Apologies for the long post, I'm looking for a bit of nap advice...
I have an 11 mo little boy, and so far have been fairly go with the flow routine wise. He's fallen in to various patterns himself depending on his age and for the last few months has been taking two naps a day - the first around 9 for up to an hour and a half, and the second at some point between 2 and 3 for 45 mins, rarely longer.
In the last few weeks however the afternoon nap has been getting later and harder to settle for, and the odd time skipped completely which has made for a difficult afternoon. After spending most afternoons last week trying to get him the sleep he clearly needs (it's not like he's not tired) I thought it'd be worth trying to shorten his morning nap to an hour to help him settle for the afternoon nap early enough not to interfere with bed time. I did this yesterday and he was well ready for his afternoon nap shortly after lunch, he slept from 13:30 to 14:15, after which I took him out for a long walk in his buggy though he didn't sleep any longer. He was very cranky from tea time on and I ended up putting him to bed at 6:30 (usually 7).
Now I didn't expect it to work from day 1, but my confidence has taken a bit of a knock as he was very cranky and shouty yesterday, and awake for about an hour and a half in the early hours of this morning. He's only ever slept through twice and is generally awake 1 - 3 times in a night, though last night was a particularly bad one.
My question is, should I stick with trying to shorten the morning nap for a while and see if he settles in to a better pattern, or let him take his hour and a half in the morning and struggle with the afternoons until he figures something out for himself? Any thoughts or experience gratefully received. Thanks x