7 month old short naps - 3 naps or 2?

[KookyK]

I've v recently weaned the dummy/paci off my DS and did PU/PD to help with this. Night sleep is improving although he does love an early start.

He's still struggling with short naps, and also I have the added issue whilst he's up super early that he has to nap on the school run (he can wait til we get home if he's up later but not otherwise).

Today, a typical day he was up at 5.30.  I had DD's special assembly (9.10-9.45) so him having a nap on the school run (8.30-9.15)  had to happen as the assembly was straight after school run. So he slept 8.30-9.25.

Now he's havin g  a lunch nap at home. He went to sleep at 12.15. I went in and sat ready for his usual halfway wake up. I'm v proud as today I managed to get him to continue sleeping without any AP such as rocking BFing which I used to do pre dummy weaning. White noise and hand on tummy only. He's still asleep at 13.25. Not sure how long this will last.

So my Q is, on days like today, do I hope he has an ultra long nap now and not wake him and then power on until bedtime? If the nap isn't v long do I just do early bedtime and no more naps? Or a short catnap around 4.30?

Yday, he had 4 (!) short naps (due to starting the day at 4am - a feed, 30 mins of shh pat then 45 mins of PU/PD and he was wide awake and cross) each of 20-30 mins and the last at 4.50. He went to bed at 7.15 and slept til 5.30am.

Pre sleep training, if he started the day at 6am, I could just about get him to 9.15 and nap at home or transfer if he'd only just drop off and I could get 2 long naps if I AP-ed the midway wake. But more usually I was doing a short nap a.m., a longer one at lunch (still APOPing to make it longer) and a short one around 4pm.

Ideas? Advice? He is defo self-settling a lot more now. It's all new for him though, since Friday!

[creations]

I would probablly take a gamble and do a super EBT. I've had mine in bed for the night at 5.30 some days. The way I see it, if the evening is going to be a struggle anyway due to nap refusal or trying to settl for a nap for ages, then trying to settle for bed etc and to top it off a 5.30am WU - well it's unlikely to be worse than that is it?  If you approach it with low expectations, that yes he might wake for a feed that he doesn't usually have, he might have a long NW, he might wake up even earlier, then anything else is a bonus. His nights are pretty short and possibly OT so an early BT could be just the thing he needs and if he does wake even earlier this can work to your advantage in terms of resettling as they are usually easier to resettle in the middle of the night rather than the small hours of the morning when we are all moving into light sleep anyway. Even if it turns into a long NW he will likely end up asleep and with a later wake up. So it could be used to get one better morning WU and start your day at a more sociable time. The daytime routine might then run more smoothly.
Make sense?

FWIW mine only did 10.5 to 11hr nights but he had 3hrs+ day sleep, overall falling lower than the average number of hrs sleep in 24hrs but still well enough rested. You might never get a 12 hr night but you might, once he's settled down after the recent paci wean etc.
hth