losing my mind

z is being so incredibly badly behaved. for example - he hit his sister with a bottle three times before i could get him away from her. we were on a walk and he overturned somebody's bucket of recyclable glass bottles (halfway up a steep hill), so we had to chase down the bottles & pick up broken glass. every little thing we ask him to do, he turns into a battle - getting dressed, eating, using the potty - you name it, he battles. i was doing bath time last night and he refused to get out of the tub. i'm not allowed to lift him, so he sat there without water for about 10 min. the other night he refused to take his medicine - j had to pry his mouth open to get it in. we have taken away so many privileges, and it doesn't seem to do a damn thing. we don't believe in spanking, but believe me, i feel like throwing him halfway around the world. i will try ignoring some of the behavior, because i'm sure part of it is him testing boundaries and wanting to get a reaction out of us. i don't know what else to do. some of the behavior can be attributed to steroids - prednisone- we gave him for his cough two nights ago, but he's never been this bad. i'm already worn out from a night of no sleep & a day of appointments... i don't know how i'm going to survive if this behavior continues. along with s spitting up - and so far the zantac has done nothing for her... thank goodness j let me sleep most of last night, and i was lucky that s slept for a long stretch of time during my time to be up with her. j managed to get her to sleep in the bassinet in her crib, propped up at one end - she slept from around 1 to 7am. i'm sure it will not be reproduced if i'm the one on duty... sigh. awful. just awful.