Appreciation and Screaming While Sleeping

First and foremost, I need to get some Thank-You’s out there.  I’ve been a bit lax in the gratitude department.  I want to say thanks to LaskiGal at From the Cheap Seats for hearting my little blog:

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I’m sure we’re not alone in this, but I’m starting to feel like a crazy woman because of it:  Cooper screams in his sleep at night.  Usually this happens when he’s overtired (read:  every night).  I’ve been trying to work with the wonderful teachers in his classroom about forcing him down for naps to help (because this rarely occurs on weekends when he gets his two naps), but it seems that this stubborn child refuses to sleep more than an hour or so at daycare with any regularity.  I’m considering spiking one of his bottles or containers of food with benadryl, but uh…thought I’d poll the Interwebs for any other ideas.  Now, for a little background:

• Cooper has never been a good sleeper, which is frustrating enough since Gavin spoiled us by sleeping through the night by 6 weeks.
• When he’s woken himself up with his own nocturnal screams, we have tried rocking him back to sleep, singing, walking around with him, and can only get him to quiet down if we feed him (and by “we” I mean “me”).
• I tried letting Cooper “cry it out” a little, but he’s already so wound up and ticked-off that he ends up waking up Gavin, too, which is no easy feat.  Then we’re all unhappy and I have two kids crying.
• They have a hard time getting Cooper to sleep at school unless he’s in one of the swings (which doesn’t help my plight at all, but hey, I’m not trying to care for 13 kids between the ages of 3 months and 12 months).  I may have to get tough and ask them to put him in the crib because at home he naps without any problems–give him his binky, a blanket to snuggle, rock him a minute or two, and lay him on his side in his crib.
• I stuff him so full of food at dinner that he sits there with his tongue all lolling out like an over-stuffed pug: 




• He usually gets up around 7 or 7:30am and goes to bed around 8pm.  I thought about getting him up earlier, but um, that would mean I have to get up earlier than I already do…and that’s just not going to happen.
• It isn’t too bad when he just gets up once per night, but the screaming in his sleep periodically through the night is a bit disruptive. 

So any ideas?…I mean, outside of drugging him or hitting him with the Baby Mallet to knock him out? 

p.s.  Um, LaskiGal…I’m such a twit…just realized that I’ve had “Laski Gal” as the name of your blog in my blogroll instead of your actual blog title of “From the Cheap Seats”.  So Sorry!!!  And thanks for hearting my blog in spite of my idiocy.