Hellobee Boards

My older daughter was the crazy one. Just gets more and more wild and crazy and belligerent until she finally succumbs to the tiredness. And yeah she has always been a harder sleeper and was much harder to sleep train and still, at 5, can have sleep troubles. My younger one is more like your older, she just visibly gets more tired, more snuggly, will cry more often and is more irritable, but not the defiance I get from the older one. Then when I put her to bed she is out fast. She was easy to sleep train too and generally is an all star sleeper at night. She is 3, and her 5 year old sister has woken up during the night way way more often than her in the last year.

@bhbee: all of the above! My older two mostly just act sleepy and my middle gets grouchy. They both get gaggy if you push them far enough! My littlest cries.

He screams bloody murder until I stick a boob in his face and then he's instantly calm. No idea how we'll deal once I wean

O is just like your middle one. She gets crazier and increasingly more defiant/mischievous until eventually she's totally out of control and we kind of give up any kind of reasoning and just survive the evening. Especially on the no nap days. She is actually getting better about bedtime these days, but she used to basically bounce off the walls until she crashed and fell asleep hard. Now she will lie still for a minute or two before she falls asleep. She is a fairly decent sleeper at this point (wakes maybe 1-3 times per week, usually because of a bad dream), but was REALLY REALLY AWFUL at sleeping until about 18 months. It's amazing she grew or developed at all because basically it seemed like she wasn't getting any good sleep.
N seems a bit better, although she's a lighter sleeper than O so tends to stir more and wake up easily if anything is off. She will sleep through the night most nights when healthy, but teething, colds, coughs, O waking up, almost anything will wake her. But she doesn't do the crazy thing as she gets tired. So far she likes to put her head on my shoulder and snuggle a lot as she quietly winds down. I sure hope it lasts, I love the snuggles.

DS (almost 6) gets whiny and emotional when he’s tired. He also gets clingy. Baby (5 months) just shrieks when he’s tired.

DD (5) gets Jekyll-and-Hyde, huge mood swings between hyper silliness and total meltdowns. She can be a real drama queen even at the best of times so she’s just impossible to deal with when she gets overtired. She dislikes going to sleep but fortunately, once she crashes she’s out until morning.

DD gets wild, hyper, defiant, insanely emotional, and quite honestly - just miserable to be around. It's a large part of why even at 4, we stick to a pretty strict schedule. She still naps every day and the handful of times we have skipped it for holidays or other special events have always ended horribly.

She has had high sleep needs since she was born and has always been a good sleeper once asleep but basically needs to be forced to go to sleep. Black out curtains, sound machine, and a strict sleep schedule.

@bhbee: my son HITS, chases the pets, and straight up acts like a dick. It's super formulaic. Hits, says he's a "mean guy", and kicks the dogs. Every time. So at least we know when he's tired. I wish he would wilt or fade!!

Both my girls (almost 3 and 14 months) get extremely hyper and giggly, but also can melt down over the smallest thing. The older one has always been an excellent sleeper, goes to sleep by herself with little/no argument and sleeps hard for 11-11.5 hours and still naps well too. She sometimes even asks to go to sleep because she knows she's tired. The younger one has always been tough to get to sleep and stay asleep, despite us treating them the same (sleep training, blackout curtains, sound machine, etc).

My LO, 33 months gets super hyper and uncooperative. That’s a tell tale sign he needs to get some rest. He’s also mastered the art of the furrowed brow and bass in his voice, so when he’s tired it extra frustrating because he sounds mad too.

Our oldest (she's 5) gets impulsive, resistant, angry and (sometimes) violent. She's a very high sleep needs child, and if we miss the mark on bedtime, it's horrible.

Our youngest doesn't seem affected at all. She's extremely adaptable, and just rubs her eyes. Even if she's over-tired, bedtimes are easy.

We can always tell when Daniel (4 y.o.) is tired - he goes hyper. We have always found TV to be something he'll sit down for though so its TV bath bed here.

If Daniel is getting out of control, I give him a bear hug with him facing out and talk through my own breathing - it helps me and sometimes he joins in (we do this when he's crying so hard too following a strop).