Currently here's the routine
7am: Awake and breastfeed (lately this has been more like 6am or 6:30 am but usually I try not to feed him until 7)
8am: solids
9-10:30am: nap [usually though, if he's woken earlier then I have to put him down around 8:30 so he doesn't get so overtired]
11am: breastfeed
12pm: solids
1pm: nap until 2:15 or so
3pm: breastfeed
4:30: solids?
5pm: nap
6pm: solids if he hasn't had any before the catnap
6:45: bath
7pm: breastfeed
7:30: in bed asleep!
11pm: dreamfeed
He can usually go 2 hours between naps. Much more than that and he has a hard time going down. He doesn't use a pacifier [dummy?] but he sucks his thumb, often to get to sleep but sometimes not. He goes down at bedtime completely on his own, just put him in say goodnight and leave and he goes to sleep quickly I guess because he's quiet. Naptimes are much better now. We were doing pu/pd frequently to get out of some accidental parenting with rocking, walking, etc. Now as long as he's tired enough but not overtired, he can go down without much help, just sometimes my hand on his chest for a minute or so.
In the last 2 days, we've been making sure he's awake by 6pm from his catnap, and both nights he's slept until 6:56am! We also started pushing back the nap to 5:15 instead of 5. He's quite tired by then but it's usually not a fight to get him down. And this evening he woke up on his own at 5:56! That's my angel baby, I guess! I think we're doing the right thing, just not sure how the schedule should go from here on out. Thankfully he has been sleeping through the night since about 3 months, although now he has a cold and I think his top teeth are coming in, or at least bothering him. He's been up several times tonight already and pretty grumpy. But unless it's really bad, he'll likely sleep until morning after the dreamfeed.
So I guess I really just need some advice on how to transition away from the catnap, or maybe should I just shorten it for a while and see if it solves the problem?
Thanks!