Need nap time help

For the past week Emilie has been not sleeping more than an hour at her nap. :angry: She used to sleep between 2-2.5 hours. All of a sudden she is waking up, sometimes after only 30 min, screaming like she is scared to death. And I have tried to let her CIO (once I see she is okay), but she never falls back to sleep. We have done CIO for bedtime and that worked. If I go up there after a good bit of crying she won't get back in her crib, if I try to put her back in it's like she is terrified to go back in. She sleeps fine for bed and sleeps for 12 hours at night, all night long. She goes down fine for her nap, but wakes within an hour. She never used to wake up crying, she would always wake up happy and would chat to herself for 20 min. or so.

And when I finally go get her she doesn't want me to leave her. I have to hold her. The only thoughts I had were bad dreams or separation anxiety, but why only at nap time?

She is not sick, she's actually on an antibiotic from a sinus infection from last Friday, but this was happening before she started the meds.

Anyone have any thougths or suggestions on this? She needs to sleep longer than 30-60 min. The past 2 days she has woken up after 30 min. I need a longer nap break than that as well.

Help!!!

 

Both of our boys have gone through phases like this, and in our experience they've lasted about a week. But I have to admit that it happened at naptime and at night. Not necessarily every time they were asleep, but pretty frequently. They acted just like you described: suddenly woke up screaming and just seeming terrified. This would usually only happen once, maybe twice per sleep time.

I'd go in and hold them and get them calmed down. Sometimes it took up to 30 minutes just to get them calmed back down so they could go back to sleep, but after that calming process I put them back in the crib. Often they started crying again, but it wasn't the same terrified type of crying as before, and I let them CIO at that point.

The key for me was to both spend enough time with them calming to be sure they really were wound down from whatever it was, but then to go ahead and let them CIO after that. These were not fun weeks, but we got through them, and come to think of it, it has been at least a couple of months since one of these phases. Hopefully yours is just a phase also!

 

Amy, my guys have gone through phases where they woke up an hour into nap crying, and some weeks they don't. I still can't figure out why either. :hug99: I hope its just a phase that will be over quickly. :hug99:

 

QUOTE(Sarah© @ Feb 21 2008, 01:59 PM) [snapback]632986[/snapback]
Amy, my guys have gone through phases where they woke up an hour into nap crying, and some weeks they don't. I still can't figure out why either. :hug99: I hope its just a phase that will be over quickly. :hug99:


Like Sarah, mine do this too... but it is usually at night! As the other PP said I will usually comfort them - I can pick up A and she'll go back to sleep, but if E is picked up you can kiss your sleep goodbye. After comforting, I let them CIO. I have been tending to chalk it up to bad dreams. Good luck and I hope it passes soon!
~Jenny

 

Hi, Amy.

We have had phases like this too. When Nick does this if I move quickly and prep my bedroom (black out shades drawn, bed turned down), I can go in and grab him (no talking) and just go lay down with him and he'll often snooze with me for another 45 - 90 minutes. With Joe once he's up it's over (if he's screaming like that). He can't be coaxed back to sleep with any amount of maternal nuzzling.

I don't have any "Sherlock Holmes" advice for the WHY....sorry.

FWIW, my niece (22months) went through a short-napping phase too at around 18 months and was seemingly unexplained. Eventually she reverted back to her regular 2-3 hours naps.

 

my dd is doing this too. She just started this on monday. she was always my good napper, now all the sudden, she doesn't want to go to sleep and when she finally does, she has been up in 30-40 minutes! She always has slept 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hrs. I hope this doesn't last long!! I too, need this naptime!

 

QUOTE(mommycandi @ Feb 21 2008, 02:16 PM) [snapback]633649[/snapback]
my dd is doing this too. She just started this on monday. she was always my good napper, now all the sudden, she doesn't want to go to sleep and when she finally does, she has been up in 30-40 minutes! She always has slept 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hrs. I hope this doesn't last long!! I too, need this naptime!

Sorry you are dealing with this too right now. I hope it's a short phase for you too.


Thanks for the help/advice ladies. Seems like all of us go through this at some point. <_< Today was 45 min, but she did not wake up screaming so that is a plus. I left her up there and then she started talking so today was better. Sounds like it might just be a phase, a short one hopefully.