Need help again!! with A time of course

[Nauvoo]

I've posted a dozen times trying to figure out our routine but I'm in a bit of a different situation and need some guidance.
My LO just turned 12 months and about 2 weeks ago I put her on a short am nap and a long pm nap.  She was doing 2  1hr naps but due to really fighting the pm nap we switched to this new routine.  Now her routine looks like this:

7am wake
10:30-11:00 nap#1
2:30-3:45pm nap #2
bed 8:00pm

We were dealing with 5:30 wake ups due to OT issues but I hope I've got us to a good spot.
My issues are these:  she is really showing signs of needing more A time in the morning.  Before on 2 1hr naps she was doing close to 4.5hrs A time (and of course the pm nap was more like 30 minutes)  So I've thought of extending the morning A time.  However, also lately she is starting to need more A time between naps.  Was 3.5 hours but is more like 3.75hrs now but even this is hard for her to do and I, today, ended up using AP just to get it in.  She usually goes about 4 hours A time until bed and handles it really well.  All this A time is cramping our day and we really can't go over 13 hour days or OT comes back.  Also the pm nap is always a problem with us.  It started at 1.5 hours but slowly crept down to about 1hr 10min now, and I just know from experience that it will soon be 1 hour .

I feel quite lost in this new nap routine and need help understanding what I'm aiming for.  What is the best route to take in our transition to 1 nap?
thanks tons

[becky1969]

You'll move that AM nap later and you can also shorten it to 20 min to help lengthen the time between naps.  With a 20 min nap it's barely anything so you shouldn't have to increase As between naps.

Once your AM nap is around 11:15-11:30 or so you can jump to 1 nap.  You're really close! Usually you can move to 1 nap once LO can handle 4.5-5 hours A time.  since you were doing 4.5 before, it makes me wonder if you couldn't just go to 1 nap now! At the very least I would offer a 20 min nap at 11:00 and see how that goes.

[Nauvoo]

Great,thanks Becky,
So I'm working on moving the am nap later.  Once I've cut to a 20 minute nap how do I move to 1 nap?  Do I just put her down at the normal am nap time and see how long she sleeps?  Or should I put her down a bit later?  I'm a bit confused about how I will go about it and really scared she will just take 1 hour naps when we switch over.  1hr naps have been what we have gotten on those few days one nap has been our goal.

[becky1969]

You'll move nap a bit later (15-30 min or so).  Most toddlers do a 1 hour nap for a few days before their body realizes that only 1 nap will be in the offing, and so then they start napping longer.  I believe it took my little guy about 6-7 days before his naps lengthened out to 1.5 hours, and then it probably took another week or two before we got to consistent 2 hour naps.  Now he's 4 and he regularly takes 2.5-3 hour naps! So don't let a 1 hour nap initially get you down.  It's pretty normal and in no way reflects how things will go long term.

[Nauvoo]

wow, thanks for telling me this because I totally would have figured I'd be stuck with a 1 hour nap.  They are soooooo common around here.

[annette.xx]

just interested to see how you are getting on?

Annette.xx

[Nauvoo]

thanks annette.
I think we hit some teething or growth spurt or something.  For the last  3 days my Lo has been taking AWESOME naps!!!!  A 30 min am nap after about 3.75 hours (of which she shows signs that she's tired which is just so uncommon), and she took a 2 hour pm nap!!!! 2 days ago, a 1.75hour pm nap yesterday, and a 1.5hour pm nap today from which I woke her to preserve bedtime.  She is doing about 3hrs 15min between naps.  AMAZING naps here and I'm thinking it's incredibly out of the ordinary so we'll see how long it lasts.  We never get longer naps but they are usually around 1hr 5 or 10 minutes.  So I'm loving it and things are just dandy right now with 11 hour nights.  I'll keep you posted.  thanks tons.