12 month old protesting all sleep!

[Laura1609]

Hello

My 12 month old DS has recently started protesting for every nap and bedtime. I haven’t made any changes to his routine and he used to go to sleep wonderfully, settling himself down quietly in a few minutes. Over the last week he’s been crying whenever I’ve put him down for a nap and at bedtime and I don’t know what to change! He used to be incredibly upset every night at bed and we just had to ride it out until he grew out of it and it feels like we’re back there again.
His routine is usually:
Wake up 7am
First nap 10am-11.15ish
Second nap 2.45pm-3.45pm
Bedtime 7.15pm

He’s recently mastered walking and is now walking more than crawling so I’m assuming he’s using more energy. Should I be reducing his awake windows or lengthening them now he’s getting older? I suddenly feel as though I’ve lost all confidence when it comes to putting him to bed 😭

I wouldn't immediately assume you need to drop a nap, many babies keep 2-nap days beyond 18 months.

Baby standing in the cot and not lying down is often a problem at this age, is this happening? Its a behaviour issue and not a sleep issue directly.

It's also quite normal that your child's sleep will go shit for a while and you have to go back to sleep training them. The point is that re-training should be less difficult because you've done it before and baby knows what is expected. But you get these regressions lots of times over the first 5 years - due to illness, teething, general over tiredness, worry/stress even. Lots of things cause sleep to take backwards steps.

Thanks @FATEdestiny, absolutely not ready for him to drop a nap yet! I need that time for myself for a while longer!!
He’s largely staying lying down and having a whinge but if it escalates he’ll sit up.
Do you think I should stick with the timings as they are for now and hope this is a short lived regression?

My only suggestion wih your na-p times is that for the bedtime you use, naps could all do with sliding backwards an hour. If I was in your situation, I'd have an 8pm bedtime, because your gap between 2nd nap and bedtime is too short.

I'd aim for: 7am wake, 10-11.15 nap, 2.45-3.45 nap. 8pm asleep

But if you prefer a 7.15 bedtime then I'd suggest sliding your naps all earlier. So 9am-10.15 nap and 1.45-2.45 nap. That gives a longer awake time stretch before bed.

Are you waking him from these naps, or is that how long he's naturally sleeping for? If you're waking from the afternoon nap, it needs to be longer and I would achieve that by making it earlier. So it would not be unreasonable for him to have a 9-10am nap then a 1-3pm nap.

Regarding sitting up in the cot, it starts to become important in the toddler years that the child can and does lie himself down. So the ability to follow instructions is important. Put him in his cot standing up, tap the mattress and tell him to lie down himself. This is much better than putting him in the cot lying down.

Thank you @FATEdestiny! I probably wake him from the morning nap 50% of the time as I’m aware that it just starts eating in to the day and then finding time for him to have an afternoon nap gets harder. He generally wakes himself from his second nap.
I’ll have a look at those timings I think. His night sleep is really pretty good, he’s been sleeping through for the last 6 weeks ish but I just want him to be more settled when going to sleep as I know he can do it.
Thanks again for your advice, I’ve seen your name pop up on the sleep board a lot and you always seem to have great tips!