Not sure what to make of this

[beckington]

Hi everyone

(This is way too long - very very sorry!)

Not exactly sure where to put this, so mods feel free to move, sorry!

Alex (who will be 3 in Feb) woke up a bit before 4.30 this morning screaming and crying that he wanted an apple granola bar. (A bit of useful/useless background: A few nights ago he was half awake in this sleep crying for an apple cookie! And on Saturday he had a massive tantrum in the mall for a banana - we had thrown it out before he was finished with it by mistake and we didn't have another one. He isn't a big tantrum boy - I can't remember his last one before that - and this one was massive for him. So we are having a theme with food but I'm not sure that it's *really* about food, you know?) Anyhow, so it's 4.30 and he's crying for an apple bar. To be honest, it never even occured to me to get him one, since it was the middle of the night and it just seemed like he had been dreaming about it and so it wasn't like he really wanted it, you know? Anyhow, I tried consoling him, telling him he was dreaming, I was right there, etc etc but it wasn't working (with the apple cookie he settled down pretty fast and didn't really wake up). Then it changed to him wanting to go downstairs and I said it was night and we should stay in bed and rest and go downstairs in the morning. He freaked out at that and bolted off the bed, out the room, down the stairs screaming in this really high pitched way that he has NEVER done before - all this before I had barely gotten off the bed! He's fast! I was scared he'd fall on the stairs in the dark and in his state of mind but luckily he didn't. (I should add that it's really unusual for him to leave his bed at night or in the morning by himself - as much as I try to encourage it in the morning to give me a few minutes more sleep, he always wants me to get up with him!) So now we are downstairs and it's changed to wanting TV on (a Rudolph video in particular!) and he's freaking like I've never seen before. At first I was thinking maybe this is a night terror but he really seemed awake at this point and it was more of a massive tantrum. I'm not that familar with night terrors though. He was soooooooooooooo upset. He turned the TV on - I decided at this point not to stop him from doing anything that wasn't going to hurt him, but I also didn't want to turn a video on for him (Rudolph really needs to disappear - we are having issues about it!) since it was the middle of the night! Anyhow, he finally lets me cuddle him for a bit and we rested on the sofa - we never did get back to bed and we had a few mini-meltdowns since, and a few instances of him hitting me/throwing things at me - he's just really 'off' this morning!

So, any idea what on earth would have caused this? Should I have given him the apple bar/put on Rudolph? Brought him back upstairs immediately explaining it was night and we are in our beds at night (I would have had to physically restrain him and probably wouldn't have been able to anyhow!)?

I think he might be really overtired - he's pretty much dropped his naps but the past few days have fallen asleep in the car or stroller for about 30 minutes when we've been out, but then it's like that takes the edge off for him and he doesn't get to sleep until a lot later, which means he gets less sleep when he has a nap! On the other hand, yesterday he had a 30 minute nap waking up around 11.30 and went to bed around 7.30 and had trouble getting to sleep. Surely goodness a 30 minute nap 8 hours before wouldn't mean that much?! Maybe I should see if I can get him to take a big nap early today and try to get him bed at normal time and see if that helps. Oh I dunno. I love to blame everything on a lack of sleep!

If you've actually read this far, thanks! I'm just really quite disturbed by the whole thing. My poor little boy was soooooooooo upset!

[Mama2Bug]

Wow, what a coincidence! We went through something very similar this morning! DD woke up at 5:45, begging for a drink. She didn't want to nurse. She wanted a big cup of water, which we got for her and she drank in bed. She dozed off again for about 15 minutes, then she wanted to be changed. Her diaper was dry though, so I didn't change her. This caused more fussing. Then she wanted to "bounce the ball!"

I tried to tell her that it was night-night time and that we needed to sleep, especially since our whole family isn't feeling well. Finally, I couldn't sleep anyway, so I got up with her and just started the day. That may not seem so odd, but our day generally begins at 9- at the very, very earliest. Most days it is more like 11. She didn't go to bed earlier or anything, so it was strange for her to want to get up so early. I know that she isn't feeling great, so that could be it. Then again, she has been playing as though she is fine since we got up.

Being Mama makes me very tired sometimes.

[Yooper]

It must be in the air. Dd has been having some very strange behavior in thje last three days.......

For my dd, a 30 minute nap will mess her up BIG time. Always has.

[tangozulu]

My ds has done this asking for food in the middle of the night thing a few times. The only thing I can think of is a growth spurt? Because in our case he actually seemed to need the food/drink he was asking for...

Being a mama makes me very too!!

ETA: After a few days I went to bed w/ a sippy cup and granola bar by the bed so I didn't have to go down to the kitchen (I was pregnant and VERY tired).

[4evermom]

It always worked best for us if I just humored ds with whatever strange utterances or demands he made during the night. Sometimes it would be dream related. Other times, it was hard to tell. He would get more upset if I tried to explain he was dreaming because it seemed real to him. So if he said "take the ball", I'd just reach out to his hand and grab the nonexistent ball. If I didn't want to get him whatever, he would just get more worked up, decreasing the chance of going back to sleep.

He was always very groggy for a long while after waking up and I would be concerned if he started going someplace that he wasn't really awake enough to navigate.

There is definitely a correlation between being sleep deprived and sleeping poorly. If my ds skipped a nap, he slept much more poorly. It was better for us to have a nap and stay up til midnight. Whatever you can do to get more sleep into your ds is bound to help.

For some reason, my ds woke up several hours earlier than usual this morning. We got up and then went back to bed after about 4 hours, sleeping from 10AM to 1PM, even though ds doesn't usually nap anymore. I sure was glad we got back to sleep eventually

[lesley&grace]

My dd goes through phases of odd nighttime behaviour, most recently due to a pretty bad bum rash that when she peed at night it would wake her because her skin would hurt (we cloth diaper, but we are using disposable at night since they really suck away the wet from her skin. We plan to switch back to our regular system once the rash is gone). But once she was awake she would ask for her cup of water and crackers. There have been other times when she wakes and needs to eat something, and we usually give it to her.
I am not sure if it really is a food related issue in your case, but I do think that you need to address the tantrum issue. You certainly don't want to teach him that throwing a grand fit is a way to get what you want! (Can you imagine if it did? I'd SO be at the bank kicking my feet demanding millions at the top of my lungs ) Obviously you can try to diffuse before it escalates (he may actually be hungry, keeping a stash of crackers or granola bars in your room might not be a bad idea) but sometimes, whenever safe to do so, ignore the tantrum, give him a safe place to do it (like a carpeted surface not near anything he can hurt himself on) and be there when the storm passes.
Another note: I find that my dd tends to feed off of my stress. Yes, much of her recent nighttime troubles could be attributed to her sore bottom....but I also just lost my grandfather to a long hard battle with cancer. I've been having trouble sleeping myself, crying a lot and generally feeling low. I am not all suprised that Grace is having a hard time staying asleep or that when she wakes crying her first form of comfort is clinging to me, and that she is a bit more irritable in the day. Today we had the final memorial for him, and while I am still sad, and tired, there is also a sense of relief that it's all over. She crashed in my arms early tonight, and so far is sleeping peacefully. Just something to think about.
Good luck!

[honeybee]

Transitioning ds out of taking naps was rough. When he had a nap, he would not fall asleep until really late. It doesn't matter if he falls asleep for 5 minutes in the car on the ride home and we move him directly from car to bed... he would wake up and be up for a couple more hours! It also didn't matter what time of day he took the nap.

So, we switched to no naps and just started putting him to bed earlier. Now he's in bed by 7:30 at the latest. However, for a while he would have meltdowns every night between 5-6 until he adjusted to the new routine.

[Calidris]

Sounds a lot like my DD at times. She is also Feb 04, and has been acting a bit wierd some nights lately, mostly with demanding some odd food, I have heard her talking about food in her sleep.
Must be something about being 3.

[beckington]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

Last night was much better, thankfully! He napped for about an 1.5 yesterday afternoon in the stroller and even with that managed to get to sleep around 7.30 - I'm shocked because normally now when he naps he's up late! I guess getting up at 4.30am will do that to you! Anyhow, he woke up around 1.30 crying that he wants to eat, so I asked what he wanted, he didn't know, I made suggestions to which he said no to all of them, so then I suggested nursing instead - he thought that was a good idea, thankfully! He actually stayed latched for a couple of hours which is unusual for him these days so I think something is definitely up with him. Anyhow, he slept until about 6.30 - much better than 4.30! But then we both fell asleep this afternoon at 3 and slept until 5.30!! Whoops! So he wasn't asleep until about 11 tonight - back and forth, back and forth. :

Fingers crossed for tonight!

CHeers

[MamaBug]

Moving this to Childhood Years

[hipumpkins]

my DD has done that and the first night I tried not giving her the food but than she got SUPER upset...also uncharacteristic for her. I did end up finally giving the food and a year later each and every night she goes to bed with an apple and a glasss of water. this keeps things sane and no need for anyone to get out of bed.. Some times the apple is untouched and sometimes one bite and sometimes she finishes it. either way noone is screaming in the night.
Also I heard that apples don't do as much damage to teeth they actually clean them so that is why I chose that for the late night snack.