Please Help. Two year old daughter won't sleep and showing strange behavior.

[Cryss500661]

My name is Crystal and I am a 20 year old single mother to a little girl named Emberlee-Faye who recently turned two in August. Earlier this week my daughter learned how to crawl out of her crib and now all she wants to do is play ALL the time. I struggle to get her to sleep at night because she keeps crawling out. Two nights she went without hardly sleeping at all, keeping both me and my grandmother up. I'm exhausted beyond belief because during the day, all she does is run and constantly get into things and scolding does not work. I understand 'terrible twos' but this is really stressful. She gets so mad when you tell her no and throws herself down and screams continuously. When trying to get her to lay in bed with one of us, she gets just as mad and throws herself back repeatedly hitting her head on the wall. Yesterday I also noticed that she would randomly do this weird eye widening expression and open her mouth and shift her jaw around for a bit and then tonight my grandma noticed that she her body has been lightly jerking in her sleep. I'm really concerned because she needs sleep and as does me and my grandma but we can't sleep soundly without worrying that Emberlee will get up and into something while we are still asleep. We put baby gates up on the rooms without doors but I don't know if she can climb over those too or not. I'm so tired and I haven't been able to take her to the doctor to get checked because we are without a vehicle. Can anyone give me an idea as to why she might be doing this or advice for getting her to sleep? Please. Anything would help.

[specialmom]

I'm not sure if it was the poster that spoke of pinning her in or putting her in a play pen and making her watch tv (which is not good at all for that age, a messy house is better than a bored child with no real stimulation).  Someone talked about that with her own child when answering the post.  

I do think that kids need lots of physical exercise during the day but the poster doesn't really talk about this.

My kids went through a stage in which they climbed over the crib.  My older son had a fall and that was that.  he never tried to get out again.  He called the crib his bed with a fence and I liked it!  Put him to bed, he stayed put.  My younger son was pretty obedient regarding bedtime and nap time and just stayed in his bed.  Occasionally he climbed out on his own but usually when it was time to get up.  

But I have heard of kids going through this phase.  What is concerning is that she is getting up and 'partying' (in a 2 year old fashion) ALL night.  That's unusual because kids generally also need sleep.  I would talk to the pediatrician.  maybe she needs some natural help like melatonin.  I also would talk a lot about how we NEED sleep and when something goes wrong say "Oh, this is happening because we didn't sleep last night".  I did that with my kids and when they were younger and resistant to sleep, all I had to do was remind them that we had X planned tomorrow and if we were too tired it wouldn't be fun and then they would TRY to sleep.  No joke.  It worked really well for us.  

Anyway, her safety is the first issue, her and you getting sleep the second.  Talk to her doctor.  good luck

[RockRose]

I agree with all the others but wonder why this is so sudden.  Is it just because in the past,  there was a way to pen her in,  in her crib,  so all this excessive energy wasn't as big a problem?

I don't understand how suddenly,  at the time she's old enough to climb out of the crib she could become both sleepless and so energetic and combative.

I hope you come back for an update - this sounds very exhausting and concerning.

Best wishes.

[Candimann]

My advice to your problem seems so simple but it was the best advice that I ever got from both my mother and my x boyfriens grandmother is be calm they feed off your tension. If your irritated they feel it and won't calm down. Try it good luck
K. Candice

[Sandman2]

   Very good points by the above poster.  Don't keep her penned up.  Give her as much exercise as you can.  Just take her to a park (while the weather is still good) and let her run around as much as possible.
    Also curious if she is still napping during the day (probably not), but if she is I would eliminate or really shorten them.

[maltapaceberry]

Play chatch or with a ballon , hiding and u pretend you arnt seeing her try to make a day playing and tell me how it goes but talk to the doctor am gona to becouse i see that my son is very notey gives me troube to eat everything . I had a hard pregnecy i dont know thats why he is so hyper

[maltapaceberry]

Hello am 22 and a single mother as well i know its hard i have a son that is 2yr soon and is hyperactive and gives me troube to sleep but becouse he still breastfeeds , my advice is to talk to the doctor at least on the phone untill you fix the car and second if she is hiting her head on the wall it my be the couse why she rolls her eyes but u need to ask a doctor its better , my son runs all over  the house and doesnt sit and play for a sec but i know why becouse he spends lots of time watching tv in play pan becouse living alone is hard to do house work so when he wakes he get so happy that he runs so fast and bumps every were , i have to let him play more and i think thats you problem to , play as muc,h as you can with her, does she walk? Try to waste her energy so at night she will be super sleepy

[specialmom]

You  haven't gotten any responses to this, I'm sorry.  It's a tough situation.  I know that my brother and sister in law did something that was pretty desperate but did work.  They switched their doorknobs so that the locked portion was on the outside and they locked the door.   Then their kids room was safeproofed.  What about talking to the pediatrician about her lack of sleep?  That will cause all kinds of issues.  Does she attend any type of preschool setting yet?