16mo transition to 1 nap update - needs tweaking help!

[stefwef]

After a few weeks of back and forth from 1 nap to 2 naps, our 16mo has been on 1 nap consistently for one week and here is her schedule:

7 wake up/Nurse (so much better than 5:30!)
8 Breakfast
11 lunch
12 to 1:20 nap
1:20 nurse
snack
6 dinner
Between 8:30 and 9: asleep
1 wakeup usually for water or wet diaper

She seems extremely tired before her nap and would/will go down earlier.
She seems extremely tired before bedtime (has been signing for sleep around 4 but won't nap) and will not go down before 7hrs from last wakeup. If we go in to extend her nap, bedtime gets pushed too (not by us! We keep trying earlier but to mo avail).
We have actually been waking her at 7, which is CRAZY! But does that mean she's not getting enough ONS? I don't understand why her naps are not naturally longer or why she won't go to bed earlier...

On 2 naps her bedtime was pushed quite late to 8 or 9 and her twt reached 12 to 13 hours. These have not seemed to change. I thought her twt was supposed to go down after transition...

What should we tweak? Thanks!

[*Becky*]

I would imagine she is pretty OT tbh. She is only getting 10 hours overnight and a pretty short nap for her age. If it were me I would make BT earlier at 6.30pm latest, maybe even 6.15pm. I would imagine she is hitting a second wind and that is why she won't settle earlier.
What do you think?

[stefwef]

Thanks. She had a great schedule with 11hrs TWT at 9 months with 6AM wakeup, 7PM bedtime and two 45min-1:15hr naps. It seems strange that she would do 10twt at 16months. With her A time extending her twt became 12hrs, her two naps got shorter and shorter (30min each) and her wake-up became 5-5:30 and bedtime got super late (8:30-9PM). One the few days her one nap for the day was too short (eg. 30min), we've put her down earlier at bedtime and gotten her asleep at 6:30 and 7PM, but then she wakes at 5AM and 5:30AM the next morning (with many wake-ups all night long due to the short OT nap).

I mainly wonder whether we should push her first A time to 6 hrs despite her looking soo tired. I'm worried that would mean an even later bedtime as she seems to like 7hrs after waking from nap. I wonder if her first nap should actually be earlier like 11AM so that the 7hrs after nap take us to an earlier bedtime and shorter TWT. She will sleep the same length nap earlier in the day - that puzzles me too... (then she refuses pm nap).

[stefwef]

Also, 1:20 is pretty much the longest nap we've ever had from her. She was always a cat-napper as a baby. We don't expect to ever get the 2hr or 3hr naps people talk about.

[Haribo2012]

Hi, I'd agree with becky. I think your day is too long on a shortish nap so by BT OT is kicking in and she's past it.

I'd stick to a 12 hour day on that length nap, hold routine for a few days to let her get used to it?!
:-) x

[*Becky*]

I'd stick to a 12 hour day on that length nap, hold routine for a few days to let her get used to it?!

that is what I would do for now....

You might get the long naps, DD only ever did 1.10/20 naps from 17 months until about 21 months and then started doing 2 hour naps we had to wake her from!

[stefwef]

Sorry - 12-hour day means either 6/6 or 5/7 wake times?
We've been doing 5/7 and I'm thinking of trying 5.5/6.5 to see if she looks less tired at the end of the day. She's been sleeping through the night the past few nights, which is SOOO FAB! But yesterday her nap was only 1 hour and she was a mess at bedtime.

[*Becky*]

the wake times would be less than that because of the nap so if the nap is 1.5 for example, and you were keeping to a 12 hour day you would aim for wake times to be 5 and 5.5 or 6 and 4.5 - does that make sense?