Early riser and 2-1 transition for 13 month old - Help!

[Buga]

Hi Gals!

I've read through a few posts and can see a bit of my situation in some of them (but none hit it exactly) so I thought I'd ask for some direct help too. 

My LO is 13.5 months and since he's slept through the night has been an early riser (between 5:15/5:30), which then in turn, is an early to bed guy.  We had a great routine down where he'd nap an hour and 15 minutes in the am and another 1.5 in the afternoon.  Now... it seems impossible to get a solid hour and 15 out of him.  By the time it's bedtime, we're both ready to fall over!

Our routine used to look like this....

Awake at 5:30ish but not out of bed till 6:00
1st nap at 8:45 until 10:15ish
2nd nap would be around 1:30 until 3:00ish
Bedtime at 6:00

It was great!  I'd love to hold on to this, but he's not having it.   If he decides to take a morning nap, it's still only about an hour to 1.5 hours which puts him up a little after 10:00 and then that's it.  No more sleeping until bedtime - and that's 8 hours awake!  By 4:00 he's in his witching hour and if he's still out of sorts around 5:30, I put him in bed.  His head hits the mattress, he tosses out a mantra moan and he's out.   

If he fights the morning nap, he's ready to pass out around 10:30am.  I thought maybe he was ready to go down to one nap, but the one and only nap he takes is only about an hour long.  I've tried holding him out to 11:30, but that doesn't seem to do any better.  By 4:00 he's in a downward spiral.  I even thought I could get a quick catnap out of him at 4:00, but he just cries and fusses for 20-30 minutes and I'm afraid to go too much later.  Unfortunately, there's no rhyme or reason to which nap he ends up refusing for the day.

From the advice of a few well meaning friends, I've tried to extend out his bedtime past 6:00 but it always seems to make the wake up time even earlier.  (I should add this was before we had our current nap problems.)  When I'd put him down at 7:00pm he was up and ready to go by 5:00am - that's just WAY too early for our household.  This past week, I've tried holding him out until 6:30 hoping that his morning would adjust to a wake up at 6:00 but it hasn't made a difference. 

Does anyone else have a LO that is up at 5:30 and to bed by 6:00?? 
Could this be the root of a problem?  I just can't see putting him to bed any later and having him still be up by 5:00/5:30 with only an hour and half nap for the day?
Should I try to keep the two naps a day or work towards one?

Any thoughts or suggestions?  I hate to see my little guy so miserable when the OT monster kicks in - he's generally such a content little guy.

Thanks for reading!
Lynn
 
P.S.  He is teething a bit, but in general doesn't seem to be too bothered by it while awake.

[CW]

Hi Lynn,

I'm no expert by any means.  I'm actually going through similar pm nap refusals with my 12-month old twin boys.  I posted just yesterday about it.  Anyhow, here's my opinion.  I have a 5.5 year old son as well, and all three boys lean towards being early risers.  I have found that no matter what time they go down, they still wake relatively early.  So, better to get them in bed early.  6pm is standard for the babies and my older son is in bed by 7pm (no longer napping though).  I've always felt that even if they awaken at 5:30am, but you don't get them up til a bit later, I figure that's extra rest right?  So, I try not to stress about the wake-up time (of course, that's assuming they are ok with sitting in their cribs and waiting it out). 

So, regarding the problems with nap #1....I say push it out a bit.  If he is awake at 5:30am, but not out of bed til 6am, I think 9:45 or 10am is a realistic morning nap start time.  There are lots of threads on the site about keeping the am nap to an hour or even 45 minutes, but that's was a miserable experience for us.  The babies will just not take nap #2, so I keep thinking, why torture them with cutting down their only good nap of the day?

My boys are up at 6am, nap #1 at 10:15-12:15pm.  I'm trying to get in a little catnap at around 3:30, but they just have little party together.  They are then in bed at 6pm without a peep.  (Of course, now I'm jinxing myself right?).  My plan is to slowly push that 10:15am another 15 minutes every 4-5 days til I get to 11:15am or 11:30am. 

I hope you get other responses, as I'm interested to hear what other suggestions and ideas people have for you!

Take care,
Francine

[mylittlelovelies]

i'm having some success with only a 30 minute morning nap..then we always get the PM nap (DD is 13 months)...i think 45mins or 1hr is still a bit too refreshing for them at this age perhaps and puts the PM nap at risk.

hope you sort it out! we're still muddling aobut too..you prob read my post since our LOs are the same age!
Jessie