The earlier my baby goes to bed the more wake ups we have

[Planetsandstars]

Struggling a bit with eight month old sleep - help!

He mostly wakes between 6 and 7: first nap between 9 and 10. Usually sleeps until around half eleven.

So second nap is the trickier one and usually between 2 and 3. He will usually wake up around 4, so we should be looking at a 7 o clock bed time. He will go down no problem but will wake constantly throughout the night. But if he goes to bed between 8 and 9, we get maybe two wake ups. The closer to 9 he goes to bed, it means we only have one wake up but he’s so tired!

I don’t want to have him overtired and exhausted so any tips on how to get him down a bit earlier but minimise the wake ups?

I would push both naps earlier, then stretch the last wake window to bedtime to be longer.

A typical 2-nap days has wake windows in the pattern if 234 -
2h awake between waking and AM nap
3h awake between AM nap and PM nap
4h awake between PM nap and bedtime.

So you're average day would be better arranged something like this:
6.30am wake
(2h awake)
8.30am - 10.30am nap
(3h awake)
1.30pm - 3.30pm nap
(4h awake)
7.30 bed