how do you cope with all the crap when knackered?

[baka]

Another ridiculous night last night- 4 hours sleep (ds2- has gone from 12 hours a night to a nightmare-we're moving him from hammock to cot) Bah. BIggest problem is I find it really hard to keep my temper when ds1 starts arsing around. Every morning getting him dressed is ridiculous- he thinks it is hilarious to get undressed as I am getting him dressed, runs off etc- and of course the bus is coming. I allow myself 20 minutes to battle with him at the moment and usually do the "dressed first then biscuit routine" which speeds it up a bit. But oh boy I find it hard to keep my temper when shattered. Usually I can kind of detach from it all and remain calm and effective, but this morning ended up shouting (pointless as it'll just encourage him).

Of course all this dressed stuff followed him throwing milk on the floor, chucking toys into the cellar, putting a dirty bottle into the tumble dryer, climbing on the dresser, trying to get us to put the microwave on, stripping off and charging naked aorund the place. All before being up for an hour.

Agh. Just a rant really feel free to ignore. Although if anyone knows a good meditation technique that can be used whilst in the midst of it all so I can remain calm po faced and just repeat "dressed first then biscuit" I'll be all ears (eyes!)

RnB, sorry to hear things are not good at the moment. You've been very quiet, have missed you.
There's me and me aching ribs but Coddy's right. You DO need rules and to enforce them, often even more so, with children with SN. BUT it is definitely harder and there are some things that you just cannot make an impression on and the only thing to do then is prevention if possible. I count the climbing, jumping, throwing etc behaviour as one of those, we had to prevent as much as possible and sit it out. He did move on but it was usually a new form of the same thing iyswim. He will still go back to old behaviours out of the blue, recently started ripping up paper, emptying washing up liquid out etc and then just stopped...... who knows when it will come back or what we'll get instead. That side of things has definitely got better with age though (his not mine!)

what is it with washing up liquid? One of the baby mags sells a lockable carrier thing (plastic) for bleach etc - I want to buy a few but they are £25 each. Might ask for some for xmas!

dd2 was less settled when we moved her into the cot at first. It did take her a little getting used to. I agree with you - I can see dd1 wokring out little plans trying to do things - she is definitely more creative and thoughtful iykwim than people give her credit for.

It is so had isn't it baka. I'm hormonal, sleeping badly, lottie was up at 3am then 6am and saying 'no' to everything this moning. I actually just wanted to cry but was fa to exhausted. I can barely lift my ams to log on to th PC by the time i get to work. No advice just sympathies.

Is there anyway you can get some more sleep/rest. Could you get someone to cover some nights so you are free of responsibility. Just to help you out.