Lately my 20-month-old started to throw bad tantrums. Meltdowns is more like it -- they seem to come out of nowhere and the only thing that has been stopping them is putting her in the crib to "cool off." Until very recently, if she got upset about something it was easy to calm her down.
Anyway tonight she started one around bedtime, and nothing was helping, not even going in the crib, and then I took her out and put her next to mom (who was lying down exhausted and half asleep) and that didn't help, and then my wife tried to comfort her and she wouldn't calm down at all, and my heart started to race and I started to feel real panic. I felt like something was terribly wrong and I couldn't fix it, I started to worry that something had happened to my child or like I had done something wrong as a parent. I felt like I was falling into a bottomless pit where there was less and less oxygen.
Eventually we put her back in the crib and she petered out after a minute or two and went to sleep. She woke up again crying later but went back to sleep. But I'm worried now about her, and about my own reaction, which can't possibly help things.
Anyway tonight she started one around bedtime, and nothing was helping, not even going in the crib, and then I took her out and put her next to mom (who was lying down exhausted and half asleep) and that didn't help, and then my wife tried to comfort her and she wouldn't calm down at all, and my heart started to race and I started to feel real panic. I felt like something was terribly wrong and I couldn't fix it, I started to worry that something had happened to my child or like I had done something wrong as a parent. I felt like I was falling into a bottomless pit where there was less and less oxygen.
Eventually we put her back in the crib and she petered out after a minute or two and went to sleep. She woke up again crying later but went back to sleep. But I'm worried now about her, and about my own reaction, which can't possibly help things.
Put the internet to work for you.
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