Just jumping back on here...it was lovely while it lasted!
Now I seem to have a new problem in that if I get a good first nap, I can't repeat that with the second nap. I haven't had to push the first nap out as all the EBTs have resulted in DS being ready to start the day at around 6 am (which is OK - but I don't want it to get any earlier!).
We've been getting a longer nap at 9:00, sometimes until about 10:15 which I think is probably a result of the increased A time (nearer 3 hours now and sometimes more as I often wake at around 6 to find him awake too!). So that's great. However, I can't seem to get a decent second nap, meaning that the A time to bed is still too long - or we have to do a tiny catnap which doesn't seem to help the OT from building up. Even if I cap nap 1 at 1 hour, I can't seem to get a decent 2nd nap.
I've tried a 3 hour A, but get a 40 minute nap. (3 hours works fine after a short (35-40) minute first nap though).
3 hours and 10/15 minutes A time gets me about an hour long nap, which is about as good as I've managed at the moment. Today, I pushed it out to 3 hours and 25 minutes and got a 30 minute nap!! I'm not expecting 3 hours 20 minutes to work miracles (although it's possible!) but assuming it doesn't, I'm stuck with days like this (at best):
Wake up: 6:00
nap 1: 9:00-10:00
nap 2: 1:15-2:15
Then I do EBT at 5:30/5:45
He usually refuses the catnap and even if he does, and I give him 15 minutes about 5:00 and have him in bed by 6:00, he still does OT evening wake ups. He only really takes the catnap if he's woken before 2:00, or (like today) done a really rubbish nap.
I honestly don't think DS needs 2 long naps (for him, 1 hour and 20 minutes - we never get more than this) but I can't seem to space the sleep out to get him through to bedtime without the OT. I'm not sure if this is as good as it's going to get, or if I should cap nap 1 at 40 minutes again, and put him down for nap 2 at 1:00? Not sure that gets me anywhere though as he'd still wake at 2:20 at the best! There may not be a good answer, apart from sitting it out, but I just thought I'd ask. I suppose as he gets older (he'll be 9 months on the 23rd) he'll gradually cope better with the A time to bed? I don't like putting DS to bed at 5:30 all the time as I don't really think I can expect 12.5 hours of night sleep (even if you take off the wake ups) - but maybe it's the only option?
Sorry to ramble on - I'd be grateful if anyone has any comments please, even to say that there's no good answer!
Thanks!