Am I gonna dig myself into a hole?

[shark]

So DS showed signs of wanting to do the 2 to 1 nap shift at about 11m (refusing 2nd naps).  I totally didn't think he was ready as he could only manage about 3.5hrs of A time before getting cranky.  So for a while I 'tricked' him into a second nap by taking a walk in the stroller or something and he would sleep anywhere from 40-80min. He would sleep 10-11hrs at night too. At 12m we started daycare and he was so tired from that that we had no trouble getting him to take his second nap and still sleep 11hrs at night.  Up until last week all was well but for the past week he has been waking up very early (4:45-5AM) and having a lot of daytime sleep (1st nap 80-120min, 2nd nap 40-80min).  He still can't do much more than 4hrs of A time without getting crabby so I think we're still a bit away from doing one nap.  I hate 5AM wake ups but can put up with it for a while until he is truly ready for one nap and can manage 5-5.5hrs of A time (with daycare). 

My question is this:  If I let him do this longer daytime naps and early wakings, am I in for a horrible time when we do go to one nap and try to slep in a bit later (am I doing some accidental parenting mistake here)?  Should I just wake him earlier from his naps (i.e no more than 80min/nap)?  Should I bite the bullet and go to one nap now? 

Sorry for the long preamble but I wanted to give you the lay of the land.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Bumping up for you

[meltown]

what time is the AM nap if your LO sleeps to the normal wake up time?

[shark]

meltown:
 1st nap is usually about 3.5hrs after he wakes up.  So it can vary from as early as 8:30 to as late as 10:00.  1st anp is usually the longer nap lasting anywhere from 1:20-2hrs.  2nd nap is usually about 4hrs after he wakes up from first nap or by 3:30 whichever comes first.  If he goes down late, I don't let him sleep more than 40mins so we still have a 7pm bedtime.

Stacy:

I dont know if you will face a negative letting him do it, really dont but with most things i would wonder if letting him move his day ahead to 5am for a long time will make him change his biorhythm and natural time of wanting to wake up.   Would wonder if the "start as you mean to go on" phrase might come into play.

that's what I was worried about.  I think I may try to shorten his AM nap a bit as you suggested.  Will have to get daycare on board too.  Thanks!

[meltown]

you have 2 options.  shorten the first nap as Stacy suggested or if you feel your LO can push the first nap later, you could push that back and drop the afternoon one. 

you also may want to go on the 2-1 nap switch thread here in the toddler forum as there are a lot of other mom's where you are they may be able to give you some support.