Hi there
My LO never did a 12hr night until he had fully dropped his nap. If he was taking so long to fall to sleep at night I'd move BT later to make sure he's tired for it. Personally I'd rather a good (short and happy) put down at BT even if it is later and I'd happily accept a shorter night with the nap still there. Between 25 and 31 months mine was working towards dropping the nap, in our case it meant maintaining a long nap but nights going very short until he was able to go without the nap. Others find they can maintain a longer night by capping the nap shorter so this might be an option for you.
I would suggest either:
- cap the nap 15 mins earlier and do BT at the same time to see how the shorter nap and longer A time effect the BT routine and night (wait for a good week to see results. Then perhaps cap at 30 mins if BT PD and night are no great)
or
- leave the nap at 1hr but move BT significantly later. I don't know if many this age can manage an hour nap and a full 12hr night. I would likely go straight to 30 mins later, see how it went for a week then move it again in 15 min increments leaving a few days or a week between changes to see how it settles down.
People approach the nap drop in different ways depending on the LO and the family. It's a bit of trial and error to find out what works for you - but you might have an idea of which approach would suit your LO, in the same way that I quickly worked out my DS really had to have a 2hr nap or he was awful to be with...but with a 2hr nap I accepted 10, then 9hr nights, even went as low as about 8 or 8.5 at one point. He dropped his nap cold turkey one day when he was poorly did 2.5hr nap due to being ill then never napped again (ok one catch up nap 2 wks later when the tiredness had accumulated so much that we were both struggling), he was 31 months at that point.
