Nights are getting shorter and naps are unpredictable ?

[Chloevalentine]

My 18 mo lo always does a 12 he night sometimes even 12.5 and lately he's at about 11 hrs. His naps are also random either 1 hr or some days 2 hrs! Is this just the 18 mo sleep regression? Do I need to do some tweaking? His easy looks like this:

7 wake ( this used to be 730/8 and now can be as early as 6:45)
1230-2 nap ( this can be either 1 hr or 2 hrs but I won't let sleep past 2:30)
730 bed ( he usually goes down easily )

Thanks

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Do you find he goes down better for bt when the nap is shorter? Just thinking instead of a wake at 2:30 rule maybe a nap length cap as if he is shortening his nights he may need a tweak elsewhere. Or if you like the nap just push bedtime a bit to account for an 11 hour night. If it is the regression the best course of action is to stick with routine as much as possible and ride it out.

[Chloevalentine]

There's no difference in night sleep whether he does a longer or shorter nap. He does do best with same nap time and same bedtome though so I think I'll just rodent out and just hope he's not up even earlier today

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Fx! I know how that goes, my DD has a cold so I let her have a long nap and got ew for it!

[Chloevalentine]

And today he's up at 6! He used to sleep until 8! It's getting earlier every day! Can't figure it out! I'm not rushing into room as he's content to play with his lovees hope he falls back not sure that he will make it until nap time at 1230 without being cranky

[Chloevalentine]

He ended up falling back but was awake for about 30 mins just playing not calling me. I always feel bad doing that but thought it might be worth it to see if he would fall back.  What ejse could the ew be? He's only sleepibg about 11 hrs and 1.5 at nap. I've tried before to do later BT and it ajways backfires leaving him up in his crib for over 30 mins trying to fall asleep. It's as if he misses the window and gets another boost of energy which is why I always get him to bed by 730 because he falls right to sleep

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I have encouraged all my kids to chat and play quietly in bed for a good while before I get them. If they dont call out I dont go in! Iam not a morning person so although I am up I use that time to scarf down some coffee!

I would try a bit of a nap cap then for a week or so to see what happens. If 7:30 is his optimal bedtime then that is the only thing to do. I would try to avoid an early nap as it will perpetuate the ew.