Headbanger's Ball

You all remember the Headbanger's Ball, right? If I remember correctly, it was MTV's answer to Friday Night Videos. (Yes, I'm old.) It's probably still on but I can't stay up that late. But we forgot to tell this sweet boy that mom needs her sleep or everyone suffers.

Timothy has always been a self soother. His weapon of choose is rhythmic rocking. From the time he was about 3 months old, he always banged his head against his mattress a few time before going to sleep. Now, he kicks his left foot until he dozes off.

While he has pretty good speech for a 2 year old, banging is his preferred method of communication. When he wakes up, he doesn't call us. Instead, he sits in front of his closed door and bangs his head against it until someone shows up to help. Just this week he figured out how to turn the knob and open the door, but he seems attached to the banging upon waking.

I'm OK with this since he doesn't seem to hurt himself. Except, last week he stopped sleeping through the night. He's been sleeping through for two whole years, so why now? And do you know how he alerts us to the fact the he is awake? He gets up and sits in front of his door and bangs his head until someone responds.

So, I dutifully stumble down the hall, open the door and put him back to bed. I am careful to avoid speaking, soothing, or even eye contact for fear of feeding some ploy for attention. It's the old trick of stop him after 5 minutes, then after 10 more, then 15. You get the idea. Wouldn't you give up after 30 minutes of this? Well, Tim doesn't. He can keep it up for an hour.

I think that if I stick with this approach that he will stop. But, he wakes everyone else up! How long to I have to wait before this lesson is beaten into his head? Tonight I'm going to try stuffing a towel under his door so at least it won't rattle within the frame and perhaps it will dampen some of the hollow knocking. We've tried leaving the door open and putting a gate up but he just closes the door.

I'd like to know what this is about. My theory is allergies since he has a slight history. He's had a problem with milk pretty much since it was offered. He woke up stuffy all winter but was fine most of the time. This waking began about the same time that everyone else started responding to pollen. And now Tim's nose is a mess in the morning and the congestion never really clears up. I'll actually be surprised if he doesn't have an ear infection by the end of the week. I don't want to put him on meds but I did try Motrin last night, which didn't work. Maybe Benadryl? At least it is cold outside now, so the windows are closed. I'm seriously thinking of turning on the air conditioning when the temperature rises again just to test the theory.

My other clue pointing me toward allergies is that his behavior changed recently. It could just be the age and the stage but he's gotten much more aggressive lately. Remember the playground last week?

If any of this seems familiar, please chime in! Otherwise, just send you restful vibes this way before bed.