Rough couple of days

We're not sure what's been up with Payton the past couple of days but she's really been having a tough time. Biting, hitting, throwing things (we've always called her our little tornado), etc. but we can't seem to pinpoint what's causing the meltdowns. In all honesty, I feel sorry for her. She just can't control herself. Everything will be seemingly just fine and she will walk up out of nowhere and either just bite you or slap you across the face - and once it starts, she doesn't stop. She knows she's not supposed to do it, because many times after she's done it she starts crying. Oddly enough, after sitting in time out or getting a swat she immediately comes back in the room and 'attacks' again. It was at the point yesterday we felt we really needed to get Koen out of the situation because the top of his head seemed to be the target for hits, thrown trains, books, etc. I sat up most of the night last night thinking how awful it is for her not to be able to communicate her feelings. At times, we've noticed she'll lash out with this behavior when she's hungry. It's frustrating that she won't just tell us she's hungry or go to the pantry and get a snack - her way of telling us is by hitting, biting, or destroying things. Unfortunately, hunger wasn't the cause the past few days and I can't put my finger on what it is (although I still feel confident it's anxiety related - just not sure what is causing the anxiety). I've never heard back from the geneticist or her pediatrician, so I'm assuming the geneticist never got with the pediatrician on a psychologist. Thankfully, Noel gave me the name of Abi's developmental pediatrician and we are scheduled to see him in July (the nurse said they would move her up as they could....but it's worth the wait - I'm just thankful we could get into him). I've also emailed Dr. Mervis to discuss it with her. It's really tough to see her like this and not be able to 'shake' her out of it. The past two nights when trying to get her to go to sleep I've practically laid on top of her to give her that deep-pressure sensory input. She seems to need a lot of that (and I try giving her big hugs when she's on a rampage but usually I end up with teeth in my arms or shoulder...and I still wonder if that's what is causing her to bite - needing the sensory input). For now, we're just trying to do what we can to bring her out of the meltdowns (discipline for some reason is not working with these - and I'm guessing it's because it's anxiety related). Once we've tried different forms of discipline and it feels like she's really going to hurt someone (which sounds strange because she's only four!! but the look in her eyes change and gets almost frightening) we try baths, sitting her in the high chair to watch a home video (this way she can't get out and go back to the hitting, etc), or trying to take her outside if it's not too cold. Tonight I'm working on getting picture schedules together to see if that will help her as well. I feel like she's understanding things when I tell them to her, but maybe she's really not. Hopefully the picture schedules will help with this some. I'm hoping and praying Payton has a better day/evening today-I'm ready to see that big, beautiful grin back on her face!