Baby & Toddler

She wakes from every afternoon nap crying, and it takes twenty minutes to settle her

juniper_badminton_8118

Our toddler naps well, an hour and a half most days. The problem is the waking. She comes out of it crying hard, pushes us away, won't be picked up, then wants to be picked up, and it goes on for about twenty minutes before she's herself again. Mornings are fine. It's only the afternoon nap. Her grandmother thinks she's sleeping too long, my partner thinks she's waking hungry. Has anyone seen this, and did anything shorten it?

4 comments

  • ochre_bottle_4601

    This happened with our younger one too, around the same stage. We stopped trying to fix it: we sat near her with the curtains still drawn, said very little, and waited for her to come to us. It still took ten minutes, but calmer ones. I can't say whether it was the dark room or the waiting.

    • juniper_badminton_8118

      Did exactly that after today's nap. Curtains drawn, sat on the floor, said nothing. She cried for a while, then climbed into my lap on her own. Maybe twelve minutes instead of twenty. One day isn't much, but it felt different.

    • sunny_pool_5336

      Replying to @juniper_badminton_8118

      Asking ahead, since ours is 7 months: did you change the nap length at all, or only how you respond? If you change both you won't know which one did it.

  • juniper_violin_6378

    My son did this for months as a toddler. We called it his thunderstorm. A snack ready by the bed did more than anything. Banana, a couple of biscuits, water. He's practically grown and still not a pleasant person for the first ten minutes after a nap ❤

    • silver_kettle_7192

      Snack worked with our younger one too. He's 4 and still wakes up asking for khau before anything else.

  • quiet_hammock_9324

    Our little one went through this. Turned out the room got too warm by afternoon. Once we ran the fan a bit higher, the crying got shorter. Worth checking in this weather.

  • quiet_hammock_7155

    Many years ago with our daughter, the paediatrician's view was that some children simply wake from a deep afternoon sleep disoriented, and that the length of the nap affects it more than anything you do afterwards. We woke her ten minutes earlier for a fortnight and it eased. I'd treat that as one family's experience rather than a rule.

    • juniper_badminton_8118

      That fits what my mother keeps saying, so she'll be pleased. We'll try waking her a little earlier this week and keep the quiet room. Thank you, everyone.

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