18 month old and no sleep

[Divgirl2]

My 18 month old DS coslept and breastfed pretty much all night until recently. I wanted my bed back (and he was still waking 3 or 4 times a night) so tried to introduce him to a cot. That did not go well, so just converted it in to a toddler bed.

Which is fine.

Except he will not sleep.

I end up walking around with him for literally hours to get him to sleep and I'm at the end of my tether. Last night he didn't sleep until 10.30pm, tonight he's still awake and showing no signs of sleeping.

He goes down for a nap no problem (in the bed). We have the same night time routine (pyjamas, story, feed, teeth). But he will not stay in bed. There's no toys in there, nothing fun really.

I don't know what to do.

Might not be helpful but I spent an awfully long & stressful time (months & months) trying to get my toddler to bed at 7/8pm. Not really sure why, I think just because that's when everyone else I knew said their child slept from. It never worked. Tried rocking chair, music, stories in bed/out of bed etc etc everything you can think of.

Eventually I gave up. She goes to bed now when she's tired, usually around 9.30/10pm (she's 2.5yrs now) and life is so much better. It's quiet time from 8pm so into pjs, snack, teeth done then reading, colouring, calm activities only until she's ready for bed.

She's fine with less sleep than other kids her age.

If he's sleeping through from a later bedtime & doesn't seem to have negative impacts of tiredness the next day, maybe he just doesn't need as much sleep?

How long and late is his nap? If my DS naps after 2, there's no way I'm getting him to bed for 6, 6.30. he routinely wakes at 5am as he is an early bird - that's the case whether he sleeps at 6pm or 8.30pm 🤦 sometimes you just need to work with what their body prefers. Does your DS sleep until a reasonable time after a bedtime like that? If so, I'd just take the approach that pp said about not forcing it too early. If not and he still wakes early and is overtired investigate the nap?

He seems really tired by about 7, and then winds himself up and gets overtired. But if I try and get him to sleep before 7 he'll be constantly up from about 11.

His nap is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half (I wake him up after an hour and a half), and no later than 3. I'll try and see if I can get him to sleep earlier during the day. Maybe that will help.