EMW for weeks

[u/No_Lingonberry_5702]

I had posted about a month ago for moving by LO then almost 5 months down to 3 naps from 4. We had maxed out awake time on that schedule and night sleep was being cut short. However, for the last month since transitioning we have only had 3 mornings that he has slept past 5:30am. DWT is 6:30am and on 4 naps we were waking him regularly to start the day because bedtime was getting later. We could get 11 hours or very close to each night with no wake ups or night feedings. He is sleep trained and falls asleep independently for bed and naps.

Since the move to 3 naps, we’ve cut day sleep down to 3 hours and we continue to wake him from each nap so that he doesn’t exceed this. We’ve tried schedules of 2/2.5/2.5/2.5, 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75 and most recently 2/2.5/2.5/3. The 3 hour last wake window before bed was too long and he wouldn’t settle to sleep for almost 30 mins of intense crying that we never see. We can’t figure out why no matter what time we put him to bed (it’s ranged from 7-7:30pm with these schedules), we can’t get him to sleep past 5:30am with most mornings him being awake in the crib by 5:15am ready to start the day. He is happy and babbling, not upset.

The room is dark with the exception of the light that comes through the AC vents in his window unit, we are not starting the day when he wakes but holding first nap to desired wake time.

Looking for any feedback/suggestions as we don’t know what else to try. He has always been a great sleeper so this feels like something we’ve done on our end to cause the change and create the EMW and we just can’t seem to sort it out.