57 Reasons Why My Toddler Woke Up Crying from a Too-Short Nap in her Carseat

My kids don't sleep in the car.  At least not until they are like 5 years old, and only then if they are very tired.  Those people who say they leave for long trips with babies and toddlers at 9:00 at night so their kids will sleep the whole way there??  Who are those people???  Do they really exist? 

I am lucky if my toddlers get in even a half hour nap in the car before waking up grouchy and crying because they didn't sleep long enough to be refreshed, and they weren't really ready to wake up.  But, once they are awake, that's it.  Ten minute nap??  Well, after crying and rubbing your face for three minutes, you are too awake to go back to sleep until another five hours have passed, apparently.

So, here is my list of why my toddler wakes up too soon from naps in the carseat... Enjoy!!

1.  Somebody else in the car sneezed.

2.  Her siblings talked.

3.  Her siblings looked at her.

4.  Somebody else was eating a snack that she smelled or heard the wrapper of.

5.  We ran over a railroad track.

6.  We ran over a styrofoam cup.

7.  We ran over the county line (apparently she can feel invisible borders with her wicked map skillz).

8.  We hit standstill traffic seven minutes after she fell asleep.

9.  We passed a school bus.

10.  Her diaper was wet. 

11. She felt her carseat strap against her shoulder.

12. It started to rain.

13. It stopped raining.

14. The sun shined in her face.

15. One song ended and another began on the radio.

16.  Somebody dropped something and bumped her seat trying to find it.

17.  Somebody breathed.

18.  She sensed that we drove past a playground without stopping there.

19.  We went through a drive-thru.

20.  We slowed down from 55 mph to 50 mph.

21.  Somebody laughed.

22.  Red light.

23.  Her shoes were on.

24.  Her shoes were off.

25.  Another car honked.

26.  There was too much road noise.

27.  There was not enough road noise.

28.  She remembered she was still sad about something from before she had fallen asleep.

29.  She smelled the paper mill that we drove past.

30.  Teething.

31.  We passed a garbage truck.

32.  A dog barked in a yard as we passed.

33.  Another car's radio was too loud.

34.  She still had a partial bite of cracker in her mouth.

35.  She moved.

36.  Somebody else in the car moved.

37.  Her carseat was too comfortable.

38.  She was too hot.

39.  She was too cold.

40.  She didn't have a  blanket over her.

41.  Somebody tried to tuck a blanket around her.

42.  She realized she wasn't in Mommy's arms.

43.  She had a dream.

44.  She remembered the tantrum she'd had about wanting to sit in her sister's carseat before she had fallen asleep.

45.  A piece of her hair was tucked under the shoulder strap.

46.  The shoulder strap was digging into her neck because she fell asleep with her head at a weird angle.

47.  The shoulder straps existed.

48.  My cell phone rang.

49.  My cell phone vibrated.

50.  I dared to speak to my husband.

51.  I opened a road map book.

52.  The GPS gave a direction out loud.

53.  She sensed that she might be missing something exciting, like passing a tree.

54.   She was sitting on a cheerio.

55. She was too tired to stay asleep.

56.  She stirred slightly and realized she was still strapped into her carseat.


57.  She is physically unable to remain sleeping peacefully and resettle herself into a deeper sleep while in a carseat even though she can do this at night on a mattress (this may actually be a genetic disorder).