Different routines at nursery and home.

[littlelionman]

My 13 month old DS started nursery 2 months ago when I went back to work. He goes 3 days a week from 8-6. He loves nursery.
At nursery he's adopted their older toddler routine of napping once a day after lunch (and refuses to nap more - it's too exciting). He'll sleep anything from 45mins to 2h on those days.
On the 2 day he's with me DS is really tired from nursery! On 'our' days he needs 2 long naps- he napped 2.5 hours this morning and will nap again this afternoon for at least an hour. He still sleeps well at night.
This means on 'our' days i feel like DS really needs to catch up on rest. We don't do much together other than eat and play at home because he's tired! So we're not socializing much .
Will he just grow out of this as he gets older and can cope with nursery better??

At this age most the children I care for are having only an after lunch nap.

Can you not push him to stay awake in the morning and have an early lunch/nap?

Yes, I've tried that but he's in tears by mid-morning he's so tired.
I just feel uncomfortable that he needs to 'binge' sleep on his non-nursery days.
Presumably they either learn to pace themselves, or it becomes less of a novelty, or they just grow out of 2 naps?

Dd is 11 months and I'm finding the same! She's in nursery two days a week, from 7:30am til about 5:30. At nursery she has one long (2 hours) nap after lunch, which starts just after noon. She wakes just before two so what I'm finding as well is that she's tired by the time we get home and just wants a cuddle and a snooze. Friday is our 'at home' day and she's had a longish nap this morning and another this afternoon. Although I will own up that we both lie on my bed and we snuggle together! I think as they got older the one nap routine works for them a little better....if dd is anything like me though, she'll nap anywhere anytime and still sleep at night.

I think this will ease off within a few months as your son starts to need less day time sleep. My son did same and changed to one sleep earlier at nursery than at home but by about 14 months he'd changed to just one sleep at home too. So don't feel bad, just have relaxing days with him and enjoy the rest! He'll soon be sleeping less (likely to a 1.5-2 sleep in middle of day).

I'm hoping this is quite usual - my DD is younger (8 months), so obviously needs a lot more sleep, but I find that she really needs her naps on her 'at home' days to make up for crap sleep on her 3 nursery days (m, t, w). To be honest it doesn't bother me that much, as we have 2 quietish days together, and then by the weekend she has recharged!

My ds doesn't go to nursery and he is down to one nap a day since 14 months. We had a couple of transition months when he needed a catnap in the morning but i think yours will grow out of the second nap within a couple of months. Has his nusery tried to encourage a short morning nap at all?

I know I should enjoy the rest- for a long time he would only do 35 min naps in a moving pram so 2 hours in a cot is amazing!
I just can't help but feel he should be having fun with me too!! He misses playgroups etc because he's asleep. And I feel like I'm missing out on socialising with other Mums. DS being well rested is my priority though.
I'm sure you're all right and he'll just grow out of it in a couple of months (and I'll be missing all of the nap time!).
Nursery have tried him on a 2 nap routine but he just refuses and wants to play until he's exhausted after lunch.