the-hee - so strange to see my advice come back around - thanks for the complement!
Yes, i was going to recommend that you gradually increase his Awake by 15min every 3 days. To begin w/ aim for 2.5 in the AM and 3 in the PM. You can re-evaluate if it needs to be longer after a 2 weeks of the new awake times.
I pulled this from one of Janes threads (we work as team around here
) What I would recommend doing, is to look at setting your naps a little more by the clock, ie. morning nap after 9.30 am and afternoon nap to be no earlier than 2:00.
If he has a great morning nap, than make afternoon nap 3-3.5 hours from nap wake up. But if he is having a lousy morning nap, ie. pulls a 45 min nap ... then don't put him back down until 2:00.
Those days will be a little rough.. but you won't have many of them once you get his A time right.
Also, make sure he is going into bed awake but drowsy.. I used to wind down too long, don't rob him of the opportunity to fall asleep independently. The older they get the less wind down time w/ us they need. They want to do themself, in their crib.
It was wonky in the beginning, when he pulls the 45min naps all day and those days I would do a lot of one on one interaction, walks in the stroller, cuddles and snuggling to help him get until bedtime. I would also pull bedtime back to between 6:30-7:00.. once everything improved, then I returned bedtime to 7-7:15 ish.