggly, jumpy, and talkative. i know this is normal. when i try to have quiet peaceful time with him~ say we are trying to read a book~ he repeatedly hits my face with his head, or if we are just trying to snuggle together in the morning, i get a foot to the face, my hair pulled~ you name it. hes not doing this intentionally, he just will not~ or can not, stop moving. i thought he would out grow it but now, hes too darn big to get on my body like this anymore! im 3 months pregnant and am scared for how i will handle this when my belly is bigger, when i cant physically remove him from my space to protect myself. and then when i think of laying in bed for morning snuggles with new baby, dp, myself and ~the crazy preschooler~ im scared he will hurt the baby. the worst part is the anger that it triggers in me. i start by calmly telling him to please be still, or give me more space while he gets his wiggles out, he keeps on, jumping on me etc. and laughing and giggling all the while as if he doesnt get that im upset (even though i say, "im feeling upset now") and that he is really hurting me and then i explode. i scream and grab him sort of rough and remove him from my room or space. i feel like i just dont know how to get him to hear me or respond to my needs (selfish, eh?) as i am not a martyr and can not take endless physical roughness. i do spend plenty of time with him and give him attention but honestly, it makes me not want to be near him because im getting hurt all day long. someone help me~ suggestions , advice, anything? thanks!

[homeschoolAK]

I have 4 children too! My youngest is very active and jumps on me a lot! I also used to work in a daycare with special needs children many of which had ADD or ADHD. This sounds very similar to what they did. The non-stop activity just needs a direction. For my son, I got a small trampoline that he has used since he was 2 (highly supervised of coarse). This has helped a lot combined with lots of talk about not jumping on people, and how to be gentle. We do rough house some, and wrestle. So we add talk about when it is OK to play rough and when not too. I also use timeouts when he did not listen and continued to jump on me. It took some time, but he is very good at being gentle now. Now the only one how needs to watch out is DH. The secound DH gets home DS is out to get him and takle him and beat him up! LOL! But again, he has been told this is ok to do with Dad as long as DS stops when Daddy says to.

My advise to you is to find some outlets for your sons exrtra energy and get a routine down for him. Routines help a lot! I homeschool all my kids and the routines have saved me!