im sure this has been done a million times, but please help me sort my toddlers sleep out!

[Frankie000]

To cut a long story short, he was sleeping 7pm to 7am , with a nap about 11am for an hour or two. This all changed a month ago, he had a 2 night stay in hospital and since then he has been waking around 4am. He still has a daytime nap at the same time, but as he's so tired from his early mornings he's sleeping for 2 to 3 hours. Ive tried everything, but once he's awake there is nothing I can do to get him to go back to sleep, and I cant ignore him as he makes so much noise I dont want my other kids all awake! Im on my own at night as oh works nights, and have a 3 month old who wakes in the night also so Im just exhausted. Someone please tell me how to fix this!

Oh, forgot to say, he's 18 months. He's got teeth coming through aswell which is probably contributing to the messed up sleep

this is no help at all but there is sometimes an 18 month sleep regression...
and my 20mo was rubish for ages -either v v early waking or few hours in the middle of the night - I have just give him a pillow which may or may not have helped
I wouldn't worry about the nap - sure that's not the reason he is waking early - just enjoy the peace
could you go back to bed for a bit when your oh gets in

omg pls don't tell me theres an 18 month sleep regression my 17 month old has only been sleeping well for a week!!!

thank you, hadnt heard theres a regression at that age, hope its just that, gives me hope he may grow out of it!
Yes, the nap is the only peace im getting at the moment as he's so tired and grumpy most of the day.
Id love to go back to bed when oh gets home but he's working 13 hour night shifts so by the time he's home he's shattered and not up to looking after a baby and toddler!
Just have to keep reminding myself that this will pass i guess!

Hi there.

Can you try delaying his nap a bit, so it's more like 12-2, then maybe he might sleep later? Try to do it 15 minutes at a time to make it easier.

I seem to remember DD having some bad nights between 18 months and 2 when the teeth come. It sounds cruel but we learnt to ignore some of the screams, or at least not rush to her- and often she managed to get herself back to sleep. When we did go to her we'd give her a cuddle but then put her back. She would scream blue murder when I left her room but would then go back to sleep within a couple of minutes. It's hard when you've got other kids, but actually the older kids are really flexible and will learn to go back to sleep if he wakes them up. This is what happened with our DS- DD wouldn't bother him at all- in fact not sure he woke up! I think we did explain it to him and he just accepted it (he was 4 at the time).

Good luck!

18 month sleep regression info here and here and here.

When DS woke early, I just stayed with him and rocked with him in the chair / bf till he went back to sleep (usually 1.5 hours after waking). If he didn't go back to sleep then I just kept on going with that in the dark room till normal getting up time.

What you don't want to do is start getting him up and putting lights on at 4am as that could reset his body clock to think it really is morning.

If there might be an element of overtiredness, an earlier bedtime might help.