Dropping a nap at 15 months

[5160Michelle]

My Son is almost 15 months now. His previous routine would be:
06:00/06:30: Awake
07:30: Breakfast
08:30/09:00: Nap
11: Awake
11:30/12:00: Lunch
13:30/14:00: Nap
16:00: Awake & snack
16:30: Dinner
18:00: Bath
19:00: Asleep

He has refused milk from 11 months, drinks only water and sleeps through 7pm - 6am.

He is now refusing an afternoon nap, regardless of the time. However, as he has his morning nap so early he is exhausted in the afternoon. I have tried to increase his awake time in the morning. Today he went to bed at 10:30 and slept for an hour. I have moved his bedtime forward to 18:20. He now wakes twice at around 19:30 and 20:00. Is this the right thing to do? Any tips to make the transition easier? I am hoping to move the morning nap to 11:30 after lunch but that is proving difficult. Thank you

The transition from 2-nap days to 1-nap days always involves dropping the second nap (ie your afternoon nap) and then moving the first nap later. So you're doing the right thing.

It's going to be a transition, so don't rush things and expect to change all in one go. There will be a few weeks where nothing is very predictable, but it will come.

Look at being flexible with meal times through the transition. The aim is to have "lunch" before the nap, even if this is very early. So to start off with this might mean eating "lunch" at 10.30am-11am, so that you do the nap straight after finishing eating. Then a substantial snack upon waking (2-3pm ish) to see you through to dinner time.

Then over the coming few weeks push the lunch and nap later, so moving to 11am lunch and 11.30am nap, then 11.30am lunch and 12pm nap, aiming for ultimately a 12pm lunch and 12.30 nap.

My son is older (3) but also is more wakeful at night if he is over tired. I think it gives him little nightmares so he wakes up wanting comfort. Though we're at the point now where even a tiny snooze in the car means he won't be tired until 9pm .

I agree that it's a gradual approach and will take some trial and error. I agree with associating the sleep with "after lunch" even if it means "lunch" being at 10.30 to begin with as pp suggested.