Long vs short morning nap

[Laura1609]

Hi all

My 10 month old DS has never been the best sleeper out there. He doesn’t sleep through yet (usually wakes once for a breastfeed) but I know he will in his own time. I’m after some advice on his naps really. We’re in this weird transition period of going from 3-2 naps (I know he’s late to this but he hasn’t been ready). His natural pattern seems to be wanting a long morning nap (around 1.5 hours) and then a 40 minute lunchtime nap. Everything I read says that the morning nap should be short with a view to build up enough sleep pressure and tiredness for them to take a long lunchtime nap and it can become problematic once he starts to transition to 1 nap. However I just can’t extend his lunchtime nap, he wakes up after one sleep cycle and is upset because he’s still tired but can’t go back to sleep. He falls asleep on his own so he isn’t reliant on me or DH. We try to leave him for 5 mins to see if he’ll settle himself or go in to settle him but he won’t go back down, resulting in around 1.5 hours total daytime sleep.

Our “routine” (if you can call it that as it seems to change daily) is:
Awake 6.30am
Nap 1 9.30-10.30 (he’d go longer but I’ve been waking him to see if it helps him go longer later)
Nap 2 1.30-2.15
Then we either have to do a 6pm bedtime which can often result in a 5.30am start or I’ll take him for a catnap in the carrier at around 3.45pm until 4ish to tide him over until bedtime at 7pm.

Ideally I’d like him on 2 naps now so I can cut out that last nap as it’s proving difficult to achieve.
Any thoughts on short vs long morning naps?
Sorry for the long winded post!!

You’re routine sounds quite similar to ours except DS will sleep from about 1.30-2.30 and then go to bed at 6.30pm, waking anywhere between 6-6.30am (which he will do no matter what time he goes to bed)
I think your on the right track to be honest and I’d persevere without the afternoon cat nap. We also wake DS up at 10.30am otherwise he just rolls around in his cot playing for his afternoon nap.
I do put him in his cot at about 1 because it takes him up to half an hour to nod off, he doesn’t need settling though he just faffs about before he goes to sleep.
Not sure if that’s helpful! DS has just turned 1.

Sorry about the your / you’re mix ups! Damn phone

It’s hard to remember but at that age Dd would be up at 5:30/6 (this didn’t stop until very recently and she’s 3! No matter what I tried)
Nap at 9:30/10 for 2 hours
Lunch
Nap at 2 for an hour to 1.5 hours
Dinner
Bedtime around 6/6:30.

Can you push back the naps gradually, so he’s going down slightly later in the afternoon for a longer period, and then bedtime will be later? You should be able to cut out the catnap then.

@Abouttimemum thank you! Really helpful! Also, don’t worry about typos, I can’t even blame my phone anymore...it’s just exhausted mum brain 😂

@TeddyIsaHe That’s a long time of early starts 😫 Maybe when they’re teenagers we should wake them up at 6am on a Saturday to see how they like it?! I could see if he’ll go a bit longer awake in the afternoon, just wish he’d have a nice long lunchtime nap so he’s all refreshed!