Mighty Meltdowns

Meltdowns are never fun for anyone involved are they? We've had a good run of things lately and not had too many to contend with especially when I think back to the early days of having two and those many moments pre-bathtime that they would both be crying, a lot.  I think I've blocked a lot of these memories out being a parent seems to do this to do I find (or is it just me?) but I do remember my son as a newborn screaming on the change table and my daughter crying at my feet desperate to be picked up.  You can hardly blame her as she was 15 months old and suddenly this baby has arrived who's getting attention when ever he cries and gets lots of "special cuddles" from Mummy.  We survived this period and found ways of dealing with these demanding times for example I would carry on with changing the newborn's nappy first and continue with the task in hand because if I stopped to cuddle her he would still be crying and I'd still need to put her down to finish his nappy anyway.  Better to get that done then we can all sit down together and everyone can be happy.  I found feeding on our bed worked well particularly when my daughter was tired and extra sensitive.  I could feed my son and she could still be close to me either cuddling next to me or on my legs reading a book.  It worked so much better than on a sofa which she did fall off a few times (luckily with no injuries!).

These days we have an 8 month old and a 2 year old and both are in good routines so meltdowns don't seem happen too often unless they're overtired which is what happened this week.  My son who has been doing well at his daytime naps didn't have a good lunchtime nap and my daughter was sad that her playdate had just left (she was also a little sad that their over enthusiastic cuddle goodbye was more like a rugby tackle by both girls and they both ended up on the floor!!).  Cue a lot of noise, sad faces and tears.  It was dinner time so I knew I needed to get it started as dinner would be a good distraction for them both so I set about doing everything I needed two hands for whilst switching on my selective hearing to try and block the (loud) noises out, I do find sometimes singing helps! Then picked up my son who was in a pickle and spoke to my daughter to try and calm her down.  She was getting frustrated as 2 year old's do that she was asking for something and I didn't understand, it turned out she was asking me to get her slippers.  I couldn't find them (still haven't found them!) but because I understood her the issue seemed to be over, phew! Dinner time came and calmness was restored and so was my sanity although dinner always seems to take longer to cook on these days when you need it to be quick! And we made it to bedtime without too many more issues.

Meltdowns are all part of parenthood and it definitely tests you when both are going off at the same time. In a way having a double meltdown is at least better than having two separate single ones as it gets it out the way!  They can set each other off a bit sometimes and my daughter occasionally seems to cry just because my son is but she's still only young herself so it's to be expected I guess.

How do you handle these testing moments? Any tips for mid meltdown?

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