13 month old inconsolable after nap

[HowManyDucks]

I am at a complete loss with my 13 month old this week. Her nap times have shifted and her routine has looked something like:

5:30 wake up
8:45 - 9:15 Nap
14:00 - 16:00 Nap
19:00 - bed

After her afternoon nap she is waking up absolutely inconsolable. From the second she opens her eyes she starts shaking and looking disoriented. I try to make the transition as calm as possible but after 2 mins she breaks down. Its been taking an hour for her to come out of it. Yesterday, for example, she clung to me in a hug for nearly an hour whilst I rocked and sang to her. No distractions worked. She was crying so hard she could barely breathe. This has happened every day for a week. She has also been fighting the afternoon nap so rather than going down at 12:30/13:00 it's been more like 2pm.

This has come completely out of the blue. She has never cried much so this has caught me off guard. She wakes up happy from her morning nap and is fine when she wakes up in the morning. She's sleeping through at night.

does anyone have any advice or experience with this? Those sobs are absolutely breaking me!

Is she maybe coming down with a bug? Also I’d say she might need that afternoon nap to end earlier ? I get she’s going to bed at 7 but have you tried ending the afternoon nap earlier and trying to get her to bed 6.30?

She's just got over a virus. I've seen a couple of little teeth coming through but they don't seem to be bothering her. I tried cutting her nap short on a couple of days and it was just as bad (she hated being woken up!). Sometimes she will crash at 6:30.

I think trying to get her nap earlier in the day might help but she has been fighting it. Never usually have a problem. This week I have had to take her for a walk in the pushchair to get her down

It might be the virus is still lingering and she needs more sleep than usual? I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than I will come along in the morning! I don’t have children of my own but i was a nanny for 15 years. Sometimes kids go through funny phases, has she recently started child care? It could be she isn’t sleeping much at child care and is sleeping more at home to make up for it and then is waking up mid rem cycle so is waking up as a ‘night terror’?

My DS was like this, he's not as bad now at 2YO, but I think he did it nearly every day for about 6/8 months. I think he struggled with the transition from nap to wake, same as your DD, only on the afternoon nap. The only things I've found helpful was having a low night light, when I go into his room when he wakes up I put that on, let him stay in the cot and wake himself up, sometimes when I walked in the room he just screamed no so I would walk out and let him have 5, then we would do cuddles in his room, maybe with a snack if I remembered one, sometimes it was pure hunger. Most often I would just ask him if he wants to watch a film and have a snack downstairs and we would take a blanket down and have chill time. He was sooo hysterical and taking ages to calm down that I started using my limited screen time with him purely for after naps. It got to the point we were sitting on the floor for up to an hour while he sobbed. Heart breaking.
Sorry OP, I found this really hard and there was no cause, he's just grew out of it 🤷🏻‍♀️ hope your DD does too.

I'd try shift to
7am wake
10am nap (cap at half hour)
12- 2 nap (don't let sleep past 3)
7pm bed

I think the afternoon nap is far too late. Sorry off topic re the inconsolable bit, but this might give you a later wake up time if you prefer. In saying that if she's sleeping through the night maybe don't mess with it, of it's working for you

Could you try a warm shower or bath together to calm her down

Mine did this too. One day I found out that giving her a snack immediately worked and so after that I just always greeted her with a lovely snack of some sort and she would eventually calm down with lots of cuddles. Maybe it would help your little one?

My son is like this, we have a cuddle on the sofa with some CBeebies and a snack (which he will push away for a while then suddenly decide he wants it lol). No idea what it’s about!

Thank you for the replies. I think we are on our way to dropping the morning nap and then hopefully the afternoon will naturally move earlier again.

Pretty sure it's just a transition thing, glad to hear I'm not the only one! Surprised me because it came on so suddenly.

Can you pls post her full routine as I suspect low blood sugar which could be resolved by tweaking meal times a bit

Try making sure she has either a snack right before her nap or literally there ready when she wakes up.

Is she waking up alone from her nap or are you there waking her? My son had a bit of separation anxiety at this age and I just made sure I was there when he woke up for a few days and he got over it.

Probably is just a transitional phase while moving to one nap though x

How is her night time sleep?

She sounds like shes ready for one longer nap.

Try to push her morning nap till 11 or 12 and you can let her sleep till she awakes naturally.

Think we've fixed it.
I kept her up so she didn't have a morning nap. She then went down at 12:30 straight after lunch for 1 hour and a half. She is pretty tired now so possibly an early night.
Think low blood sugar may have been the issue!