7mo treating bedtime like a nap!

[lemondrizzlecake448]

DS is 7 months old. We aim for bedtime between 7 and 8, depending when his last nap ended. But for the past couple of weeks he's been waking up after 30/40 minutes, and is happily wide awake until 9/10, when he finally seems to settle into his nighttime sleep. We have several night wakings, but he's usually easy to resettle.

I've tried different wake times between last nap and bedtime (anything from 2 to 4 hours) but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Our day looks like this:
Wake 7-8
Nap 9-10 for 2/2.5 hours
Nap 2-3 for 1 hour
Sometimes a cat nap around 4:30 if the second nap is early and short.

He's fed to sleep mostly, which I'm happy doing.

Any ideas why he wants to hang out with us all evening?!

I think the first nap might be falling too early and should be shorter than the second nap, if possible. Also maybe the cat nap needs to go and bring bedtime earlier on those days

Thank you - I did wonder if the first nap might be causing us problems. He tends to stir an hour or so into his first nap, so I'll try gently waking him then, and see if he can catch up in the afternoon.

No sleep after 3 if possible. And shorter first nap I think.