Naps and the school run.

[choc]

I'm starting to stress about how I will manage our 2nd nap with the school run. I've been lucky up til now that his routine has fitted around them nicely. Now his a times are getting to a stage where he will need to sleep around and hour before we leave. I don't know what to do. I could try putting him down in his pushchair to drop off and then he is ready when we need to go but I don't think he will. At the moment I am pretty much capping naps to 1hr30 to keep things working round the school run so it looks like this
Wu 7 am
S 9.20 to 10.50
S 1.10 to 2.40
Leave for school run at 2.55pm
S 5 til 5.30/5.45
Bt 7pm
But he could handle a 2hr 30 A I think but then I am really pushed to get the naps in.
Ah what can I do?!

[creations]

How about a long nap 1, then a CN before school run, then a long nap 3?  I did this, not for school run but another reason, and it was fine. Eventually, much further on it was nap 2 I dropped (the CN) rather than nap 3.  Hope that makes sense, nap 3 was a longer nap not a CN.
So you'd extend first A time to where it needs to be to get a good sleep, you can let that nap go longer probably, 2hr, then second A time you keep a bit shorter if he will be willing to go down a little earlier (not all LOs will of course, he may need a full A time to accept a nap), as it will be a CN of around 40 min you can begin as late as 2pm and still be up in time for school PU.  The third A time might be a bit shorter than is full A due to it coming after a CN rather than a long nap, so maybe 4.40/50 ish and he might want a longer nap.
Overall the amount of day sleep doesn't alter in the first instance, just the time of the naps,  so BT could logically stay in the same place, but if there is BT resistance I'd probably be willing to move BT a little later for a while or begin to reduce nap 3 to maintain BT.
A very rough guide (which gets messy as the day goes on because it really depends on if he will take a shorter A time anywhere in the day before or after a CN)
WU 7
A 2hr 30
S 9.30 - 11.30
A 2hr (or up to 2hr 30)
S 1.30 (or as late as 2pm) CN 40/45 min
A 2hr (or up to 2hr 30)
S 4.10/50 - 5.30/6.00 (a long nap will fit in here)
A 1hr 30 (short but it's what you are doing now roughly)
BT 7 or a bit later

and a very rough guide for when A increases to more like 3hr
WU 7
A 3
S 10 - 11.30/12 (if he will sleep longer here it helps to drop CN and move nap to after school run)
A 2.5  (when this can increase to 3hr you drop CN and do the long nap after the school run)
S 2pm CN 40 min
A 2.5
S 5.10-5.50 (this one moves earlier when CN is dropped)
A 2
BT 7.50/8 (late but it will go earlier again after CN is dropped, back to around 7pm)

What do you think?

[choc]

Thanks for that, I like it! Actually it is exactly what we already do on the rare occasions we have to be out during second nap time as he will only do a 30 min nap when not in his cot, so we do exactly what you describe! I didn't even think of it for solving this problem! So far it has worked Ok but I do wonder if he will start to resist bed time after  a long nap and only 1hr30 A time.

[creations]

Yes if the last nap of the day is long then likely you'll need to move BT a bit later for a while up until the CN (nap2) is dropped and then you should be able to bring BT earlier again.  You might find you can do a phase of 1 long nap (nap1) followed by 2 CNs. Having 2 CNs might help to keep BT reasonable, then you'd switch to nap after school PU.  The only difficulty with moving to 2 CNs and then dropping one is that he might need a bit of help working out that he is supposed to sleep longer again, once the habit of a CN is established he'd likely need 'telling' to continue to sleep when the routine changes.
I think it probably sounds more difficult than it is though.

[choc]

Thanks for the ideas, I will mull it over!