11 month early riser sleep routines please share

[Deduct37]

We have an early riser. He also goes to bed early so can't complain. Just keen to see nap routines for anyone in a similar position. Really seem to struggle with nap timings and just when we think we've cracked it they go to pot!
He is 11 month and generally goes to sleep with no problems. Naps in cot every day, too nosy to generally nap out and about. Naps anywhere from 40 mins to 2 hours at a time (very rarely get the 30 minute naps anymore and we have had a couple of 3 hour naps in there). Has 2 naps a day. Will not take a third nap what ever we do, even though I feel he still needs it some days.
I know we are quite lucky because he generally sleeps through the night from 6-5. But the randomness of naps which makes a very tired boy come 4ish is taking its toll.
First nap always seems to fall around 8/8.30 depending on what time he gets up (used to be 6-6.30 some days). He was doing a 90minute-2 hour nap at this time, but it is really varying in length (generally 40minutes if he has been up early and wake time has been stretched). So then I never know what to do about the second nap. If I do an earlier nap at 11/12 and it's only a short nap, it leaves a huge wake time before bed (which I'm pretty sure leads to earlier mornings the following morning). It also clashes with lunch time. I've tried scheduling it around the same time every day. I've tried going by tired signs which he very rarely shows. And I've tried going off a certain amount of wake time. I've tried earlier second nap and trying for a third nap but he almost always refuses this. Taking him out for a third nap in the buggy doesn't work. And driving in the car doesn't always work and isn't practical with a 3 year old in tow. I'm pretty sure he is ready for 2 naps a day because we can be in the car for an hour or so later in the day and he still won't drop off. It's just getting the naps to fall at the right time during the day with nap lengths being all over the place that I am keen to see what other people do.

I think the nap times don't actually sound too far off considering he does 6-5 overnight.

At 11 months my DS was having a 40-50 minute nap about 3-4 hours after waking, followed by another 40-90 minute nap in the afternoon (waking up at least 3-4 hours before bedtime).

Assuming your DS might follow a similar pattern (which I've heard is common), this would translate to 8:30 and 13:30 (give or take) for your DS. At that age you wouldn't be able to force another nap at 11:00 (so quickly after the first nap). My advice would be to limit the first nap to 30 minutes - at most, 40. He is then likely to take a longer nap in the afternoon. Otherwise, if his longer nap is in the morning, that's fine too but then expect the afternoon one to be shorter but he is then also likely to get more tired towards bedtime.

I too struggled with consistency of timing for awhile - I found that using sling/buggy around the desired nap time every day for a week or two helped to set the rhythm and meant that even if we couldn't go out in the buggy, he would still expect a nap and so be easier to put down in cot than before. HTH.