sobbing fit after waking from nap

Jack (14mos) has been waking from his naps sobbing. Actually, he is fine when I get him until we get downstairs and then he starts sobbing hysterically. He has always required more snuggle time after waking up but this does not even calm him down. NO food, no drink, no amount of cuddles - nothing helps. He is full on sobbing, snotting, huge tear crying. Yesterday, I finally just ignored him after he just would cry more when I would try to stop it. I just could not ignore him for long as he was a big crying snotfilled wailing lump on the floor. I eventually ended up only ignoring him for a few and then distracting him by doing " bouncies" on the couch. It will take up to half an hour to calm him down. It is hard for me to see this as a tantrum as he seemed so truly sad. Is it a tantrum? If so, it is very hard to ignore when they are so upset!

 

My Griffin sometimes does this, I'd lean more towards yes, a tantrum...but not sure. Some days he's fine, others we really have to baby him to get him settled in. He still acts sleepy, but he's waking up after an hour and a half or 2 hrs of napping! Recently I've been putting him in his PBK chair with a snack cup and a sippy immediately. I turn on his fav movie and let him finish waking up. I've also noticed he's not fussy when Ella comes down!!! Maybe they want their sissy!!????? I know it's frustrating, but we have the same issue here. Look forward to an explanation!!!!

 

This happened recently with Ivy. The only thing that finally worked was giving her Tylenol - within minutes, she was back to normal. I'm guessing she woke up with a bad headache or something. I wonder if that's happening with Jack... Or maybe teething, and when he's just waking up he can't cope with it. It doesn't sound like a tantrum to me.

 

We went through this "phase" for months. Someone was alwasy waking crying for up to 30 mins. Then one day it stopped. I was giving them a snack and something to drink to help stop the crying. It took me a bit to figure out this worked wonders for them.

 

We have this almost every time after naps. If they're allowed just to lie in my/our arms for 1/2 hour then they won't cry, but that's about it. I've always figured it was because they were finding it hard to transition from sleep to waking (they have long naps). They refuse a drink / snack, but maybe I'll try a bit harder.

 

We've actually found here that if I let the kiddos 'wake up' a little more before I go upstairs and get them, they're MUCH happier once we do come downstairs.

I usually let them 'talk' anywhere from 15-30 minutes. *this only applies to happy talking. If someone's really upset, I do go get them right away.*

I think they maybe like me, I don't wake up easy either, and if I'm a little disoriented and grumpy if I don't get enough time to really wake up. My eyes may be open and I may even be talking to you, but that doesn't mean I'm really here!

 

My kids don't usually wake up crying or upset. They are usually happy and bouncing in their cribs when they wake up from a nap.

They have been sleeping later into the evening lately. They go down at 3:30 and have been sleeping until after I get home from work - until around 5:30. They still go to bed okay around 8, but I want to spend some time with them in the evening, so we've been waking them up no later than 5:30. Usually they wake up okay, if they are soundly sleeping, they may be a bit grumpy - I hate waking sleeping babies up!

The other day, it was 5:45 and no sound from their room. We went in and started the calm process of waking them up. My DD was groggy, but got up just fine and was all smiles by the time her diaper was changed. My DD, on the other hand, was completely a mess. He kept sitting up in his crib and throwing himself back on the mattress. Sometimes hitting his head on the crib rails and making him cry harder. Or, he'd bury his face into the mattress - it was clear he was not happy.

Well, we got him up anyway and he was crying, but we figured he'd get over it. Oh no...he had such a tantrum that I thought maybe he was pocessed! He did not want to be held, although I tried to hug him and comfort him. I put him on the floor and he was projecting himself across the floor with the power of his fit. His face was all snotty and swollen. We thought we'd try giving him dinner. He took a few sips from his sippy cup, but commenced to scream and wouldn't swallow anything. After about 15 minutes of all of this, we felt helpless. My husband scooped him up and brought him back upstairs to his crib. After fussing a bit, he was out like a light. I fed and played with DD for a while and at almost 7 o'clock, went upstairs to check on DS. He was awake, smiling, and happy as if nothing happened! We fed him and pushed bedtime back a half hour or so.

Lesson learned...I will not get DS out of bed if he is not ready. He obviously was not done sleeping and/or was in a weird half-sleep state during his tantrum. Totally not normal and he wanted to sleep more. God help us when he is a teenager and we have to get him up for school!!

Jessica

 

Not sure why this happens but my DS does it too. My DD has never done it. Starting around a year, and even now at 2 years, he will just wake up hysterical from his nap. It usually takes a LONG time to calm him down, and no amount of the normal tricks seem to work. Sometimes when I go in his room, it looks like he is still asleep (laying down, eyes closed) but he is crying uncontrolably....very strange.