Changing naps for my 10mo - advice please

[Sunnyday01]

Hi

We've had a pretty good routine over the past few weeks/months with a morning and afternoon nap of around 1hr and half. Over the past few weeks I've found that his A time especially in the morning is increasing and its increasingly difficult to get a long nap in the morning and then we end up with a late afternoon nap which I'm reluctant to let be longer than 45 mins as I don't want it to affect bedtime. In addition when I go to put him down for his nap he cries as if he's not ready for a nap. I assume he us waking up after 45 mins because he is not tired enough to get him through the transition period.

Our general routine for last week or so has been

6.15 WU
10.15ish - pit down for nap - lucky if I get an hour
3.15 - nap, often only get 45 mins but I think sometimes he would like longer.
7 - bed

I'm guessing we are in the start of the 2-1 transition but wondered a few things

1. Would it be better to have a short morning nap and concentrate on an early afternoon long nap or is it better for that long morning nap to get later and later with the afternoon catnap eventually just dropping off?
2 Is it better to establish nap times that he has no matter what time he wakes up (he's always awake between 6-6.30)

[Scottishmummy]

Hi there!

Whether you go for short am/long pm or vice versa is up to you & your LO.  If he's pushing his morning A time, however, I think I'd be tempted to go woth long am/short pm.  I did the opposite for my 2 but both of them wanted first nap around 9.30.

Some people do set naps at this age, but many LOs don't settle into asset nap routine until much further on in the 2-1 and usually after 1yo. I think I'd try sticking with A times for now, if possible.

Here's alone to read re the 2-1: From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

[Sunnyday01]

Thanks for your reply Scottish mummy. I think a longer furst a time suits him better which leads to a long late morning nap and then a later afternoon catnap. However he is resisting this nap as its getting so late it's near to bedtime. For example yesterday he woke at 6.30, had his nap from 11.30-1.15 and then because his next nap was due at 5.15 but bed time was 7 we just put him to bed at 6.15. He was tired but not too bad I just feel like that late afternoon is a bit messed up. I think if I tried to put him down earlier than 5.15 he would have cried because he wasn't ready.

Do you thinks it's worth switching to short am nap and longer pm nap to see what happens?

[lolsyb1982]

Hi I was doing long am short pm with my DD and it was at this point that you're at with the same problem that I swapped to short am instead and had to cap it to 15 mins (not sure how long your cn is at the moment).

[Sunnyday01]

Ah ok lolsby that's interesting, he normally has 1hr and half in morning and 45 mins in afternoon. Was thinking of trying 30 mins in morning to start with but that depends if he will go down. I guess it's worth trying and see what happens - maybe a bit of trial and error.

[lolsyb1982]

Yes will be trial and error for a while  to find what suits him