2 to 1 nap Transition & childminder!

[AmieB]

Hi all, please help I am at my wits end!!
I recently had to go back to work so 3 days a week my 15mo is with a childminder and ever since then his naps have been all over the place therefore meaning he is waking up at 4:30/5am every day!!
I'm confident he needs to transition to just 1 nap after lunch but my childminder always has to do school runs at 8:30/9am and every day my LO is falling asleep during this time! At home I've tried to switch to 1 nap but by 10am he's getting clumsy, laying on the floor etc and I end up putting him to bed. He will happily sleep for 2hrs but is then awake by 12:/12:30 and its then a long slog until bedtime. If I could just get him to wake a little later in the morning the transition would be easier/sleeping on school run would maybe stop, but it's just a viscious circle!
Childminder is happy to do as I ask with naps but it's out of her control when she has to use a pushchair/car for the school run and of course its then perfect nap territory lol!

Any advice/schedule tweaks welcome, 430am every day is not cool 😭
Also - when he wakes at 430/5 I do the whole controlled crying thing, going in and sshing then leaving, I've tried offering water/milk, giving him cuddles etc but nothing works he's up for the day then 😑

@AmieB Mine is the same age and is still tired and grumpy by 10am so he’s still getting 2 naps. He’d happily go to bed at 10am and sleep for 2/2.5 hours but then the afternoon is a nightmare and he’s so overtired that he takes ages to settle at night so I cap his naps 😅 Not sure if it’s something that would work for you or not. He wakes anywhere between 5.30 and 6.30am each day. I put him down for a nap at 9/9.30 depending when I can see him getting tired. I wake him after an hour. He never wakes later than 10.30am from this nap. Then he’s ready for another nap at 1.30/2pm ish. Again, I cap it at 1 hour of sleep or if he doesn’t go down until 2 then I wake him at 2.45pm. Bedtime is 7pm. Nap ending later than 2.45 means he’s not ready for bed. Seems to be working for him just now 🤷🏻‍♀️ Some days he’s not tired enough for a morning nap so I’ll give him lunch a bit earlier those days (11.30ish) then get him to bed for 12.30pm and let him do a couple of hours. He naturally dropped from 3 naps to 2 as he got older so I’m assuming he’ll do the same again and start refusing his morning nap more until we just move to the lunchtime nap but he’s definitely not ready for that every day yet 🤷🏻‍♀️
How long is he in the pram/car for the school run? Could childminder wake him from that nap so that it’s just a little power nap then he does a proper lunch nap?

That sounds ideal and I'm definitely going to give that a try when he's at home! It's mainly the days with the CM that are causing the problem as he's falling asleep at say 830 every morning with her and the rest of the day is so sporadic. One day he will have a big 2 hour nap, the other day he did 2x 20 min naps, another day it was a 2hr nap then a 30 min nap at lunchtime. Just can't deal 😫 makes me feel bad as I took 3 years off with my little girl and from about 8 months old her naps were down to a T and she slept all night long. Even now at almost 4 she sleeps 12-14hrs overnight. I just need to get a handle on my sons naps/sleep because 430am starts every day are hard, and i go to bed at 930/10 latest so it's not like I'm up late!! X