u/Lappies4life

We got on a great 2 nap schedule from 1yr old. Wake up at 7, wws 3/3,5/4,5. Naps 45+1,5hr. Night sleep about 10,5hr.
Still have a random once a night wake but usually settles in 5-10min. He doesn’t refuse any of his naps. He is also extremely hard to wake from the naps, keeps trying to close his eyes and fall asleep again.

However, lately he has started to take longer to go down for night sleep, some days it can take up to an hour, so his nightly average has dropped under 10hr. He also wakes earlier on some days like 6.30/6.40, I’m not sure if it falls into the EWM category?

I have tried capping nap 2 to be 1hr, still same results, will go down for night sleep very late. He also has zero sleepy cues.

I tried a 1-nap schedule yesterday. He awoke again earlier, 6.40 and I put him down at 11.30, no problems during the ww, fell asleep in minutes. Had a 1hr40min nap, then woke up. Wanted to put down for night sleep at 18.45, but melted down exactly 5 min before that lol, this kind of meltdown is rarer than rare.
Anyway, today we got a proper EMW at 5.38, so couldnt try for a 1-nap day again.

My question is: should we keep trying for 1 nap or change something else and stick with 2 naps for a while? Again, he doesn’t refuse any of his naps and I have to cap them.

Firstly: Sorry if this doesn't fall under sleeptrain, but reddit won't let me post in beyondthebump. If anybody knows a better community to post in, let me know, and I will take the post down.

Some background info:

We finally got a decent schedule when he turned 1, as we hired a sleep consultant. Turns out our wws had been completely wrong. Baby isn't sleep trained in the sense that we just set him down and he falls asleep, but no rocking to sleep. We put in bed, pat the bum until he closes his eyes. During naps if he wakes, he is able to put himself back to sleep.

Our schedule looks like this:

Wake up at 7am

WWs 3/3,5/4-4,5

Naps: 45min/1,5hr (capped)

Final ww has proven to be the hardest from the start. At first we did shorter, cause in our opinion he couldn't do the full 4,5. 4hr and 4hr15 worked great, then problems arose with night sleep, so we went to 4,5hr, again worked well, problems arose again, etc. So for the last month or so we've tried all sorts of final wws, they will work for a couple of days, then again wobbles.

For 2 months all naps also worked, falls asleep in 5-10 min. Always had to wake. Nap 1 is very hard to wake from. For the last week has been taken nap 2 inconsistently, some days I have to wake, some days takes 1hr (but night sleep still affected). One day did only 15min, was fine the entire last ww, put down for night sleep considerably earlier, did full 12hrs no interruptions.

Also, about once a week bedtime will take up to an hour, just can't fall asleep, has never been a crier if he's overtired, so idk if it's undertired or overtired. 1 night waking guaranteed, but usually resolves quickly. I guess that's normal anyway considering his age. Some night wakings are 40min-1,5hr though, although they are quite rare. Also some early wakes like 6.30 have been happening quite a lot recently.

He also has zero sleepy cues, so I've been relying on fixed wws. He could be playing totally fine, I take him to bed, falls asleep in 5 minutes, so I guess they are correct? Except for night sleep then of course.

When we transitioned from 3->4 naps, he started skipping last nap, so clear sign.

From 3->2 naps, no skipping of naps, but had split nights when he woke up happy and just chilled for 1-2hrs before going back to sleep, so again clear hint.

Right now he doesn't wake up happy anymore, always crying.

So here are my questions:

1. Is he in that very weird early transition phase where whatever wws I engineer, some days they work, some days not and I just got to live with it.

2. Should I just start pushing 1st ww and let him sleep however long he wants to see if he is capable of doing 2-2,5hrs and then go from there. Cause as I said he is very hard to wake from 1st nap, maybe it's a sign he wants a longer one here.

All thoughts/ideas welcome. I'm probably overthinking this but I'm kind of a control freak unfortunately and I'm really into schedules lol.