1 yr old starting to take one early afternoon nap, but bedtime is later??

[lkmiscnet]

Our DS frequently doesn't take a morning nap (either because he is distracted and having fun or I'm running errands ) maybe 3 days a week. So, his afternoon nap ends up being around 12:30 or so for 90 min to two hours.

I would have expected him to go to bed earlier since he would have been awake for much longer after his earlier afternoon nap, but no. He doesn't tire out until 8:30/9pm. We co-sleep and I still nurse him to sleep, so I sometimes find myself laying in bed for an hour or longer, waiting for him to tire out.

If he does take two naps, the first one is usually between 9-10am (for 60-90 min) and usually around 2:30/3pm (1-2 hrs), though sometimes it's as late as 3:30/4pm. He still ends up going to bed between 8:30/9pm.

I can't figure out how to get him on a schedule to try to get him into bed around the same time. I would like to try to get him to bed between 7-8pm. He has been waking up consistently between 6:30-7am, so we've got that end down.

[Bea]

I think his one nap is too long, too late (from bitter experience).

Try an immediately pre lunch nap, 11:30/12 to 12:30/1 and for no longer than an hour.

To wake him, you need to try and pick the right point in his sleep cycle and make life interesting and 'unrestful'. I find about 45 minutes into the nap, make the room bright if he naps in a dark room, put the radio/music/TV on. Vaccum in a ajacent room and be generally noisy so when he cycles up out a deeper sleep, so there are irresistable activities/noises for him to investigate. Discourage just awake grumpiness with a couple of good tosses in the air and a belly raspberry

I found 7 hours of awake before bed= 10 minutes to sleep.

The problem comes when you just NEED 2 hours of peace midday and let it go then you have to accept the 9:30 bedtime but gawd wasn't that 2 hours heaven!