Anxious about 2-1 transition

[Courts21]

Okay my little boy has just turned 12 months old and he has gone from the perfect sleeper to morning naps becoming a problem.  Some days he goes down fine for his morning nap and sleeps beautifully, other days he doesn't want a bar of it and downright refuses to nap.  I'm tough with him, once I put him into bed I will not let him out of it until nap time is over.  That doesn't bother him, he'll sit in his cot and play for his whole nap time.  He's not ready for 1 nap a day though, when he does refuse to nap, generally I have to put him down for an 1hr in the middle of the day and then push his pm nap later.  We really worked hard in getting his sleep right when he was little and it paid off, he sleeps really well I just don't want to screw it up when it comes to this 2-1 transition period.  I am not sure even how to attack it.  I don't really want him down to 1 nap a day yet, I think he would cope better if he was older but I don't know if how I am handling it is right either. 

If he naps his daytime schedule looks like this.
7-7:30am wake up bottle
8:00am breakfast
10:00am Nap
11:00am wake  snack and bottle
12:30-1pm Lunch
2:30pm Nap
4Pm wake bottle and snack
6pm Dinner
7pm Bottle and bed

If he doesn't nap his daytime schedule looks more like this
7-7:30am wake up bottle
8:00am breakfast
10:00am Put down But no sleeping
11:00am wake  snack and bottle
12:00 put down for nap again this time sleeps
1:00 pm Lunch
3:00 pm Nap
4Pm wake bottle and snack
6pm Dinner
7pm Bottle and bed

Am I going about this whole thing right or is there another, better way.  I'm just not sure.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[marensmama]

Hi there.  There's a few links for you to look at with lots of good info about the 2-1 transition:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.0

I think he might need more A time in the morning.  LOs his age can generally handle 3.5-4.5 hours of A time, so he likely isn't tired enough when you try to put him down.  You may need to limit his morning nap to an hour or less, if it starts to make the afternoon nap time happen too late and interfere with his bedtime.  I hope this helps!  Let me know how it goes! 

[jess, lukeys_mom]

The thing is, with the 2-1 switch, the idea is usually not to start seeing signs that he will drop to one nap and then do that. The whole idea of the transition period is to keep tweaking his routine to keep the two naps as long as possible and prevent him from becoming OT. My ds, for example, started showing signs of wanting to drop a nap from 11 mo. It wasn't until 16 mo that he was really doing 1 nap on most days. And even now there is a very occasional 2 nap day.

I agree with pp that he probably needs more A time in the morning.  You will probably have to play around with it a bit, and keep modifying your routine to make it work. 

Can you try something like:

7 am wake up (wake him if he's not already to keep this time)
11 am nap 1
3 pm nap 2
7/7.30 bed

The idea would be to have one of the naps evolve into his one big nap, and the other one to get smaller and smaller until it disappears. Does that make sense?
Let us know how you get on!