3 month old wakes hysterical from naps?

[ErinYay]

V sleeps beautifully, but for the past week or so she's been waking from her afternoon nap in absolute hysterics. This is the baby that does. Not. Cry. And on the off chance she does cry, she's soothed immediately, but not in this case.

I'm pretty sure it's not reflux or colic; we wonder if it's nightmares? She wakes up, looks around for 30 seconds, then it's full-out sobs for 10-15 minutes, sometimes as much as 30 minutes! She won't nurse until she's calm, she won't take her paci, we just hold her and shush her and walk until she calms.

Could it be nightmares? I also wonder if she's either frightened to wake up alone (we cosleep at night) or if it's just overstimulation or if she's having trouble transitioning? I wake up VERY cranky from naps myself, sometimes I'm just plain angry for a few minutes when I wake- so maybe that's it?

I googled around, but mostly found things relating to toddlers. She just turned 3 months old.


Thank you; it's heartbreaking, esp as she's ordinarily so mellow and "easy."

[Verloren]

My DS did this too at that age. In his case it was that he was still tired and upset to wake up somewhere other than in my arms (as he had fallen asleep). I think he was so upset because he was confused and disoriented when he woke up and just wanted to go back to sleep but didn't know how. White noise worked wonders to calm him down and he would go right back to sleep.

[Llyra]

Could it be that she's still tired, and would like to go back to sleep, and doesn't know how? DD2 used to do that, and I figured out that if I could catch her right when she stirred, and slide in next to her and nurse her a minute or two, she'd go right back to sleep again and sleep another twenty or thirty minutes, and wake up happy.

[karika]

getting used to having a body. it is very heavy. i believe babies go through this as well as the fact that they can see things we can't see, things that are in other dimensions. As humans get older and become enmeshed in this 3d dualistic world, they forget these things. holding the baby as she sleeps, making sure you are there when she opens her eyes, never letting her wake up without mommy, all this can help with the transition. whispering to her that you know it is so hard to be in the body again, that you know it is heavy, but that she will get used to it, telling her you understand that she is used to being as light as air and floating.... also she may have had a traumatic departure from this realm the last time around, and has vague thoughts while sleeping about it... dd1 def remembered her past lives and talked of things from a very young age. sending peace

[HadhratKhadija]

I go through similar situation with my 4.5 month old. I'm finding that it might be something in my diet (we EBF).

[tzs]

Originally Posted by Llyra

Could it be that she's still tired, and would like to go back to sleep, and doesn't know how? DD2 used to do that, and I figured out that if I could catch her right when she stirred, and slide in next to her and nurse her a minute or two, she'd go right back to sleep again and sleep another twenty or thirty minutes, and wake up happy.

same!!! (i use the nuk though)

[jess5377]

Same thing with our 4 month old. I was told it's just them getting used to transitioning between different states (awake-asleep-awake)

[cristeen]

My almost 6 mo does this sometimes. Did it today in fact. But I can pop a bottle in his mouth and he'll quite down (until I take it out again). Most of the time he's still asleep though when he's screaming... his eyes are closed. When he finally opens his eyes, that's when I have a chance of calming the cries.

[chel]

my 8w dd just started this. happened this past sunday. we were in church and I was holding her. she was sleeping great through the entire service, but at the last 15 seconds of the benediction she started this pitiful cry. We had just moved and this was my first time at this church. what an intro! I just wanted to run but couldn't get out in time so I'm sure my face was so red.

[maptome]

Do you cosleep? We cosleep at night, but not naps. My baby wakes from naps, looks for me, and starts crying if I'm not there. If I lie next to her before her "awake" sleep cycle, she'll see me and go back to sleep.

[ErinYay]

Thanks for all the replies!

We do cosleep, and she never has done this at night, so I do think it's an issue of being alone & being lousy with sleep transitions. I also think this is the case as she'll cry out in her sleep for about 2-3 seconds fairly frequently (like once a nap, but again, never at night) and get that lip a'quivvering and sound SO sad, but be fully sound asleep, so I think it's probably because she's transitioning between sleep phases at that point, and it worries her.

Yesterday, as I wrote the op, she fell back asleep in my lap after nursing (after wailing for 20 minutes) and woke well, so today I'm going to try rousing her gently before she wakes on her own, feeding her and putting her back down.

She's also KILLING in the milestone dept, and is doing a lot of new things at once (hand-mouth coordination, rolling over, etc) so my guess (hope) is that it's also developmental.

Thanks again!

[cheryllynn]

My babe did this when younger. I made sure that I could stick my face in her face as fast as I could. She appeared scared, afraid, disoriented. It would take awhile before she calmed down. Then it all passed and she stopped waking up like this.