waking up from nap in worse shape than before nap??

[red and lulu]

does this happen to anyone else's lo? can anyone think of why this would happen? literally 6 out of 7 days a week, when my daughter (20 mo) wakes up from her nap she is in a miserable mood — clingy, fussy, totally difficult. she'll be in a fantastic mood before nap, and then bam! she wakes up a train wreck and it lasts until bedtime. Isn't the nap supposed to be restorative?! 

[prothyraia]

I can't speak about kids, but *I* usually wake up from naps terribly grumpy.  So there's that.

[carmen358]

This happens to my DD sometimes (she's almost 15mos). It only happens when she's had a super long nap...she wakes up really grumpy. In the morning and after shorter naps she literally wakes up smiling and is very happy.

And I agree with PP...I wake up grumpy after a day time nap too!

[CookAMH]

With my son, he hasn't slept long enough if he wakes up miserable. Sometimes I can tell he woke up earlier than he "meant" to for whatever reason. I'll go in, have him lay back down, rub his back, cover back up, and he'll go back to sleep and wake up himself. How long is she napping?

[JBaxter]

Originally Posted by red and lulu 

does this happen to anyone else's lo? can anyone think of why this would happen? literally 6 out of 7 days a week, when my daughter (20 mo) wakes up from her nap she is in a miserable mood — clingy, fussy, totally difficult. she'll be in a fantastic mood before nap, and then bam! she wakes up a train wreck and it lasts until bedtime. Isn't the nap supposed to be restorative?! 

Ds2 & 4 were / are like that.   I found I need to convince them to eat/ drink something.   Even a little juice seems to do the trick.   In our case I think its a drop in blood sugar levels.   ..... Worth a try.

[sosurreal09]

OMG it is so hit and miss with my DD. Some days she wakes up happy as a clam and other days she will wake up (even after a full 2 hr nap) a complete monster and scream bloody murder for like 30 mins! I go nuts! I give her the boob, I get her a snack. She will just be miserable sometimes.

What helps us (at least sometimes) is just getting her dressed to go out and doing it. She fights me the whole way but once that door opens it's like a switch has gone off and she's like YAY outside time!

She is very very spirited and it is hard b/c she can't tell me exactly what the problem is...or how she feels or w/e the heck went wrong.

I just try my best to help her through it and be patient and calm.

[crunchy_mommy]

I will ditto the eating/drinking something suggestion (usually breastmilk for DS)... He very very often wakes up grumpy and nursing or having a snack 'resets' him I guess. But I also agree that it happens most often when he wakes up at the 'wrong time' -- if he slept too little or too long, if he was in the middle of a dream, if the wind blew in the wrong direction and woke him up at the wrong stage of sleep, etc. Unfortunately, once he's up, he's up... so there's no getting him back to sleep no matter how miserable he is. I have to admit, many times it's crossed my mind that he'd be much better off not napping at all... but he doesn't seem quite ready for that either. *sigh*

I cannot nap at all during the day... if I do, I wake up cranky, confused, or disoriented, and often my heart will be beating a million times a minute.

[marispel]

DS does this if his nap was too short.   I try to slowly wake him up.   First I open the blinds to let the light in, then turn off his sound machine.  I usually wait 5 minutes to see if he'll wake on his own.  If he doesn't wake,  I'll start making noise in another room.   If he wakes up grumpy then the only thing that helps him is to watch a little TV.  I let him lay beside me and he'll slowly wake up.   Within 15 minutes he is usually fine and then we get a snack.   If I rush through this then he is a nightmare.

[veganfox]

DS does this when he hasn't slept long enough. Usually I put him back to bed and he'll sleep another 30-45 minutes after which he wakes up very happy and all smiles. :)