Should I do a shorter or longer first A time?

[gavinsmum1]

Hey there!
My LO has just made the switch to one nap and we've decided to stick with the plan and avoid the two nap days if possible as they haven't done us any favors since we stretched the A times a bit.  Jesse is just over a week shy of 15 months. His routine generally goes like this:

wake between 6 or as late as 7:15
nap time 5.5 hours later usually sleeps for 1.5 hours or sometimes a little less
bedtime 5.5 hours later

This is what we've found:
* 5.5 hours seems to be the right A time post-nap, otherwise he'll just roll around and fuss and get up and cry regardless of a decent or not-so-decent nap, if he's especially tired, we put him down 15 min earlier.
* nap length varies from a mere 1 hr 10 min to a whopping 2 hr 20 minutes, which we had only once.  The average is 1 hr 20 minutes.

I don't know if he's just taking a while to adjust or if I should look at bringing that first time forward or back a little to get a longer nap.  What should I be expecting from a babe whose just transitioned?  We're getting 10.5-11.75 hours at night and he seems to be regulating sleep a little better at night if he's short napped, but I just want to make sure I'm not be unrealistic about what I should be expecting this early after the transition.  Any advice or input? 

[*Becky*]

We are in the same position - following along. x

[Tweakster]

Hi there GM1, I would think that if he's had a longer night you will need to bump up that A time.  When he's slept to 7:15 how long was his night sleep?  I would probably do 6 hrs A to nap, and then a shorter A time to bed.

What should I be expecting from a babe whose just transitioned?

Ahh the 10 million dollar question that none of us know lol

[Kay Dee]

We gave up on A times after the 2-1 (at 10months ) and went with set naptime and bedtime (these have gradually shifted as his sleep needs changed over the last year). I just got waaaay too confused otherwise and this worked best for us.

It's sooo hard to know what naps to expect. We had 2hour naps to start with but we were down to ~1.25 by your LO's age.

Good luck figuring it all out!!

[gavinsmum1]

We're still finding that he's having a period of being awake at night.  Usually it's been. "I'm soaked! My pj's are wet, come change me!" and then it takes 45 min-1 hour for him to get back to sleep(?).  This morning I had to wake him at 7:45!! That's the latest sleep in we've had since the time change.  Ironically, I put him down after 5 hours A time and he slept 1.5 hours, so that's a decent nap.  I think I'll try that suggestion, Wendy.  He's been having longer nights lately and he's probably ready for a little bit of a stretch now that he seems to be dealing with being OT pretty well. 
I like asking those million dollar questions to see if anyone's brave enough to attempt an answer.  I wish I knew, too.  We've had somewhat of a set nap time of 12:40ish and it seems to have lengthened out the nap a little and the nights as well, but we've also started having some sleep ins, so that may be why we've been able to push the nap further along.