Crabby after naps help??

Vrbka

ok so my almost 2 year old does NOT wake up happy after nap at all.. he screams and cries and it is horrible it don't matter if he had napped for 1 hour to 3 hours.. no matter what he wakes up screaming and crying has anyone else had this problem or does anyone have any suggestions to make it better..  i know he needs his nap but sometimes i just dread putting him to sleep as he is so happy before hand.. TIA!!

April37

I wish I had an easy fix.  Many times playing music after DD wakes up helps.  Or if it's really bad... 5 min of TV calmes her down.

butterbeansmama

If Preston wakes up crabby from his nap, it always means that he didn't get enough sleep. I let him fuss for a short time and he almost always goes back to sleep and wakes up in a better mood.

If your saying that your dc will not go back to sleep, then I would let them watch a little bit of t.v. and give a snack.

Zenya

DS needs a lot of cuddles and a good snack when he wakes up.  He was happy enough when he napped all the time but now he rarely does and when he does it's ugly.

DevonPow

DS has terrible, scary fits when waking up from naps. Nothing can calm him down, sometimes for almost an hour. It doesn't happen every day, but a few times a week. His pedi (and most people here) say it is because he is waking up too early, but it happens more often with long naps (2+ hours). I personally think it is because DS somehow wakes too ABRUPTLY for whatever reason. He is also the kind of kid who often cried out in his sleep when he was younger - at the time his pedi said it was something to do with abrupt sleep cycles.

Anyway, recently what has worked best is leaving him in his crib when he wakes. He wakes up crying REALLY hard, but if I leave him for a while (sometimes it takes 10 minutes) he calms himself down and stays in there for up to 30 minutes longer and is then OK when I get him. He doesn't fall asleep again (we have a video monitor so I can watch him), but I think he kind of dozes and eases his way into getting up.

Of course, sometimes this doesn't work. Then I either need to let him just have his tantrum forever, or find that day's magical combination of snack/TV/going outside/standing on my head/whatever.