HELP! Awful second nap - and starting daycare soon!

[Night owl mommy]

Hello! This is my first posting on the site, so here goes...

My LO is 8 months old. He has good morning naps (1hr 15 to 1hr 45 mins) and usually wakes happy and babbling. The second nap, however, is in complete contrast - he sleeps for 30 to 45 minutes and nearly always wakes crying. He has an A time of 3 hours but I am wondering if before the second nap he should have a shorter A or should he have a longer A? Can you vary the A time during the course of the day? Or should I wake him up after an hour in the morning?

Please help! I am desperately trying to get him into a consistent routine as he is starting daycare in less than a month!

A typical nap schedule is below:

7am Wake (after 11 to 11.5 hours sleep)
10am - 11.30am Nap One
2.30pm - 3pm Nap Two
4.30pm - sometimes has a catnap, though starting to drop this
7.30pm - sleep for the night

[*Liz*]

Often the first A of the day is shorter than the rest so I would suggest extending the 2nd A time by 15 mins and see if that makes things easier or not.

LOs often do vary their A through the day - My DS used to shorten his - DD has a longest middle A time.

And a big welcome to BWer