Is my child going through a sleep regression or just getting older? I NEED ADVICE!!!

I need advice and everyone’s opinions on this! I’m a first time mama so I really don’t know much. I would really appreciate it if you could read this and tell me what you think!

My 18 month olds schedule 2 weeks ago looked like this: 7-7:30pm bedtime, 8:30-9am woke up, 12:30 to 3-3:30pm nap time. This has been his schedule for a while now and has worked great!

About 1 week ago my 18 month old stopped napping completely. I would put him down for the regular nap time, but he would be wide awake in his crib. I still left him up there because he wasn’t crying or anything and I wanted him to know it’s still nap time. He would chill upstairs in his crib for the whole 1.5-2 hours wide awake😳 At night time it would take him about an hour or so to fall asleep, but then that would be it for the night.

After about a week he stopped doing this and would fall asleep during nap time. But his naps are shorter than they used to be. He used to nap from 12:30 to 3-3:30. Now he naps 12:30 to 2-2:15. I also notice if I put him to bed at his regular bed time (7pm) he doesn’t fall asleep until about 8-8:30pm, and I have to go upstairs a couple times as he starts crying or takes his sleep sack completely off 🤦🏻‍♀️

Two days ago I put him down for 7:30pm, he actually went down very easily and within 15-20 minutes he was asleep.

Yesterday he woke up at 7am (which again, he used to sleep until 8:30am). He was very tired and cranky come 11:30am (lunch time) and fall asleep right away for nap time at 12:30. He woke up around 2:30. We then put him down for bed at 7pm, and he didn’t fall asleep until I would say closer to 8pm. But then woke up at 6:45 THIS MORNING!!!

Any ideas of what’s going on? Should I adjust his schedule to the new earlier morning time? Should I keep things the same as they were and eventually it will go back? Is he just getting older so he doesn’t need as much sleep? Is he going through a regression? I really do miss how good of a sleeper he used to be 😭