Hi folks, I would love any advice about how to handle DS's naps. Right now they are all over the place, and we have nightwakings too. He seems to have more sleep on his 1-nap days. Would you just ride it out and follow his lead or push him towards 1 nap? I'm worried about him getting overtired. He is quite spirited and hard to keep up with (but typically a joy!!!) and I'm pretty beat with the nightwakings already.
Over the past 2 weeks we have had three kinds of days:
1-nap:
7:30 wake (bottle, breakfast)
11 eat half a lunch+
11:30/11:45 asleep for 2-2.5 hrs
1:30/2:15 wake, bottle and half a lunch+
(snack sometime in here)
5:15 dinner
6 bath, bottle, bedtime routine
6:45/7 asleep for the night (2-3 brief nightwakings)
6:30 wake
1.5-naps (2 days only):
6:30/7 wake and eat
9:30/10 nap for 1 hr max
10:30/11 snack
12:30 lunch then bottle
2:30ish nap for ~15 min
3:15 give up on going back to sleep nap, eat snack
5:15 dinner
6:00 bath, bottle, bedtime routine
6:45/7 asleep for the night (3+ brief nightwakings)
6:30 wake
2-naps:
6:30/7 wake and eat
9:30/10 nap for 1 hr max (99% of the time wake him)
10:30/11 snack
12:30 lunch then bottle
2:30ish nap for 1hr 15 min (usu. wake him)
3:45/4 wake and snack
5:30 dinner
6:30 bath and hang out with dad
7:15 bottle and bedtime routine
asleep for night by 8 (3+ nightwakings including 1 for 30-90 min)
wake between 6:30-7:30 depending on length of nightwakings
The main reason I am hesitant to push him to 1 nap is that he can't handle much more than 4 hrs A time in the morning. The 1-nap days have all involved at least 1 hr in some combo of the stroller/car so that he is relaxed and quiet (he won't fall asleep there). One day we did push him to 12 (4.5 A) for falling asleep but only got a 1hr15min nap! On days he wakes around 6:30 he easily falls asleep for a morning nap at 9:30. The A time after his first nap has always been his longest of the day except for a couple of weeks after we dropped his third nap at 9 mos.
Any thoughts? Should I just try to go with the flow until it sorts itself out? Push him to 1? A friend told me to try to keep 2 naps as long as possible because once he starts walking properly he'll be tired and want 2??