14 month old crying for an hour at bedtime and early wakenings

[julz222]

Would really appreciate some insight into our current sleep dilemma. Things have been complicated with our 14 month old who I believe is transitioning from 2 to 1 nap... Here are the issues:

LO had a chronic early rising history. Most of first year he got up at 5:30am, sometimes earlier. Around 10/11 months that improved and we were on a nice schedule of two 1.5 hour long naps, easy to bed and 7am rising. It was great.

Just after he turned 12 months, he started to take longer and longer to fall asleep for second nap. Would play for 30-45min. He also started having a horrible time with bedtime. Crying for sometimes up to 1.5 hours! So I figured it was the 2 to 1, and started catnapping (30-45min) him in the morning. That worked for a while, then he started refusing to go down for catnap (we always did it in the stroller because of his older brother) until 10:30 or 11am, and then not go down for second nap until 2:30. I never let him sleep past 4pm in attempt to preserve 7pm bedtime.

Transition to one nap has been hard and I have to pick my other child up from preschool at noon. Meaning if he only takes one nap, it cant be until 12:15 at the earliest. Currently I am trying to keep him up till 12:30, but sometime he falls asleep in the stroller. Even just a 10 min nap in the morning seems to take the edge off and makes it harder for him to fall asleep.

The worst part is bedtime, which is upwards of an hour of crying. Also, 5:30 wake-ups have returned.

Here is our "sort of" schedule.

5:30am wake-up
10:30- 10 min catnap
Between 1/1:30 nap for 2 hours.
6:30 bedtime - cries for 30-90min.

would really appreciate any insight
thanks

[creations]

Transition to one nap has been hard and I have to pick my other child up from preschool at noon. Meaning if he only takes one nap, it cant be until 12:15 at the earliest.

I might have misread this, but is it possible to leave for preschool earlier and let him sleep in the stroller at say 11.30/12?  I mean to skip that morning CN and move directly onto a 1 nap day.  Perhaps he could do a 2 hr nap in the stroller or you may be abel to transfer him from the stroller to cot when you get home?  I know when mine was very young he would not transfer but later on I was able to carry him from the car to the cot by telling him to stay asleep and that I was carrying him to bed. He did stir but kept himself dozy and went right to sleep in his cot.  I'd let him have a long nap and resettle as needed up to 2hrs.  BT should be a bit easier on one nap.