reducing feed at almost 11months in prep for return to work/daycare

[nurse2003]

Ok Mama's question (cuz I can't remember how it all worked out with the other 2 kids!)
#3 is almost 11 months. I return to work at the end of April and he starts transition to daycare mid April.
Currently he nurses 4x a day (he will take a pumped bottle if needed) He eats at 6, then after morning naps between 1030/11 then after afternoon nap 3/330 and bedtime around 6pm.
He's been starting to get up between 5/530 pretty consistent now and I think he's not nursing as much at bedtime because its so close to afternoon feed. Also I really want to get down to nursing 3x a day in the next few weeks so i'm hoping these go hand n hand
So - my question is how do I tweak our routine and break the habit of "wake up - eat" but I also don't want to get nursing too close to afternoon nap where I might run into the issue of him nursing to sleep (worked too long and hard getting him to sleep all night and break that habit and fall asleep on his own!)
I will have to figure out how to best sync his routine with daycare but one step at a time as he is still little and needs the twice a day naps
approx routine
breastfed 6
solids 7:30
nap 9
breastfed 1030/11
solids 1230
nap 2
breastfeed 330 (ish)
solids 430/5
breasfted 6 and into bed between 630/7
Any advice is appreciated to cut down to 3x breastfeds! TIA (ps: can't just replace with milk, he's been reflux/colic/sensitive and i've been off dairy since he was 3 weeks and we are working with our naturopath on a reintroduction phase now)

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

What about switching the afternoon bf to a solids snack? That way the bedtime feed might be better. Tbh though the 5 am wake ups are probably more to do with needing a routine tweak than feeding at this age as A times for this age are in a range from 3.5-4.5 hrs and many lo's are ready to start the shift to one nap.

[nurse2003]

Thanks so much. Will try it
Last two days he's slept til about 530-540 so better!
He tends to take a longer morning nap then afternoon. Maybe move morning nap to 930?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yes I would try that, though you may need to cap it to still get a second nap...often times the nap being too early perpetuates the ew, it becomes a fine balance with the rest of the day though. Sometimes the day might get longer temporarily until you are on one nap.