2 naps or 3 8/9 month old

[Harvey19]

My 8 1/2 month old has always been an early waker use to be 5.40ish now can be anytime after 5.
I have tried transitioning to 2 naps more recently especially as he has begun to sleep for up to 2.5 hours in the afternoon, so routine is something like this
Wakes 5/5.30
Nap 8 - 9
Nap 12-2/2.30
Bed 6.30
When he only has the 2 naps he is so unsettled at night, wakes within an hour and then multiple times in the night, tossing and turning and awake even earlier in the morning. I know his first nap is too early really as a nap at 9 and 1 would make the day flow better but we can’t get there because of his early wakes, he is to tired and pushing him out any longer causes more unsettled naps.
Should I stick with 3 naps and maybe cap his afternoon nap to fit a 3rd in later 4.30-5?
Anything I can do to help the early mornings?
And does it matter what age they drop the 3rd nap? I’ve seen so many say theirs had dropped it by 8 months.
He is eating well, 3 x a day plus 28 oz milk
We do dream feed him at 10.30pm as then he doesn’t need a feed til morning. We found letting him naturally wake for a feed in the night means he is awake for over an hour.
Hope this all makes sense any advice appreciated!
Thanks

He sounds like he's overtired. I would stick with 3 naps but make the last one short (15-20 mins) and make sure it's finished at least 2 hours before you want him to go to sleep eg 4.30 if you want a 6.30 bedtime.

I was thinking maybe he's going to bed an hour too early?

I'm the same as pp. I think bed too early. If my lo goes to bed at 7 pm, she will be up at 530am. My 12-month-old doesn't go to bed until 730pm. Asleep by 8 pm. Sleeps till 6am to 7am. Usually closer to 7am.

My lo naps at that age.
930am or 945am till 11am but understand that's too long from 530am. I would nudge everything 15mins later every 3 days.
2pm till 330 or 4pm.
Bed 730pm approx depends on lo, tbh.

There is nothing wrong with 3 naps at this age, though. But you may find it difficult with wake times to fit 3 naps in.

Just remember that any changes you make can take up to 3 weeks to reset lo.

You might need to do both to be honest - keep 3rd nap and go for later bedtime?

My ds didn't fully transition to two naps until 9 months despite the transition beginning at 6 months. Even then there were days where it was a struggle, it just became too hard to achieve the third cat nap. He just had to suck it up for a bit. It had settled by the time he was 10 months though. I think you just have to expect bad nights and early starts during a nap transition.

Thanks for the replies. I’m going to go with 3 naps and a later bed time so that we can fit them in and hopefully get a slightly later morning wake up over time.

Good luck 👍 and let us know how you get on. I would say make sure the last nap is just a cap nap and not past a certain time, as may struggle to go to sleep that night if not enough awake time.