DS (2 and 3 months) has always had a long afternoon nap - about 2 hours from 2-4pm and we have to wake him then or he'd sleep even longer. He goes to bed at 7.30 (after a bath) but it's been taking longer and longer to get him to sleep - 8.30, sometimes 9 o'clock. He still wakes at 6 or 6.30, very occasionally 7.
We have a two-week old who is difficult in the evenings, so could really do with DS being asleep (and out of our hair) by 8 ish.
We've experimented with cutting his nap short to an hour or so, but that doesn't seem to make any difference to bedtime and he's really grumpy at being woken so early.
We've experimented with cutting his nap altogether and making his bedtime half an hour earlier - by 5 ish he keeps saying he's a bit tired, lies down for 2 seconds, then leaps up. We've tried having a quiet time for an hour or so instead when we read books in his room, but that doesn't seem to rest him. By 6 when we're eating tea he's too tired to eat and his bedtime routine (which now starts at 6.30) is miserable because he's so tired. He does conk out pretty quickly, but it's not a happy experience.
He is, of course, upset by the arrival of his brother, especially since we just had to spend a week in hospital. He's waking in the night several times and needing an hour or two's holding to get back to sleep. So he may settle a bit in a few weeks.
Ideally I'd like him to keep his nap so that I might have a slim chance of sleeping, or at least resting, in the daytime myself, since the baby is very difficult overnight. I guess we could make his bedtime a lot earlier, like 6.30 (bath at 6) but then we wouldn't be able to eat tea together, and that's a really important part of our daily routine.
Any suggestions or similar experiences?