How do you deal with naps near to bedtime?

[AlmondFrangipani]

We have a 4.5 month old who tends to go down for a nap at 4.30pm/5pm but if we leave him he will sometimes sleep for 2 hours which encroaches into his bedtime routine which starts at 6.30pm (with him going down at 7.15pm ish). We have tried waking him up but he literally has a meltdown 30 minutes later meaning we have to rush bedtime and get him down again ASAP which seems pointless. But equally we are trying to get him into a 7am - 7pm daytime routine.

I just wondered how you would deal with this. Just let him wake up naturally or continue to wake him up mid nap and hope he finds a new rhythm soon?

Can you put him to bed later? My DD would nap at that sort of time at that age, she would then have a bath at 7pm then go to bed between 8-8.30. When she was about 6.5 months she learnt to roll and was much more mobile. The number of naps in the day decreased to 3x45mins and she was tired earlier so we brought bedtime earlier to about 7.30. Then at about 10 months she became even more mobile, dropped to 2 naps a day (sometimes only 1) and now goes up to bed for her last bottle at 6.45.

At that age I didn't set the routine by time on the clock but by time since last nap. What's the gap between naps meant to be at that age? Is it 2 or 2.5 hrs? Assuming it's 2.5 I'd start the 45 min bedtime routine 45mins before the next sleep is due if that makes sense.

He goes 1.5 - 2 hours between naps. I going to try leaving him and see what time he naturally wakes up after that nap and then like you say start the bedtime routine 45 mins after that. It means we loose a bit of our evening (it was nice to have a bit our time back) but he might sleep later/longer at night (currently wakes up a lot) which would be a bonus and be easier to put down. Fingers crossed!

Another one who put mine to bed later here. We put dc1 down for 7 and then did the bedtime routine for dd, bath or massage or both, change and then a mammoth feeding session.

There's no rush to get Lo into a 7-7 routine, sounds like he is clearly telling you he likes his own routine