[BekahMomToOliver]

So, as the title says, my son almost always (90% of the time) wakes up from naps crying. It doesn't seem to matter whether I'm holding him, beside him, or in the other room, he's usually pretty upset at waking up. Usually he's teary for an hour or so, only wants to be held but won't let me sit down, very clingy and grouchy. He won't eat or take a bottle for a while afterwards. That's on a good day.
Some days, like today, he'll wake and have a full-blown tantrum, screaming until he turns purple or vomits. It's like he's in pain, so today I gave him a dose of Tylenol (he was absolutely inconsolable and I was worried he was hurting somewhere). He continued to scream, bash his head into my face, and thrash for almost 45 minutes! Then he choked, gagged, and suddenly settled down.
It's bizarre and it's really got me worried. Not so much that he's cranky (he's kind of always been like that after naps), but when he's really, really upset, it worries me that there might be an underlying problem.
Oh, and he sleeps about 9 hours at night, wakes between 2 and 6 times briefly, and he has two naps ( at 11 and 4) a day, lasting about an hour, hour and a half.
Anybody with experience? I'd love any suggestions on what to try, as well, since distraction only sometimes works, on a good day.
TIA!

 

[demottm]

Usually when mine wake up crying they are either still tired or have to burp or fart. Does your little one take a bottle or nurse to go to sleep? If so try to burp him before you lay hom down for good. My older one always wants to snuggle for 10-15 minutes to adjust to wakeing up, usually because he is still tired, but not tired enough to go back to sleep.

 

[SparklingGemini]

If my DD woke up too soon, its because she was not ready to be up yet.

DD needed two naps a day, at least two hours each until she was about 18-19 months. As well as 11-12 hours of sleep at night.

Can you try extending at least one of the naps?

Rock or nurse him back to sleep. Climb in to bed with him and rub his back and sing a song.

Eventually, he'll get better at sleeping longer periods.

If that doesn't work, I would still try to climb back into bed with him and let him wake up slowly. Don't talk, don't move around a lot. Just give him a chance to be awake. Then perhaps read a story or sing a song or just talk about the day; listen to the birds, talk about the weather, point out the things in the room, etc.

But really, it sounds like he's overtired.

 

[Tellera]

My son was just like this for so long. A couple things helped. One, trying to make sure he ate a good amount of food in the morning, plus a small helping of yogurt or cheese right before his nap. Second, what the previous poster said - trying to get him to go back to sleep. Often times he just was not truly done yet, and I could get him to fall back to sleep. When he woke up the second time there was no screaming. But, you know, sometimes that didn't work.

It's hard, sorry mama.

 

[Jessica1501]

If DD doesn't sleep enough yet, she cries cries A LOT when she's up. But if she rests enough, she feels very fresh and happy when waking up.

 

[snapper mamma]

Quote:

One, trying to make sure he ate a good amount of food in the morning, plus a small helping of yogurt or cheese right before his nap.

This.

My DD would do this and I found protein before nap and a little juice or something to raise her blood sugar during the crying spell helped a lot.

 

[mommajb]

We are getting past his a little what helps us is nursing and allowing a slow transition to wakefulness, and being there or getting to him quickly when he wakes up. The last one is pretty easy if he slept in my arms, harder if I put him down and tried to get something done while he slept.

 

[BekahMomToOliver]

Thanks everyone for your replies! It's good to know it's something I can help with. I really agree that he sounds overtired, he doesn't sleep as much as other kids I know (he never has), and while it seemed for a while that he was okay like that, I'm definitely picking up on signs to the contrary now.

But, things have gone completely haywire the last couple of days. Apparently, my child (who clearly needs more sleep) thinks he'll be fine on one nap a day. Yesterday, while my husband was looking after him, he only had three 20 minute rests, and wouldn't nap at all. Since this started, he has gone from sleeping from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. pretty reliably, to 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Last night, he woke at 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. and was miserable, screaming and crying unless I held him in a very specific over-the-shoulder position and rocked him (took about 30-40 minutes each time). Again, he was up at 5 and is now MISERABLE

And so am I, lol.
So, I've been making sure he has something in his tummy before he naps, and he always goes down with a bottle and a snuggle. I don't know about burping him if he's sleepy, because he gets quite grouchy if I touch him other than to hold/rock him (rubbing his back doesn't work, he rolls away and gets angrier).

I don't know what to try next... why won't my baby sleep?
Anyway, thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to check out my Dr. Sears Baby book, see what I can come up with

 

[mommajb]

Of my 5 children only one sleeps well. I do believe that more sleep begets more sleep up to the point of being well rested. A couple of places to look for ideas on sleep routines and encouraging better sleep are the No Cry Sleep Solution by Pantley and Dr Jay Gordon sleep ideas which I found links to here and by googling. His methonds may involve some crying and are for babies over 1 year. It really does help the whole family if everyone sleeps better. HTH

 

[The4OfUs]

Maybe teeth? My kids teethed early - my son had all his teeth, even his 2 yr molars, in by 18 months. Those were some intense months when they're coming in.

Also, my kids dropped naps early, and would sleep longer at night and less during the day from early on - they were both down to one nap by 15 months old, for sure. If they slept too much during the day (even though it seemed like their bodies needed it), their nighttime sleep was horrible, and they wound up with less net sleep than they did if they only took one nap, even though they were crankier. It wasn't a fun time, transitioning from two to one nap, and then to no naps, but the net sleep was greater, which to me was more important than having to deal with them being cranky.

I also remember around this stage my daughter went through a charming phase where she would be up for 2 hours in the morning (like, 2am) several times a week. Wasn't particularly fun, but we couldn't find anything that helped so I'd just take her up to our toddlerproofed playspace, crash on the futon, and let her do her thing until she was ready to go back to sleep.

I'd also point out that both 10pm-7am and 8pm-5am are both 9-hour sleep chunks, just shifted 2 hours (and sucks that it's 2 hours earlier, for you, for SURE...I've been there, done that. DD went through a stage where she was up between 5:30 and 6am for at least 6 months...she's now up between 6:30 and 7 most days, but that's just been in the past few months with any regularity. My DS JUST started regularly sleeping past 7:15, and he's 5.) I'd go with the 5am wake up, try a nap around 11am (which I know messes with lunch, but you gotta do what you gotta do), and then the 8pm bedtime, and see if you can't get him around 12, 13 hours of sleep per 24 hours that way.

WOOP! I forgot the main thing I was going to post!

My son was super cranky when waking from naps for a while (around 18 months or so), no matter what he had to eat before, etc - so I started giving him a little bit of 100% juice as soon as he woke up (a couple ounces), literally had it poured and waiting for him, and it made a big difference in getting his blood sugar a little pump just to get over the hump - it wasn't a lot of sugar, so there was no big crash, just a little to get him over the cranks.