Parents of Whirlwind Children - Come tell me I'm not alone!

[CaptainFlameSparrow]

From day one, DD has been a little whirlwind. She would sleep at night, and slept through fairly early, but daytime, once she was up, she was up and wanting constant interaction.

If I was lucky and held her, I could get 45mins with her asleep during the day.

Fastforward 3 years...

She is still like it. She wakes at 7.30am (ish), and doesn't flag at all until bedtime (if I am really lucky) at 7.30pm... even then she will often bounce round her room for about an hour - it would be longer during this last week, but I am afraid I have been giving her piriton to knock her out .

She can concentrate. She can play quietly. I don't think there is anything wrong with her as such (ADHD etc), she is just at the very high end of the energy scale, and I am constantly exhausted with her.

She goes to bed by 7.30pm regardless of how tired she is - I need her to go then because I can't cope any longer

I just really want to know that there are others out there, and that I'm not alone.

(Oh, its not just that she is my eldest and I think that she is like this and I can't cope - I see her with other children, other parents have noticed it etc).

"anything wrong with her" was the wrong way to phrase that but ykwim.

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I sympathise totally. I have 2 high energy kids, and they are totally exhausting.
I too have wondered about adhd etc, but no, they are just high energy,as a low energy person it is very hard work.
dd - now 7 has never been the type to sit and read
quietly, she throws herself about all over the furniture etc. ds - 4 is also very physical, running (and falling) everywhere.
No solution for you I'm afraid - just sympathy.

at piriton. Why not try regular swimming sessions during the week to help with the excess energy levels.

I'm a very low energy person too (happy to sleep as much as humanly possible) - I've also been known to hide when DH gets home.

That is the good thing about breastfeeding DS... DH comes home and I disappear to feed DS in bed (whether he is hungry or not ).

Unicorn - were both of yours like it from the beginning? DS is a completely different baby to DD - very placid, sleeps lots, so I am living in hope that he will be a child like myself and DH, but should I be prepared for another one??

"He is an extrovert and I am a bit of an introvert so I get to the end of the day and am physically and mentally frazzled, have to go and hide from him sometimes when DH gets back."

Same situation here, although ds has never put himself to bed. Yesterday, he went non-stop from 7am till 10pm!

By the weekend, I'm a zombie and don't have the energy or drive to do anything with DH.

I plan to get her swimming more during the summer because my mum will be able to have DS while I take her.

DH was suggesting getting her involved in some sort of sports class, but do you know of anything much that will take a 3 year old (apart from dancing)?

dd has always been like this (very difficult baby/toddler etc) ds, not so - think he copies quite a lot, nevertheless is still totally full on.
Plus side though is he goes to bed really earlyish (6.30-7)because he is totally ready for it!
(If he doesn't get enough sleep he has tantrummy meltdowns.)

Yes, dd 2.10 is like that - just very energetic, never stops moving or demanding attention. This carries on into her sleep and she finds it very hard to settle. Also, her constant need for companionship wears me out. I am introverted, compared to extrovert she is.

Have you tried a trampoline?

Trampolining classes are excellent but I've got a feeling they have to be age 5 or over. Would you consider one with a safety net in your garden?

Are you sure it's not diet-related? DS1 was like this and we discovered it was high sugar/ food colouring related.
Try eliminating all the additives from here diet, you may see a difference!

The garden isn't big enough (and she is a tad accident prone... she'd work her way through a safety net )

She's been bouncing on a bouncy castle today and yesterday and its great

I'll look up the local leisure centre now and see if they have anything for littlies during the summer...

Lol - additives make her bounce off the walls. You should see the kid on fruit shoots . We have taken out pretty much anything bad that we can... this is de-hyped her now.

Oooh - found more term time activities than I realised Loading up holiday ones now.

Why does it take a thread on here to make me do it???

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I have a whirlwind dd, aged 5.4.

She was madly active in the womb, would sleep in short bursts with no pattern until she was 5 months old, gave up daytime nap at 20 months etc. And now at 5 she is still the same but worse!

Everything she does is a three-act drama. She will have a raging temperature, projectile vomiting, diarrhoea like Niagra Falls - and within 24 hours right as rain.

She will say within 10 minutes of coming home after an entire day out in the blazing sun, "I'm bored".

She threatens to leave home because we have run out of strawberry jam.

I could go on. She's also quite sensitive, highly articulate and very caring towards others. I just don't understand her but love her with all my heart even though she's a real handful!!

ds1 is a whirlwind
wakes before 6 - this morning 4:40
and sings from the minute he wakes
never stops moving or talking
he is 4 in 2 weeks.
hope school in septmeber sorts him out

so draining isnt it

DS1 (nearly 8) is like this. It is made worse by certain foods in his case, but he is always on the go and never still (except when asleep). Probably why he is so skinny.

It doesn't really help him at school, though, as he is of the somwhere-at-the-least-worrying-end-of-the-ADHD-spectrum persuasion - and if it doesn't interest him, he won't engage with it.

This is improving as he gets older, but he is sleeping alarmingly little these days (from about 10.00 till 7.00).

Popsycal, Oh yes, the non-stop fidgeting. And talking, and questions etc.

mummy!
muuuuummmmmy
helo me with balh blah
play with this
read this
go go go go lazy town
enjy benjy balh blah djfoshgoxfhio vwjh ovaejhgfvskpdjfp;skdv

my 16 month old plays independently mor ethan ds1

I have a ds who was 4 in April and he is like this too. Every where we go people always comment, and say things like 'Ooh, you've got your hand fulls' or 'he's full of beans!'

He has always been energetic and is on the go from the minute he wakes till the minute he sleeps, he runs/hops/skips/jumps every where - never walks, and talks incessanctly twenty to the dozen, if he thinks I'm not listening he's shouting, 'no, mummy, mummy, mummy listen' and grabbing my cheeks!

I'm hoping school will calm him down a little!!

Mercy-you've got the female version of my ds. I laughed so much when I read your thread-particularly about the strawberry jam!

DS is a fidget (but so am I), he has boundless energy for jumping, running and falling! He makes me tired just watching him and most days I end it by feeling completely exhausted.
He also though makes me really laugh and is the most loving little lad. Thankfully he does take himself off and read a book a few times a day-but that's it, the rest of the time I'm supposed to be running and jumping along with him!
I just wish he'd sleep in a bit

Nope -you are not alone. My mother sees DS and says "No wonder you are glad to get him to bed". Like you I feel that the energy is "normal" (whatever that is) but it IS exhausting.