Crying upon waking

[Kade's Mummy]

This may sound like a silly question, but is it normal for bub to cry upon waking up? :crying:

The only time Kade seems to wake happily is first thing in the morning, upon waking from any daytime naps he cries (sometimes quite hysterically) and needs the dummy for at least 20 mins before he is content. This, of course, when he is not due for a feed.

Our gorgeous boy cries alot (reflux/colic), so I'm not sure if this is just him or if it's normal. We just want him to be happy!

Any suggestions?

[FourAngelKisses]

My 3rd baby did this and I found it really annoying. Usually it meant he hadn't had enough sleep or he wasn't feeling well. He has been doing it all this last week as he is unwell and not sleeping well, it takes him about half an hour or so to settle down.

If it's because he is tired, try lying down with him, the only other thing I can think of is taking him for a short walk or drive. All 3 worked for me.

[lil monkey]

How long are his daytime naps for?

Sounds like he is waking at the end of a sleep cycle and needs to go for longer.

[Funkychicken]

I agree with Taylasmum. Babies work on a sleep cycle of about 40 mins as opposed to our 3-4 hr one, so when they stir after 40 mins, they will either wake up (and be very grumpy) or put themselves back into sleep land. Our first one didn't know how to and neither did I. It was sooo hard at times until at 8 mths I went to a daystay sleep clinic. It was like magic.
You could try resettling him in a soothing, hushing kind of way-keep movement to a minimum etc... If he is crying when you get him up, maybe resettling him will help him to learn how to go back to sleep. It may take a few days but it will help.:)

[lil monkey]

DD still wakes up after 40min sleep cycle at 15 months.
I can tell when she needs more sleep as she wakes up crying her eyes out rather than happy and talking.

I go into her room and say shhhhhhhhhhh, lie down, it's still sleep time and i cover her up. a few pats on the bum and walk out of the room. This works for her 90% of the time. :fingerscrossed:

[Kade's Mummy]

Thank you soooooo much everyone - half the battle is knowing what the problem is, so now I can focus on fixing it! From all your advice I'd say he is still tired.

He usually wakes after around 40 mins (so it makes sense) or after around an hour 20 min (again makes sense). Is it wrong to pick him up to try and resettle him?

Thank god he doesn't do it at night!!

[FourAngelKisses]

Try wrapping him, they seem to sleep longer when they are wrapped.

[Kade's Mummy]

Have been wrapping him from the start, and sometime rewrapping helps but other times he is just beside himself :crying:

[lil monkey]

Ok, picking up will in the long term present more problems........ trust me!!

Best to try and get him to resettle in his cot without you picking up first. Once you pick them up they think, beauty, I can sleep on mum or playtime!

Go in there after the 40 minutes and do a sniff to make sure nothing nasty has woken him up. Then make sure he is wrapped if you normally do so, has his dummy, reposition him if you need to and do a shhh or two in soft tone voice while patting bum. You might want to sing a verse or two of twinkle twinkle.

Do you change anything in his room during his sleep? when they go into their REM sleep at the end of a sleep cycle they look around and if anything has changed in the last 40 minutes they will cry too. Do you put him down when he is awake or asleep? If you cuddle him or rock him to sleep or if you are in his room until he is asleep, he will cry at the end of the sleep cycle as he can't see you there anymore.

But, we can give advice but only you know your bub best so you need to do what you feel comfortable with!

[Kade's Mummy]

Hi Taylasmum - guilty, guilty and guilty again! :laughing:

I usually nurse him until he has absolute slit eyes, or allow him to fall asleep in his swing (strike 1 I hear you say!) :shame:

Sometimes I put a light show on in his room (it projects from his baby monitor) to help him drift off (strike 2 I hear you say!) :no:

And sometimes I am wait to go out until he wakes up, so at the slightest cry I run in and grab him so we can go (there it is...strike 3!) :o

I will absolutely give your tips a try - I guess I have always thought because he sleeps fairly well at night that he is a good little sleeper, but this has alerted me that we really are doing a few things wrong. Thanks for the tip! I hope it's not too late to teach him new patterns!!

[lil monkey]

Oh gosh.......... I was so guilty myself.........

Up until we learnt a few things at sleep school, at 3 months we were:

1. Rocking DD to sleep in chair and then putting her in bed
2. staying in room until she would have eyes shut again if she woke while placing her in cot.
3. have radio on and then turn off.

I could go on but won't.

Bubs like and need consistency so that when they go into the light phase of their sleep which is every 20 - 40 minutes at your bubs age they see that nothing has changed so they can go back to sleep. If things change then they get startled and cry and wake up as they get unsettled. By you settling/rocking/cuddling to sleep etc, you may be preventing your bub from self soothing which is something they learn to get themselves back into their deep sleep cycle for another 40 minutes etc.

Do small steps at a time - try to put bubs in cot while awake or semi awake so they know what is going on. Make sure he is wrapped and has his dummy. Maybe try a radio in his room for noise consistency during the day or play a CD on repeat cycle. The voices on the radio may be soothing for him. The light show thingy can be a curse as it doesn't keep playing over and over - you can of course go into the room and just before 40 minutes are up press it to go again and see if that works?!

It's all trial and error and you need to work out what is best for you all. :)