My DD is almost 16 months and she has always been a very high needs baby...needs a a lot of stimulation and seemed to be bored or restless or just unhappy with surroundings a lot. She would never lie in the pram as a newborn, or even sit still with us. If she was asleep on us standing up, if we were to dare sit down she would wake up. When she finally would fall asleep in the pram, she would only sleep 30 mins without fail, and if we were to stop moving the pram or go into a different environment eg. a shop where the noises would change she would wake up. We could never just lie in bed with her and entertain when we had woken up even as a newborn she'd have her feed, burp etc and then be entertained for about 5 mins before getting restless and fussy and crying until one of us walked around the house with her. Even when she was a few weeks old ! She was always very clingy with me and needed constant movement as a newborn, always wanted to be upright and sleep on her front. Even rocking or swaying wasn't enough to calm her, only the specific combination of straight jacket swaddle and bouncing on pilates ball whilst holding her and humming or singing would work. She has always been a 0-60 baby...
I've always noticed that often if a loud noise happens outside (even if it's real muffled background noise) like our neighbour starting his motorbike or an airplane going by overhead for example she will startle and run to me in sheer terror as if her life depends on it. The sort of noise I didn't even notice until I realised she was doing this and I connected it to the noise. She used to always get very upset at me changing her nappy in public toilets on the fold down table... she would stare up at the ceiling and shake and cry as if there was a terrifying life threatening monster on the ceiling....she was always fine during nappy changes anywhere else. Now she is a toddler she is still very demanding and particular and she has always had separation anxiety with me and has not grown out of it yet. If I leave the room she will get very anxious and run after me devastated, screaming and crying. So much so that I have become afraid to even leave the room and only do it if I really have to. Have tried explaining to her what I'm doing and asking if she wants to come with me and have tried just waiting until she's absorbed in something and leaving without a word but she notices ! She has also now started getting very upset and screaming her head off whenever I sit down on the loo, take my clothes off to get dressed, or put the washing up gloves on as it's like she associates this with not getting my attention & has a meltdown. I think it's because one time when she was maybe 1 I left her crying on the kitchen floor for 5 mins whilst I did the washing up because I really needed to do the washing up and I thought this is ridiculous that I can't even go in the kitchen and do what I need to do for a minute without out her screaming so I thought I have to stick to my guns. It's almost as if she remembers this and associates the gloves with this so when I put them on she freaked out the other day ! As soon as she even sees me lift up my shirt to get dressed or take down my trousers to sit on the loo she stands there crying and screaming at me the whole time...I'm walking on eggshells !
She's very sociable with adults especially and confident (doesn't like strangers picking her up but she loves interacting with them) and she's very intelligent, has great memory...My brother's girlfriend is called Chey and 3 months ago Chey blew some bubbles for her when we were visiting - this was one of the only times she has seen her and today we were going through the list of names of who is in our family and I said "Uncle Alex and Chey" and my DD said "Chey Bubbles" She remembered this 5 minute incident from 3 months ago...?! ....She had about 20 words by the time she was 1......she walks, climbs, eats with a spoon by herself...plays imaginary games with Playmobil people and tells them to 'Sit down' she likes arranging her teddies into an order in the cot and telling them to sit down. She babbles to herself and to us as if talking...She asks for books she wants by name and says 'Read it', she has started sentences like 'I've got it' 'I hold it' 'Thank you for nana' ... she can copy things I do like Twinkle Twinkle little star and she even copied a video of Pygmy women doing water drumming in the sea that she's watched since she was like 5 months old...she started doing the water drumming in the bath and singing the tune. So she is good at mimicking.. She can recognise herself in photos of her as a baby, she refers to herself in the 3rd person... she can play the harmonica ! haha. Ok now I'm just listing stupid stuff. But I don't know if this makes a difference.
Another thing she does a lot (not always - sometimes she is gentle) is if a child comes near her in a soft play room or playgroup or something she hits them, grabs them or rugby tackles them or pushes them away....?!?! She does understand she needs to be gentle but she just really does not like other children that she doesn't know being near her in general. She's fine with children she has socialised a bit with and she will try and hug or kiss them and wave hello, watch what they are doing etc.
Is there something wrong with her or is this just her personality? Is she just very sensitive and particular? The screaming when I try and do something myself is really getting my down I don't know how to react to it or what to do about it. In the last couple weeks she's got slightly better at doing stuff on her own whilst I'm in the kitchen making food for her but for months and months she would just hang off my legs screaming anytime I'd go into the kitchen even though it's attached to the living room and she can see me and even if previously she was engrossed in something, the sheer thought of me going and doing something that didn't involved her was devastating to her !