A mom from Spain couldn’t believe what she caught her toddler doing during her nap time.
Loesje Brouns, based in Móstoles, Madrid, shared baby-cam footage to her TikTok, @lu.brouns, where she expected to see her sleeping. But, instead, 11-month-old Bella had different ideas; she is wide awake and waving directly at the camera.
@lu.brouns
In the clip, you can hear Loesje laughing as the text overlay reads: “Hola hola estoy despierta mami,” which translates as: “Hello, hello, I’m awake, mommy.”
Translated via Google Translate, Loesje told Newsweek that she put Bella down for a nap at around 1 p.m., but after a while, noticed that her baby had woken up.
“She sat up in bed, started looking directly at the camera—which I thought was funny, so I started recording—and then she started waving at the camera,” Loesje said.
Nap time can be one of the most challenging parts of the day for toddlers and their parents. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that children between 6 and 12 months typically need two to three naps per day, but, as they get older, their sleep needs and patterns change.
Frida Rångtell, Ph.D., sleep educator and scientific adviser at Napper, an app that helps babies sleep better, previously told Newsweek that a good night’s sleep also starts in the morning.
“To strengthen the baby’s circadian rhythm, expose them to daylight during the day and reduce light exposure at night [to] help improve their sleep,” Rångtell said.
Separation anxiety, increased mobility and cognitive leaps—such as understanding how a baby monitor camera works—can also affect how easily a child goes down for a nap, or whether they stay asleep at all.
Loesje’s clip has gone viral on TikTok, amassing more than 3.9 million views and over 581,000 likes.
Hundreds commented, with stories of their own toddler’s bedtime antics.
Translated from Spanish to English, one user wrote: “When my daughter starts playing instead of sleeping, I tell her to sleep from the bed and she says there’s a girl in the camera, and no matter how much I explain to her that it’s me, she doesn’t understand, but she does listen to that girl the first time.”
Others found Bella’s face so close to the camera hilarious. “It looks like a horror movie,” another commented.
“My reaction was to laugh a lot because it was the first time she waved at me through the camera to get me to come get her,” Loesje said. “I thought it was very clever of her.”
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