How to drop to one nap with an early riser?

[Hamnvik]

My DS has just turned one and is fighting his afternoon nap and bedtime like mad as I don't think he is tired enough which makes me think we need to start thinking about dropping to one nap.
The problem is he wakes up at 5am most days (urgh) and I just can't imagine keeping him up until 12! So if you have an early riser how did you drop to one nap and what time do they sleep? I tried it the other day when he woke up at 7(having been up half the night) he only slept for an hour at 12 and was an absolute overtired mess by bed time. Maybe he isn't ready to drop a nap yet?! I'm really not sure what to do.

[deadwitchproject]

I dropped my 14 month old twins to one nap about 3 weeks ago. Prior to this the pm nap took place occasionally and bedtimes were messy. They slept well for the morning nap (mostly) but were early risers (anytime from 5-6am).

I searched online and decided to do it cold turkey. Still don't know if this is the right thing to do as I've still got 5am risers (!) but I'm putting them to bed 6-6:30 pm and they now have one nap of 2.5-3.5 hours a day. No idea if this is the right way but I remember reading online to keep at it as it could take up to 3 months to settle in. 3 weeks in and I'm already seriously fed up with the continued 5am starts! Lunch and nap are now early. So it goes like this:

5:00 - wake
6:45 - 8oz bottle
8:00 - breakfast
9:30 - snacks
10:50 - lunch!
11:30 - nap
3-3:00 - wake and 5oz milk
4:30/5 - dinner
6:00 - 8oz bottle
6:15/6:30 sleep

Hope this is helpful.
I would prefer a shorter nap and a later wake up time of 7am but don't know if I'll ever get there as I'm probably doing it all wrong!

[deadwitchproject]

sorry that should read:
2:30/3:00 - wake and 5oz milk

[Hamnvik]

Thanks for the reply, how long did they sleep for during the day when they were on two naps?

I don't think there is any chance of DS sleeping for 3
5 hours sadly, the longest he naps for is an hour at the moment so I worried he won't sleep for longer on one nap.

[deadwitchproject]

They slept for max 3 hours when on 2 naps although this was rare. It was more likely 1.5 hours in am and maybe 1 hour in the pm usually 45 mins. I was shocked the first time they slept for 3.5 hours after lunch but it's happened quite a few times now.
Your DS might surprise you and increase his nap time.

[Hamnvik]

I hope so, he doesn't sleep at night so that would be nice!