About to start PU/PD, but is it right to?

[creations]

It sounds like you are making great progress
Great nights!  and the naps in the cot are so much better too

I think he is just over 10 months now, yes?  It is extremely early to be dropping to 1 nap. It's not totally unheard of but very uncommon. Even dropping to 1 nap at 12 months is considered early.

2hrs sleep in the day will be fine. Most LOs would do one short and one long but if he does 2 naps and they are both short AND his mood is okay AND he is sleeping through the night...well...you can't really ask for more I don't think If he is okay with it then I think you can feel confident that it's okay.

You might put him down for BT a little earlier if he totally refuses an afternoon nap or it is only say 30-40 mins, this will increase the night length (and you will be less likely to need to wake him in the morning) and help to make up for the skipped or short afternoon nap.

One interesting development and we’re not sure if he is just trying it on, he has decided that he wont go to sleep in the afternoon nap

Although it sounds like he is doing well, I would try to avoid totally missing the afternoon nap at this stage. If he won't go to sleep get him up, do another 15-30 min A time and put back down again, even if it means waking him up to preserve BT.
Another thing, capping the morning nap at less than 1hr could help to keep the afternoon nap going. If he is UT for the afternoon he might go down with a shorter morning nap and a little more A time between.

We site on a chair next to the cot and whisper his sleepy words and he eventually goes off.

You are still sitting in the room.
Come on, time to make the next step
...if you want to go slowly that's fine, perhaps it suits you and your DW better.
So move that chair a couple of steps away from the cot. Do just as you are doing but from farther away.  If you need to get up to put a hand on or pick up at any point (esp teething, illness etc) that is totally fine, then back to the chair.
After 1-2 days move the chair again.
Depending how big the room is you will be aiming to be out the door in say 1 week.
Chair outside door, you can use verbal reassurance if needed.
I advise you also reduce the verbal reassurance even when the chair is still in the room, so it comes intermittently, increase when needed and decrease when you can. Aiming to be silent as he goes to sleep.
In a week or so you should be able to put him down say your key phrase once, move out of the room, and say nothing else - go get a cup of tea!

Another interesting aspect is that regardless of how much sleep he gets during the day (odd time only 30 mins) he manages to sleep fine at night (touch wood), which i find strange as surely sometimes he is over tired?

I think you are just very lucky that the missed naps don't seem to effect his night sleep. Mine was and still is (at 6yo) very sensitive to loss of sleep.  Even 30 mins late to bed causes us night disturbances.

hope this helps

[Henrys_Dad]

Thank you again, very helpful.

We’re just a little confused with what to do when he just doesn’t want to sleep at our current times.

First nap is usually 9.30 after a 6 o’clock wake (we usually have to wake him up)

However, last 3 days he’s not been interested at all or just done 30mins.

Again the afternoon nap is usually around 2pm, if he hasn't slept at all during the 9.30 he usually will go down but for only half an hour.

Do we just stay there for the full time we hoped for him to sleep, sometimes he just keeps standing up happy as larry, others he gets really worked up. From past experience if he has been crying for a good half an hr he’s not going to go to sleep even if we kept going for another half.

We think that perhaps his 9.30 one needs to move to 10 and then hope something happens then, other than that we’re not sure

[creations]

OK. We talked about this before - have a look at reply #63 and #65 which was about 2 wks back.
UT naps are either short or LO refuses to go down.
WU 6
A 4hr
S 10 - 10.30 capped at 30 mins or he wakes naturally
A 4hr
S 2.30 - 3.30/4 1hr or 1.5hr
A 3-4hr
BT 6.30/8
the reason for the wide allowance on BT is if you get 2 short naps I'd suggest EBT whilst if you get a good 1.5hr second nap he might need a later BT to be tired enough for night sleep.  You can likely aim for 7.30pm but you judge it on the day and also take into account if you are having to wake him in the morning.

See how it goes

[Henrys_Dad]

Yes we’ve been trying various combinations, slightly lengthen his awake time so now we try around 10.

It all seems so random though, sometimes he will jump around in his cot, or try sleep and not succeed or just get really worked up. A very stubborn baby!

If no sleep within the first nap we usually get something out of him in the second, he is sometimes so tired he nods off in his high chair after lunch!

Bit tricky trying at the moment as he has a little cold, but we still try around the times and if shorter or longer we adjust the next one.

Night times are still going ok, 7.30 (or earlier if he’s only slept 30mins during the day) till 6ish, sometimes we have to wake him but he is waking more naturally.  Last couple of nights we’ve given him some water to help with his cold, but just think he’s struggling with it and coughing, still tries to put himself back each time though

[creations]

If you are regularly getting  nap refusal at nap 1 I suggest increasing the A time again. He needs a 30 min CN in the morning to be able to make it through to nap 2 really. The problem at this point with not napping in the morning is he can become OT by nap 2 and this can cause a short nap.
I know you have the swim class to work into the routine but is there a way you can move nap 1 to maybe 10.30 before you try to put him down?  He is clearly tired at some point or he wouldn't be nodding off at lunch time.

[Henrys_Dad]

A little update on how we’re getting on.

Henry seems to have a cold then an eye infection for about a month now but finally coming out of it.

After trying time after time he seems to only want 1nap a day, i know he’s probably meant to have more but weeks of trying to has resulted in him not having it

His night time is rarely effected, infact increased recently he now goes from about 7.30 till 7. Wakes the odd time but usually because he is wet but certainly not because he’s trying it on.

PU/PD defiantly worked for us for the night times!

Thank you for your help

[creations]

Haha, your little guy has been trying to drop to one nap for a good while hasn't he?  I think he is now 11 months, yes? It is still on the early side but not uncommon really. Mine dropped to one nap at 11-12 months and had been showing signs he was moving that way since 9 months.

It's great to hear that you feel you had success with the nights - I hope he is also self soothing for his nap so that you and your DW can have a little Y time and grab a cuppa

Thanks for taking the time to update - we always like good news here.