WU or EW? Push back BT? Cap naps?

[nak11]

My 7 month old DS has always had a BT of 6-630pm most nights and generally falls asleep without any issues. My question is this, he's just started STTN (some nights not, up 1-2 times but easily settled) but has been waking between 5-530am. Would you consider this his morning WU or an EW? The thing is this 5-530am WU has slowly been creeping up earlier and earlier. He used to wake at 630-7am for the day. Honestly, I'd really rather a 630-630 or ideally 7-7 routine but when I've attempted to push BT back he's still waking between 5-530am which makes me question if it's an EW. Should I be trying to get him back to sleep at 5-530 or getting him up for the day? I feel like I'm just promoting the 5-530 WU by feeding, changing etc. His 5-530 morning wake up makes his entire day earlier requiring an early BT and the cycle continues. I am also in the middle of trying to push is A time closer to 3 hours thinking it may be time for the 3-2 nap transition. He's only managing 2:15-2:30 right now. I'm not sure if I should be capping his naps throughout the day and if so which ones? Should his morning nap be shorter or longer than the afternoon nap or does it matter? Could he be getting too much daytime sleep? Any advice on how to tackle this and adjust his day? Here's an example of his current EASY

5-530am WU
E 5:45am bf
E 6:30am solids
A 6-8am
S 8-10am
E 10:15am bf
A 10:30-12:30
S 12:30-1:30 (shorter lately but previously around 2 hour marks also)
E 1:45pm bf
A 2-3:45pm
S 3:45-4:15 Attempted CN, refuses most days now
E 5:15pm bf
E 5:30 solids
A 5:50 bath
S 6-6:30pm

Thanks so much for any advice!

[Layla]

It does sound like he's in the 3-2 nap transition, especially if he's refusing the 3rd nap! To be honest, if he's going to bed for the night at 6pm, its probably not an early waking ... so I would look at pushing your day forward. Try your best to distract him in the morning.. you could try taking him out of the house and doing a longer windown - I would do 15mins extra every couple of days so you're not pushing him too much, which could also lead to overtiredness. I would personally limit the morning nap to 1.5hrs because too long of a morning nap (As well as too early in the day) can reinforce the early wake ups. As your pushing your day forward, you will see there won't be time for a 3rd nap anyways. Ideally you want 3hrs awake time when they are on 2 naps.

[nak11]

Hi Layla and thanks so much for the reply. Over the past few days i've done exactly what you've suggested. I've now managed to push BT to 7pm although the last couple of nights DS has been harder to put down (usually he is independent with BT) so this makes me wonder if he's a bit OT by 7pm. Do you think i should scale it back to 6:30pm? He had a good night last night and only woke once at 4:40am. I BF him but it took an hour to get him back to sleep. Usually he feeds then right back to bed no problem. My question is, it is now 7:30am, do i wake him? Thank you for the nap advice also. He's been sleeping about 2 hours in the mornings and i've noticed his afternoon naps are an hour or less now. I've had to take him in the car just to squeeze in a late afternoon CN so he can make it to BT. I've also noticed DS can only really do 2.5 hours A time right now. He seems to get OT very fast but i'll keep at it. Can i ask you, what would you recommend for his afternoon nap? I know we want 2 throughout the day and the first one capped ay 1.5 hours. How long should be afternoon nap be? Thank you so much for your reply, it is so helpful and reassuring!