LO struggling to drop 4th nap

[Bluelliephant]

My LO is 7 months in a week. Up until two days ago he was having 4 naps a day and it worked well, he had a bedtime between 9-10pm which seems late but suited him really well. It meant all his naps were very short but it was nice as he'd sleep in until 8am in the mornings sometimes even 9am! He always averaged 11 hours a night. (With a couple wake up and one feed of course)
Since he's dropped this 4th nap though he's really struggling though, he's only sleeping 9 and a half hours at night and he wakes up from his naps crying like he needs to sleep more but no amount of resettling ever works. He seems to be transitioning to longer wake windows but some days can still only manage 2 hours between naps, which means after his third at like 3/4pm he refuses a 4th nap to make it to 8/8.30pm for bed. And he won't sleep any earlier, so he's getting very overtired. Is this just a phase that will pass or would some sleep training benefit him? Any tips on how to get past dropping a nap? I also think he's about to cut his first top tooth so that probably isn't helping 🙈

[Chippytea2]

Try wake windows of 2hrs 15 mins. So e.g
wake up 8am
nap 10.15 to 1130
nap 1.45 to 3
nap 530 to 6
bed 830

adjust accordingly for when they wake up from the last nap, but them down again 2hrs 15 mins later. It might mean an early bed time for a few days!

It does take them a few weeks to learn to elongate the naps, just keep trying and they will settle in!

[Bluelliephant]

Thank you @Chippytea2
That is what I'm kind of doing, I'm taking him out and about to help him stay awake that little bit longer. I think I need to just accept the earlier bedtime like you say!

He can do some long naps but it's just so inconsistent, like yesterday afternoon he managed 1hr45 but this morning all he did was 30 mins after waking up at 7 🙈

[Chippytea2]

My twins dropped the fourth nap fine but after dropping the third it took about three weeks before they settled in to it!

The naps do seem to get longer once the fourth one is gone, he will get there soon!