Nap help!

[Seagreen25]

My daughter is 15 months old and I've been loosely following the 2-3-4 routine - she wakes at 6.30ish, napping by 9-10.30ish and from 1.30ish- 2.30 and then bed by 6.45/7. Over the last week or so she has really started fighting bedtime - not getting upset particularly but taking ages to fall asleep - I'd put her down later but she has to get up at 6.30 for me to get to work on time and if she falls asleep later she's cranky when I wake her in the morning. I'm just wondering if it's a problem with too much day time sleep and maybe she needs to go down to one nap? She absolutely loves her morning nap but not hugely bothered about the afternoon one, on occasions that she has skipped it she's still been relatively cheerful. Has anyone ever kept the morning nap but dropped the afternoon one?

Try it and see how she gets on! 18 months old DN awakes about 7am and naps 10.30-12.30 then that's her until a 7.30 bedtime. My 2.4 year old DS1 though wakes at 6.30 and naps at around 12.30/1 for 1.5-2 hours. Has done since he was about a year old.

Could be you need to push the morning nap back by half an hour every few days over the course of a few weeks, stretch the morning wake time a bit until you find the optimal balance.

But I'd say by 15 months it's likely you're going to one long nap a day in order to preserve the nighttime sleep. Just be prepared for it to take a week or 2 to settle.

The way it usually works is you drop the second nap and make the first nap later.

So move the nap to start at 10am, then start at 10.30, then have an 11am early lunch and nap at 11.30am... and so on.

Most babies sleep besr in their first nap and drop later naps. Your child is just being a normal baby transitioning to 1-nap days

Thanks both that's really helpful. I always assumed she'd fight the first nap not the second when she was ready!