Changing Nap Schedules to One-a-day

In my experience, they drop the morning nap so if I were you I would replace the 9-11 nap with play time and put him down for an afternoon nap after lunch clean up is done. You may find he wants to go to bed a bit later depending on how long his afternoon nap is and that he might get up a bit later in the morning.

My youngest wakes up around 8AM, naps around 1:30 or 2:00PM and goes to bed around 8 or 8:30PM and has done so since around 1 year old.

sounds like my little guy, he's 13 months, same size, same schedule. Our naps went from 2 a day to just 1 at about 11 months and he now sleeps 11 ish-1ish. today he was really in a good mood so he was up till about 11:40, it took him awhile to fall asleep when I took him up so I'd be her wasn't asleep till 12 and he's still sleeping at 2:15. But it works.

transition time: keep the a.m. nap short & sweet....just enough to reboot. Don't deliberately wake him....just start making enough noise so that he'll wake on his own. (semantics, I know, but it does truly make a difference!). Try for just 45 minutes for the a.m. nap.

Then: get him actively playing, get outside, go somewhere. Provide enough stimulation that he'll be tired after lunch.

Afternoon nap: try to stick with the 1pm schedule...or he'll be overtired. A 2 hour nap would be optimal.

Bedtime: you may find that the 7pm may move back to 8....as he matures.

Normally, children transition to one nap closer to 18months....sometimes as late as age 2. I truly believe your son is way too young for just one nap. :)

He seems like a great sleeper so you have been doing some things right! The typical new nap schedule is to drop the morning nap and have just one single afternoon nap around 12:00 or 1:00 pm. We made this transition for our son by slowly pushing his morning nap later and later and it would be the sole nap for the day. So for example - he used to nap 9-10:30 and 1:30 - 3:00. We began to push him by keeping him up until 10, then 10:30, then 11:00 etc. until we got that single nap to start around 12:00 pm and this is where we have stuck. Beware that during this time where he has one early nap he will need to go to bed ULTRA EARLY at nighttime because otherwise he will be overtired (from being up for too many hours before bedtime.) This is so important because if you keep a 7pm bedtime when he's been up since noon he will become very overtired and not sleep well at not, not nap well next day, etc. Even at 20 months, my son barely makes it through lunch time and he's sleeping by noon. I have no idea how some people's kids can readily stay up until 1 pm without getting overtired.

We also had several days during the transition time that were "2 nap days." They get overtired making this transition and it is important to get them extra sleep when you need to. I swear for awhile we did a one nap day, then a two nap day, then a one nap day, etc. It was pretty inconsistent for awhile.

All that being said - my advice is to really make sure he is ready for this transition before you work on it. 11 months seems awful young to me to move to one nap, even though I know others will say their kids did at this age. However, it appears your son is used to a lot of sleep so please beware. In my experience, my son went through several stages where he would fight one or the other (or both!) naps, but if I stayed consistent he would overcome it and go back to his sleep schedule. Only after many weeks of refusing an afternoon nap did we consider making this change. And then only did so because he was around 15 months old and this was an appropriate age to do so

Good luck!!

Some moms say that 11 months is way too young to go to one nap. I think it is for my nephew, but my 2 sons were fine (in my opinion) going to one nap at or before 12 months (maybe they were overtired all the time and I didn't know it). It wasn't the thing for my daughter, however. If two naps aren't working, then I suggest you don't continue. I tend to keep two naps as an option for a while, for days when my child wakes really early or doesn't sleep well at night.

I suggest googling 'sleep regression' also because it is common for 11-12 month old babies to have sleep disturbances.

Naps... need to go according to the child's cues for tiredness.
In other words, some days he may need 2 naps, and on other days he may not need that 2 naps.
Have your child nap, when he needs to.
Otherwise, a child will be sleep deprived or over-tired. And over-tired kids/babies... actually sleep worse and they get cranky.

My son, at that age napped 3 times a day. Then from about close to 2 years old, napped 2 times a day. Then from 3 years old and currently, naps 1 time a day.
That is him and my knowing his tiredness needs.
If he does not nap, he is worse at night and turns into a fussy Troll.
And for some kids/babies... if they are overtired, it actually makes them seem more "hyper." Which is how my son is. But they are actually tired.

There is no, one way in which kids/babies nap or not.
It is, per the child's needs.
Not all kids nap the same quantity.

Ya gotta know his cues... he is only 11 months old.

And at growth-spurts... they get tweaked. It is temporary.
He is on the cusp... of being 12 months old. This will tweak a baby/child.
And he still needs to nurse on-demand. Even if on solids. Solids is not a nutritionally dense, as breastmilk or Formula.

Go by his cues. But not everyday, will be the same.