Hiya hun
Why is he waking so early?? He seems tired still and I am worried he may get in a OT loop....
I'd say it was because he napped for almost 3hrs.
IMHO its too much day sleep at this age & will lead to shorter nights, b/c he will be UT at bedtime. The reason he is tired is b/c his nights are short, b.c his nap is too long.
Add to that, his nap was quite late yesterday hun - are you going with longer than 5-5.5hrs A in the AM now or just sticking with a set nap? Because he had a longer A time than usual, he needed the longer nap, and then because of the long nap, he needed a decent length A to BT. It all makes his day very long. And you get stuck with the early wake. Its an UT/OT loop of sorts. UT at bedtime, so a short night, then long A to nap = OT by naptime which means long nap & so it goes on.
I honestly think the best thing you could do is aim for a routine of 5-5.5hrs A / 2hr nap / 5hrs A to bedtime, but you will need to cap the nap or you will stay in the UT/OT loop. So something like:
Up: 7.30/8am
Nap: 1-3
Bed: 8pm
I think Kara has just done something similar with A (although she may have a slightly longer AM A time than your DS) & she has found it worked a treat.
Of course, if you don't want to cap (I seem to recall you prefer not to), then my best advice would be to put him down for his nap after a shorter A time, and he therefore shouldn't nap for as long. With a shorter morning A time of around 5hrs A, you may find he wakes naturally after 2hrs. And he may well manage a slightly longer afternoon.
Whatever you do, you will need to remain consistent for a good couple of weeks - if you change things up every day you won't know what is/isn't working.
What do you think?