Unsettled 2 year old

[Lilliput]

My 2 year old(2 year birthday tomorrow) dd's behaviour has been a bit weird the last couple of days. She has been quite clingy and is normally a pretty independant soul. I know it is because she knows that lots of things are changing in our household. I am 8 months pregnant and we move to a new house (but only around the corner) next Friday. She is normally so good about going to bed but yesterday she refused to have her nap and just wanted to cuddle on the sofa and tonight we had the same thing and only went to bed after lots of calm quiet cuddling with me. My husband is a chef so works odd, long and late hours and when the baby is born in 4 weeks time I'm really worried about how I am going to be able to give enough attention and love to an unsettled little girl. She has also gone from having one security snuggly to anything up to 3. Any advice?

[Lilliput]

Anyone?

[helsi]

Wow - you sure you're not me?

I am married to a chef - yes the hours are sh**. I have a dd (also aged 2) but alas I am not pg (working on it though). I really think it is probably a phase. My dd is like that sometimes and there are not many changes going on around ud. She is maybe realising she is not a bay anymore.
My advice is just give her lots of cuddles when she wants. I'm sure she'll be back to her usual self.

ps - DD has always got more than one blanky on the go - 1 in her hands, 1 on her feet and sometimes 1 on her head!!! - and you worry LOL

[Lilliput]

Thanks Helsi,
anyone else? I realise it's a bit of a boring topic but others must have been through the same thing.

[mummytummy]

She may be feeling under the weather. My DD1 (2.9) has been acting like my shadow for the last couple of days, and she just wants to be cuddled and watch Peter Pan over and over again. We've had flu in our household, DH and DD2 (9 months) have both been ill, so I'm putting it down to that. As for the new baby, DD1 was two weeks short of being 2 when DD2 was born, and I thought it would be hard on her because she used to cry if I held another baby. She was a little uptight for the first couple of days, but we included her as much as we could, ie, asking her why she thinks the baby might be crying, etc, and we made sure that she took first priority for the first few weeks and she absolutely loved DD2. It's only since DD2 has been crawling that trouble has started!!!

[karma]

Can really sympathasise with the situation. My son is 2.4yr and new baby due 8th Feb. He has gone from an easygoing, confident little boy to a clingy, tantrumy one. All I can think is that he knows that changes are a-foot in our household but he doesn't quite know what yet, and that this is unsettling him. Also of course it is the age where they are starting to try to exercise some control over their environment, hence the "no" a thousand times a day, and everything at the moment is "no like it". He has also got very tearful at nursery which hasn't been a problem before.
I put a message on about this recently and got some really useful and reassuring advice. We are just trying to give our ds lots of extra love, cuddles and trying to make him feel as secure as possible. I hope that once the baby is around and that there is a focus for him things will settle down. I'm convinced that children do know about a siblings arrival, even if they're not vocalising anything about the pregnancy and you're not sure if they understand.
Good luck with everything. If you fancy chatting again as we're in a similar boat would be more than happy to.

[mummylonglegs]

A different reason but a similar reaction, my dd, 2.3 started with a childminder this week for the first time, just 2 mornings a week. She's been very clingy and needy and has had me up and down stairs at bed and nap times to bring an ever-growing array of toys into her bed. Last night I just sat and cuddled her in the dark in her room and then she said 'I think I can go to bed now' and she went off like a light. So my only thoughts are to just give silent reassurance and not get caught up in the demands which are really deflections from the real problem.