Short naps in an 8 month old

[SkyBlue1987]

My (almost) 8 month old has just started refusing his 3rd nap. Not even a long car ride at 4pm will get him to take a brief nap. This would be fine however he is a habit of only taking two 30 minute naps for his other two naps leaving him very tired by 5.30/6 which is earliest I’d put him to bed. He was awake from 12.30pm until bedtime yesterday and as a result woke hourly overnight I’m assuming from overtiredness. He usually feeds to sleep but I don’t think that’s necessarily the issue as he has previously napped two hours in the morning at around six months old. First awake window is usually around 2-2.5 hours. I’m really struggling to work out how to lengthen his naps. I’m not against any form of sleep training I just find that hard to consistently implement with a preschooler in the house as well who also needs his sleep at the moment. Our house is small and I try to settle baby at night without too much crying.
Edited

Mine dropped to two naps at this point too. The first month of this drop is alway the hardest!

At that age My LO woke about 7.30 first Nap 10am sleept until 11ish 11.30 then he’d have his next nap 2.30ish. Trying to keep him awake during that second window was hard at first, but easier than him fighting his third nap. He goes to bed at 7.00. My little one sleeps through the night. What’s your schedule? Is your LO waking in the morning because they’re hungry? Then within an hour they are ready for a nap?

I also found the 30min crap nap was either caused by hunger, not tired enough to stay asleep or teething.

Babies are hard! I’m still waiting for my manual 😂

My little one at that age only had 2 30 minute naps. He was always in bed by half 5 with 1 wake up for milk in the night and up at 5 ISH. He at least sleeps through now but still up at 5😭

Mine has just done this and then reverted back to taking 3 naps as he has hit 9 months old. I think there can be a sleep regression at this age?

Are u me?! Exactly same here and my little boy is 8 months in a few days.

We had so many wake ups last night but likely not helped by the fact he's snotty and teething his top 2 teeth. Ughhh.

He's had one nap this week that was over an hour but the rest have been more like 20 or 30 minutes (and a few 2 minute wonders!).