Terrible Two's!?

The past few weeks with Isaac have been an adventure all their own.  Isaac started to get rather whiny in addition to waking up several times during the night.  This isn't typical behavior for him and after a quick check I discovered he's starting to cut his 2 year molars.  All this started around the 8th of July.  After a week or so of whining, fussiness, sleepless nights and refusing to nap he was showing signs of congestion so I decided to take him to the quick clinic down the street.

The only thing the appointment confirmed was he had no sign of an infection or a virus.  His lungs and ears were clear.  The only useful suggestion was to stay away from milk for a couple of days since milk tends to produce more mucous.  This was on the 15th after several sleepless nights.  It's not uncommon for Isaac to wake up once in the night a few nights a week but 3-6 times every night and struggling to go back to sleep without someone in his room with him.......is not the norm and not a new habit Frazer and I wanted to support.

So, we eliminated the milk and switched to juice, started giving him Ibuprofen at night and pulled out the humidifier.  I even put a pillow under his mattress to help keep him elevated when he sleeps.

It's such a helpless feeling when you know your little one doesn't feel well but nothing you try seems to help.  It's obvious he's exhausted and I'm sure the congestion isn't helping.  In the last week he's also reattached himself to binky, puppy and his pooh blanket.  The entire arsenal of comfort items are in use.

We spent a few days relaxing on the sofa as long as I stayed close and kept cartoons on.  My sweet little boy who typically sleeps 10-12 hours a night and naps 1-3 hours has officially been abducted and I'd really like him to return!  Soon!

After a few more sleepless nights I even tried bringing him in our room to sleep in the pack-n-play/cot just so we could all manage to get some sleep.  That worked for one night but naps were still a struggle.

The morning of the 19th I walked in to find him standing in the crib with everything else on the floor, including his pajamas!  He was up 3 times that night that I went in to check on him and afterwards I had to let him cry it out.  It was tough love but this mama couldn't take one more sleepless night.  That was the final straw and then it was time to take him to our regular pediatrician, which in hindsight is what I should have done in the first place.

The pediatrician did a full check up and provided a diagnosis I suspected but wasn't ready to hear.  Isaac is in a complete regression and we're officially in the terrible two's!  He's testing boundaries and exerting independence where he can, including sleep.  He is cutting his two year molars which isn't helping and he's also congested.  Since Isaac is now 2 we can start giving him Benadryl to dry up the congestion when he lays down which should also help him sleep.  The doctor also recommended a great book for discipline ages 2-12 which I picked up, 1-2-3 Magic.  I'm all for being armed with sound advice.

The Benadryl certainly helped and while we did experience a couple more sleepless nights which after verifying he was okay he had to cry out on his own but then he finally made the turn!  Wohoo!

It was certainly a bit of a power struggle for Isaac to give in and start putting himself back to sleep again but it's so nice to have a household sleeping again!  :)