Nap times, bed times - argh!

[teacher123]

DS is 14mo. Has been in a pretty stable 2 nap pattern for months, his pattern for ages was:
6am-wake
9am-nap
1pm-nap
6pm-bed

Now he still likes his morning nap, almost always goes down straight away and has to be woken after an hour. However he often fights his pm nap. Therefore I and the childminder thought time to drop morning nap! However when she does that-he has a reasonable nap after lunch-say 1 1/2 hours but he's taking AGES to settle at bedtime-he's still not dropped off now and I put him to bed at 6.30... What's going on?! He used to be exhausted at 6ish and would go straight off no problem. Do we persevere?

I would say later bed time

Watching this :-)

Now you see I thought that-but am now wondering whether he's overtired... May try him on two naps tomorrow and see what happens... It just seems like a lot of sleep to lose at once-he was having 14 hours-12 at night and 2 during the day, now he's having 11 at night and only 1 1/2 during the day...

Difficult one I would say not later bed time my Dd at 2.5 still goes at 6.30 as she wakes at 6 regardless. Later bedtime is less sleep then tired child.

Think case of just adjusting nap times till it works . She borderline age of needing two to one nap. Make sure after lunch nap not to late no later than wake up at 1.30 . I always wake my daughter after an hour she would sleep longer but then not tired later. It's a hard balancing act

This is it-he's always up really early-and I'm concerned that he's losing sleep.

He could be over tired by bedtime maybe if only one sleep try putting down at 6 then u can keep making later . But he still needs a good nap at this age and 11 to 12 at night . Just keep playing around with the naps :)

Well he finally dropped off about 7.45 and then woke up at about 5.45... That's only 10 hours... I don't think it's enough sleep for him considering up till last week he was getting 12 overnight. I'll try him on two naps and an early bedtime today and see how he does...

Yep my DS is 15mths, and in middle of transition, but he is such a short napper that one nap isnt enough therefore he gets overtired very easily and before you know it he is fighting fatigue everyday, then harder to nap, harder to settle at bedtime...

Can you push the morning nap along a bit, and then shorten the arvo nap? Its such a tricky balancing act! I find my Ds needs his morning nap to be the better sleep, then the arvo will follow, as long as i dont let him sleep too long in arvo.. Altho thats very rare anyway!! He also has shorter awake time in morning. Good luck, sorry i dont have any answers cos im still experimenting too!

He went down beautifully for his morning nap this morning and slept for an hour until I woke him up accidentally! Who knows what he'll do this afternoon though... Though I'm out tonight so DH will have to do bedtime so maybe I don't care

If he enjoys his morning nap can't you just let him have a 2 hour morning nap. He may not need the afternoon nap, as you say he fights it normally and that's with only an hours morning nap. Longer morning nap and then he'd be ready for bed at 6?? Just an idea x

I think I'm slightly suffering from the 'but everyone else has a baby that sleeps two hour after lunch and that is when babies should nap'...

Then I remember that DS hasn't read the books and doesn't know that's what he's supposed to do!