Being at nursery effecting sleep - any tips?

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DS is 11months and recently started 3 days a week at nursery. He doesn't sleep well there, though they try.

At home used to go down roughly 7pm-6.30am, 9-9.45am and 1-2.30pm. Now on days at home he is starting the morning nap late or missing it entirely, having a shorter afternoon nap and sleeping late in the mornings.

I really want to keep him in a routine as I think he needs it and it helps me. My approach at the moment is to just stick as closely to our usual routine as possible...

Is this a common problem, and has anyone got any tips? I wondered if he was getting ready to drop the morning nap but it seems a bit early for that.

It might be worth dropping the morning nap and bringing the afternoon one forward to around 12pm. My DD did that at around that age and that fitted in really well with nursery as they used to encourage them all to nap after lunch there anyway. At home she'd have 2 hours in the afternoon.

There was no chance of her having her morning nap at nursery as there's just too much going on!

Ah that's helpful, StarMeKitten, I wondered if dropping to one big afternoon nap might be necessary. He just feels a little young for it, but being at nursery might force the issue.

My four always followed the same pattern of dropping from 3 to 2 naps at six months then 2 to 1 naps at a year old. I second the advice of making the afternoon nap the only one but moving it forward a bit

Interesting to see the other replies I was coming on to say in my experience of 2 DC at nursery at this age - they definitely needed the two naps for a good while yet. If they got overtired the night waking got worse!

How long has he been at nursery and is their routine for nap timings similar? (I assume so as looks pretty close to what our nursery does)
If you haven't already I would have a chat with them and see what they think will work best - ie will it improve with time , are there not any of thyme having a morning nap in which case maybe you would be better off dropping it, is there anything else you can do to improve his naps there - comforter, sleep bag, special song?

If it's any consolation my DD was a fab sleeper and could cope with one nap at nursery but still have two on her days at home to catch up ... DS not quite so flexible but I wont go there!

I have just re read your OP and think I mis read it (too tired see above re DS!)
Maybe he does want to drop the nap as is getting used to less daytime sleep at nursery but I would get him up at the usual time, don't let him sleep in and try to stick with the normal routine for a while yet - depending on what nursery say - as he may well settle back to normal.

Thanks Liveinthepresent, it's my day off with him today and he's gone down for his morning nap without any fuss at all. I think he maybe does need it still. We had lots of sleep issues with him until about two months ago and I feel like we've really got it right so not keen for things to be messed up!

Liveinthepresent, just thinking again - would you even keep the same waking up time on nursery days? We've been letting him sleep in a bit those days as we know he won't get good naps. Hmm.
I'll also chat with the nursery. At home he has total darkness and Ewan the dream sheep, but he does have his dummy and sleeping bag at nursery.

We've generally stuck to our own routine as DS gets less sleep at nursery and I feel he needs to catch up over the weekends and my day off.

It's the other way now he's older. They put him down for his ltn at 12.30 but I don't put him down until 2.30pm usually - it makes him sleep later in the morning.

When he started they had him on the ltn at 11.30 type routine for a couple of months before we did it for a while.

It's so hard isn't it - I am currently being pretty rigid with my DS because he has been such a poor sleeper at night.
I am no expert but for me keeping wake up constant means I can eliminate that as a factor when the naps go wrong.
If he sleeps in then I make my brain ache juggling what effect this will have on the timings for the rest of the day.
I worked on the principle it was 2.5 to 3 hours from wake up for morning nap at your DS age.
Mind you as I said before I am no expert my DS still wakes at night whereas you are doing ok on the score!
At our nursery they were in a blacked out room with their own cots at this age - but my DS will be sleeping on the little mats from next week so who knows how that will go.

Liveinthepresent, yes to brain ache at working things out if timings are out! Your approach makes sense, thanks for sharing.
Thanks also, TheresLots