Crying Andy

Andrew has been going through a phase.

At least I have been calling it a phase. How long does something have to last before it morphs from a phase into just the way things are?

When Andrew wakes up from nap, he cries. He's grumpy waking up. He doesn't want to get up and move around. I get that. I know that it's hard. But Andy cries for more than a few seconds. He cries for more than a few minutes. In fact, he will spend more than half an hour screaming his discontent at the world.

I have tried everything I can think of over the past few weeks. I have tried holding him, but he just cries in my ear. "Go Away!" he cries. I've tried leaving him be, but he screams for attention and follows me around. "MOM!" He screams. I've tried sending him back to bed, but he will not go, and when I physically carry him back to bed he screams louder and then follows be back down. I've placed him outside (in good weather) telling him he can't scream indoors and I don't want to hear his screaming, but it doesn't help and someone going to call child services.

I've tried yelling back, too. But then we're just both screaming. I don't feel better, and he still doesn't shut up!

Because that's what I want to tell him to do. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know that's horrible. I know that kids are supposed to cry for a reason, and I should just find out what that is so we can just fix the problem. But seriously, if there is a problem, Andy won't tell me what it is. He doesn't even KNOW what it is. Today he told me he was crying because Nathan messed up the blankets on his bed, something he discovered twenty minutes into his tantrum, and it wasn't Nathan, it was me, because I placed a laundry basket full of clean laundry on his bed. And Andy was following me from room to room, screaming and crying big fat tears.

I'm just at my wits end. I can't figure out how to get Andy to wake up without taking forty minutes out to let him cry. Advice, anyone?