# The dreaded 'nap hangover'...



## Mere (Oct 1, 2002)

Does anyone's toddler have these? You know, the post-nap awful mood, screaming fits? Ds (2/5) is sort of transitioning to no-naps, but more often than not when he does nap, yikes, watch out...the waking up part is not pretty.

I keep wondering if there's something I can do to prevent/lessen the tantrum, but I haven't figured it out yet...


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## Redifer (Nov 25, 2006)

DD has had these for about 8 months. When she wakes up, she almost seems as if she needs to go right back down to sleep! At first I thought it was an effect of *oversleeping*, but as I tracked her napping, found it was the same regardless of the length of nap, from 20 minutes to 3 hours.

I'd be interested in hearing anything about this as well.


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## Sierra (Nov 19, 2001)

Hmmm...my 20 month old ds has often had these, on and off for quite some time. It is sometimes when waking in the morning, too.


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## Baby Makes 4 (Feb 18, 2005)

Logan does that sometimes. It's awful!

Sorry, I'm not much help but you are not alone!


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## Grace and Granola (Oct 15, 2005)

My ds is like this too. Have you ever tried giving your babe a few minutes before going in to get them? We started doing this and it seems to be helping. My ds wakes up grunting and whining....which at first, I would rush in to get him/comfort him, but it would turn in to a full blown crying fest for 30 minutes. For the past month or so, when he starts the whining, I give him a few minutes...he'll whine and fuss and alot of the times, he will start babbling or he'll call out "MAMA!" Then I go in. It seems to have lessened the crying fits after naps. My husband gets up with him in the mornings, and another thing he does is give him a few minutes and then he goes in and plays with him in his bed for a few minutes....say hello to the stuffed animals, look at books, etc. It seems to help when we don't just go in and get him and bring him into the big bright world!


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## Oonah (Jul 28, 2004)

ugh we have had those too
what sometimes works for us is doing some of our bedtime rituals.....stories, singing, nursing, talking, back scratching.....and then again sometimes nothing but time helps.


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## tamagotchi (Oct 16, 2005)

It usually helps us to just lie down together and nurse for 10-15 minutes.


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## hottmama (Dec 27, 2004)

My son is almost 4 and rarely naps anymore, but he has done that pretty much since he stopped being a baby (when he drifted peacefully in and out of sleep). I don't even let him nap now when he wants to because it is so awful. Nursing for about an hour is the only solution I've found, and I'm just not willing to do that.


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## smalltownmom3 (Dec 24, 2006)

I hate those! My dd1 wakes up slugging we say. She's a terror after a nap unless you just let her wake up on her own time.


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## earthmama369 (Jul 29, 2005)

Oh man, Q's been doing that lately too. 20 minutes of inconsolable hard crying when she wakes up, unless her brother's napping and I can get in there fast enough to give her 20 minutes of nursing and cuddling instead. If she doesn't get that nursing and one-on-one, in a low stimulation setting, she loses it. She didn't used to do that, either -- it only started a couple months ago, around 23 months.


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## ex-stasis (Nov 29, 2004)

DD does that too.. so annoying. the only thing that works is to either lie down with her and let her "wake up" slowly, or take her to the living room and cuddle on the couch (her on my lap, resting her head on my shoulder)... takes around half an hour before she really is ready to get up.


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## doudat (Nov 20, 2006)

We're stuck with that too.... And then somedays, he's an angel when he wakes up, I just can't figure it out.


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## mama_b (Dec 14, 2004)

DD does that too unless I nurse her for a good long while right after she wakes up. Then she seems to be okay.


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

We've had those here with both my boys. Started in one son around 1.5 years and the other shortly afterward. It is awful (both my guys are just plain inconsolable). What I've figured out in our case is I think they somehow wake up in the wrong sleep cycle or something...in other words, they just plain weren't ready to wake when they woke! So I wait a bit when they wake up from a nap like that (against my nature) and sometimes they go back to sleep and then wake up cheerful. Sometimes in a bit they get cheerful. Sometimes it doesn't work. But it does more often than not; I really think it is some sort of out of sync waking thingie.


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## LelanisMom1 (Dec 9, 2006)

We have the most AWEFUL ones around here. Lelani will wakeup screaming like someone is trying to murder her,and call out,"MAMI,MAMI,MAMI!!!!" And she'll hit me if I don't nurse her.


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## 555Baby (Mar 30, 2005)

We have these too. It's awful. In our case, it seems like under-sleeping rather than over-sleeping is the problem--however, settling her back to sleep is basically impossible. I, too, have found that lying down with her in our bed & nursing her for a long while is generally helpful. Or getting her to eat something that quickly raises her blood sugar works well, too. Today I gave her 2 hershey's kisses







: which worked like a miracle cure.


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## rowansmomma (Feb 25, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Heatherb917* 
My ds is like this too. Have you ever tried giving your babe a few minutes before going in to get them? We started doing this and it seems to be helping. My ds wakes up grunting and whining....which at first, I would rush in to get him/comfort him, but it would turn in to a full blown crying fest for 30 minutes. For the past month or so, when he starts the whining, I give him a few minutes...he'll whine and fuss and alot of the times, he will start babbling or he'll call out "MAMA!" Then I go in. It seems to have lessened the crying fits after naps. My husband gets up with him in the mornings, and another thing he does is give him a few minutes and then he goes in and plays with him in his bed for a few minutes....say hello to the stuffed animals, look at books, etc. It seems to help when we don't just go in and get him and bring him into the big bright world!

This is what we do too. Rowan wakes up in a horrid mood....but I've found that if I let him wake up gradually, on his own, he's much better. Sometimes he even goes back to sleep and is great when he wakes up the second time......as if he woke up too early and still needed sleep. If I go in too soon, I don't let him fall back to sleep when he really needs to.

I'm not a jump out of bed person and neither is his dad.....so what made me think Rowan was? He needs a little time to wake up.


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## LookMommy! (Jun 16, 2002)

Yesterday I was at my friend's daycare and a 15 month old woke up from her nap, so I went to go get her. She sat on my lap peacefully for 1/2 hour and just looked around. I was in shock! No crying! No nursing! I didn't know there were babies like this! (I have 3 dc).

I second the recc. for a snack or maybe some juice. Maybe bring it right to the bed, b/c once they get out they may do the nursing routine out of habit.


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## Mere (Oct 1, 2002)

Alright, sounds like the consensus is to try letting them be for a few minutes after waking...after my experience today, I think this might be right on target! Ds woke up in the car (the only way he takes naps these days is if he falls asleep in the car), and I went right out to get him. He was okay for at first, but then after a minute or two launched into the screaming/crying/etc. He was hitting me too so I put him in his room and left; after 2-3 minutes the crying stopped. I looked in, and he was fast asleep...

It is helpful to hear of so many other people who have the same experience!!!


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## timneh_mom (Jun 13, 2005)

My son wakes up really hard... but then again, both DH and I really hate waking up, from a nap, in the morning, or whenever!! We all wake up hard!

Like others mentioned, DS really seems to like to cuddle after his nap. He wakes up, comes to find me, gets on my lap with his belly to mine and his head on my chest, and sticks both hands up both my sleeves to rub my arms. (The arm-rubbing thing seems to be really soothing for him, he loves to do it!) Sometimes he will close his eyes and almost drift back off. Sometimes it only takes 5-10 minutes but other times he's done it for longer than that. It's very sweet, and I really love those after nap cuddles because the rest of the day he is so busy that I don't get many!

If I am napping with DS, he often will wake up like he's ready to get up, then he'll lay against me, rubbing my arms, and fall back to sleep, sometimes to sleep for another 1/2 hour or so. He wasn't always like this, maybe in the past 5-6 months or so, he's needed cuddling after his naps. But like I said, I don't mind. It's kind of nice.


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## Sierra (Nov 19, 2001)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Heatherb917* 
Have you ever tried giving your babe a few minutes before going in to get them?

I don't usually go in to get my ds. He comes out on his own, usually, or I will be in the same room (or cuddling with him).

When I hear his feet pitter-patting out of the bedroom, I always brace myself. Often it is fine, but there are a lot of times when he gets the full on "hangover." He does get really cuddly afterward, though, if he ever stops crying...but when he is crying he won't even let me touch him. He screams and tries to hit me if I touch him, and he even runs away from me. It is so hard not to be able to console him.

I definitely think there may be something to the theory of them waking up in the wrong part of the sleep cycle, but the trick with ds is getting him calm enough and helping him to stop crying so he can actually go back to sleep. Because he comes out rather than falling back asleep, and even when I am with him, it starts up so suddenly with such force (0 to 10 in a split second), I can't seem to stop it before it starts.

Of course, it is all complicated as someone else pointed out, when you have another really young one. My dfd is 11 months younger than ds, and she starts bawling if ds cries. Then I have two kids on my hands who both need tons of comfort and cuddling (and worse yet, neither of whom will accept cuddles if they are still crying), and never enough arms and lap







:.


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## mommyto3girls (May 3, 2005)

Someone else mentioned blood sugar as an issue. We went through this with Maia as well until we realized that her blood sugar was plummeting durring her nap. Fomr about age 2-3 when I would hear her stirring (moaning and some thrashing) I would go in with a couple ounces of juice, a couple slices of an orange, etc and have her eat or drink it in bed, lay there for a few minutes and then get up. It made a dramatic difference. She was old enough that we were able to tell her why we thought she was crabby when she woke up and how we were going to help fix it.


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## redhotmama (Nov 7, 2005)

Crankiness, nap or no, is almost always a blood sugar issue in our house.

Feed me Seymour!


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## sparkygirl74 (Jun 1, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mama_b* 
DD does that too unless I nurse her for a good long while right after she wakes up. Then she seems to be okay.

DD is the same way. She wakes up pissy from all naps, and it seems to take a long while. Mornings she nurses until she is ready to get up though.

Apparently waking up grumpy runs in our family. I have four sisters and at our wedding all of the boyfriends and husbands got together and talked about how evil we all are in the morning. lol. When dh told him that I am actually a morning person they all congratulated him!


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## GooeyRN (Apr 24, 2006)

My dd has nap hang-overs, too. For us, what works best is or me to sneak into bed with her before she wakes up. If she wakes up alone, LOOK OUT!!! Then when she wakes, we quietly cuddle for a few minutes. I do not turn on the light or anything. It helps her to transition to being awake. When she is ready to get out of bed, she tries to climb out. Thats when I know it is safe to turn on the lights and continue on with the day.


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## betty_joanne (Mar 7, 2006)

Yep, dd wakes up cranky. I just nurse her and that works.


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## Aeriane (Apr 4, 2005)

wake up on his own (my now 4 yr old) and also he needs to eat, he's like me, once we have something to eat we're a whole different beast!!


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## Ex Libris (Jan 31, 2004)

My ds always wakes up a grump. Then again, so do I!







I have to lie in the dark and nurse him for at least a half hour before he's ready to get up. I've tried a couple of times to go somewhere right when he woke up, but never again!


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## jilly (Feb 14, 2005)

Okay, but what if letting them wake up on their own / letting them go back to sleep is not an option? My ds will nap from 2:30 until 6 if I let him, then not go to sleep until 11 pm. So I have to wake him up from his nap and then endure the 30 min. of crankiness in order to get him to go to bed at 9ish. I do find that sometimes cuddling helps, and sometimes food helps, but I wish I could just let him sleep and wake happily.


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## DadVader (Dec 17, 2006)

I sometimes just lay down with him when he wakes up, just cuddling helps make the transition, also sometimes he just falls asleep again and I get more time to get stuff done. added bonus.


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## super mamabug (Oct 29, 2006)

Have you considered a low blood sugar issue. Toddler metabolisms are speedy and they often get cranky when they need to eat. Several of you mentioned nursing them awake, this may have more to do with the food than the comfort.


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## LindyLou (May 4, 2004)

My first DD woke up happy all the time.

My second DD wakes up like she is coming out of her corner for round four. We have to steer clear of her until she comes to us. She is a bear!


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## Logan's Mom (Mar 2, 2006)

We have those too....after anytime he wakes up though....

I don't know why, he more often then not wakes up crying. Its so sad. Its not like I wake him up or anything. It is VERY RARE when he will wake up happy and wanting to play. He just needs to be held and cuddled for awhile before he gets going, then watch out!


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## mashenka (Oct 8, 2006)

DS had this issue for a loooong time [he no longer naps]. We think now that it had to do with sensory issues [sensory processing disorder, which he has]. He transitions poorly, especially out of sleep. Not saying this is the case all the time, but for him many other things matched up.


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