Shortly after I gave birth to Bear, Bubba started throwing lots of fits. My 85 year old neighbor told me that he was likely jealous that a lot of time, attention and focus was on his new brother. She advised me to not acknowledge or look at him when he starts to whine and throw a fit. I tried doing what she told me to do, it was hard for both of us. Bubba threw his toys at me while I was nursing his brother and I didn't acknowledge it. After about a day he realized that he wouldn't get attention by acting out and he stopped having meltdowns.
About a week or so ago the meltdowns began happening again, currently their are about 1-3 a day. I
attribute these meltdowns largely to the fact that he is 2 1/2, testing
his limits and at times jealous that all of the attention isn't on him.
Earlier this week while at story time Bubba had the biggest meltdown of his life. I'm praying he never has another one of this magnitude again. Most of the families at story time had already left. Two friends of mine from church were the only other people in the building.
I had just finished telling my friends about Bubba having meltdowns after Bear was born and what I did about it. Moments later Bubba started to get really frustrated with a toy, the toy was well loved and not working the way he wanted it to. I asked him to put it away so we could go home. He didn't listen and was quickly becoming more frustrated with the toy. When he handed me the toy for what was likely the 15th time to fix it, I opted to put it away instead of fixing it again. He flipped out. He fell to the floor in hysteria. He was kicking and screaming, he smacked his head into one of the bookshelves and then repeatedly hit his head on the floor (cement floor with a thin office carpet). He paused briefly walked over to where I was at this Bear and resumed his fit. It was then that I noticed the blood on his face. One of my friends took Bear while I tried to calm Bubba down enough to see where the blood was coming from-- his nose. This was the first bloody nose he has ever had and it took quite a bit to get it to stop. Not only did he get a bloody nose, he bruised his nose too.
I'm really glad Bubba was okay and that nobody else was there to witness the scene. One of my friends told me that I'm a good mom. She was impressed by how calm I was through the whole thing. She said she would have been yelling at her kids if they did that.
Being a mom can be rough at times but it is so rewarding. Tantrums and all I love my boys!
