13mo EASY schedule on 2 naps?

[Vinimamae]

Hi all,

My 13mo is a horrible, horrible sleeper (alway been - just check out my other posts...).  He's 13mo, a joyful and pleasant little man during the day who can nap with the best of them.  We are still doing 2 naps a day and we seem to sleep better at night when we nap more during the day, which I know sounds backwards.  We tried moving him to 1 nap per day but it was total disaster: my sunny little dude just became a fussy monster.  Here's the schedule that seems to work best for him:

7am: WU, nurse
8am: breakfast, then play
10:30am: nap, usually until 12:30, but he's been known to nap until 1:30 without a problem
12:30 or 1:30: lunch, then play
4:00: nap, usually for 1.5 hrs
5:30: snack, nurse and play
7:30: dinner, shower, nurse (in that order)
8:00: bedtime

the evenings are a crapshoot: his normal is to wake up to nurse at least once per night to nurse, but he's been waking up every 3 hours lately.  I know we've got some molars (as in plural!!) coming in, so we're fussy because of that, but could anything in his routine be keeping him up at night?  As I said, I often hear that he sleeps too long during the day, but we tried 1 nap per day and it was a total nightmare. 

Any thoughts on his routine or what we could be doing to get him to sleep at night?  He eats ok during the day, but refuses to take cow's milk.  My BM stash is disappearing, so he'll have to learn to take cow's milk sooner or later b/c I work during the days.  Most days, he relies on BF for his milk, but I don't think I'm producing a whole lot anymore (I pump about 10 oz total on a good day).  He doesn't like yogurt or cheese, so milk is his only supply of calcium. 

[goldmom]

I would start capping one of your naps so that you're transitioning to 1 nap (but not yet dropping the second nap). We stayed on 2 naps until 16 months, but our second nap was never longer than 45 minutes (our first was never longer than 1.5 hours). If you currently have a 2-3 hour nap and a 1.5 hour nap, I would think that's too much day sleep at this age and it would start interfering with night sleeping.

To cap our nap I would open DS's door and start making noise so that he would wake up, sometimes I would have to call his name. He would wake up slightly disoriented, but once he had his after nap bottle (I made sure to have it ready right away) he was awake and ready to play.

[Ima shel Alon]

Going to move you to TS

[Vinimamae]

Thanks, goldmom.  Just as I wrote that, DS slept only once yesterday.  We put him down at his regular nap time in the morning and he just sat in his crib and played.  He then went down after lunch for a good 2.5 hours.  He did the same today.  I think he's transitioning himself.   

Thanks for your help!

[goldmom]

Sounds great!