24 month old not quite ready for transition

[RTHMum]

Hello,

Our son has just turned 2 in the last week.

He's never been a keen sleeper but up until about a couple of months ago we were on the following schedule and it was working pretty well, he was happy not cranky and went off to sleep with me sitting in the chair by his cot (sometimes holding his hand)without too much fussing:

630 up
700 breakfast
1130 lunch
12-130/2 nap
300 snack
600 dinner
700 bedtime routine
800 asleep

2 months ago we moved house and the sleeping schedule went out the window as our son needed much more reassurance to fall asleep at night and was taking ages to go down then ended up napping much longer during the day, our days looked more like this:

6:30 up
12:30-300 nap
9:00/9:30 asleep

I thought that it was just due to the house move and that once he settled in things would go back to normal but it's been 2 months now and although he's clearly not upset following the move anymore the night-time battles have continued and he's started to miss the odd nap.

Currently our day's look like one of the following

6:00 up (sometimes a 5am waking but often goes back to sleep on own)
11:30 lunch
12:30 nap
2:30 up
6:00 dinner
7:00 bedtime routine
8:30 to 9:30 asleep

or

6:00 up (sometimes a 5am waking hit or miss as to whether he goes back to sleep on own)
11:30 lunch
12:30 refuses nap
5:30 dinner
6:00 just about makes it through dinner and is falling asleep as I'm changing him for bed

I really don't think he's ready to drop his nap completely and the two days I tried capping his nap it was tantrum city all afternoon. I think he needs (give or take) about 12 hours sleep overall to be in a good mood and I can't seem to get his off to sleep at the moment unless he's been awake for getting on for 7hrs so I'm really struggling with the maths.

I'd really appreciate some advice on what you think the best way forward might be for me. Thank you

[Johnnyha65]

Hi there,
My DS is 25 months so a similar age. His sleep needs have dropped on the last few weeks having enjoyed a few months of 2hr naps and 12 hr nights, following a year of Shennanigans! I've had to push his nap out but keep the end time the same - so capped.
I suspect your in abit of a OT/UT cycle, he has a short night, needs the long nap to compensate but then is UT for BT so it ends up being late and he's having a really long day potentially 15 hrs which even I'm exhausted by these days.
If it were me and you think he would do it initially I would bring his nap as early as 11.30 let him nap for 2hrs and aim for him to be asleep by 6.30, with the aim of getting him caught up. Once he is you can then push the nap back out slowly.
We're currently on WU 6.45 S 1-2.30 BT 7/7.715 asleep by 7.45 latest. Just prior to
This we were similar to you.. WU 7.00/7.30 S 12.30-2.30 BT 7 a alseep by 7.15
On the days he doesn't nap do you have quiet time? On those days you may want to bring BT earlier if you can, I think 10.5/11hr days seem to work for a lot of the BW mums on here to keep the OT at bay.
HTh