18 month old suddenly a sleep disaster zone!

[LondonMum52]

Wondering if anyone can help / make me feel less alone! My 18 month old has generally been a pretty reliable sleeper. Had the usual ups and downs with illness and teething but generally he sleeps through the night and has one good lunch nap every day. Nursery has always been an issue (sleeps for about 30 mins - is it just him?! Everyone else I know seems to have a child who sleeps for 2 hours at their nursery!). He only goes three days a week so it’s never been that big a problem. The last four weeks have been a total nightmare, though. He wakes
about 30/40 minutes after bedtime and then on a “good” night again in the middle of the night and really early. In a bad night (last night) I can be up with him every couple of hours. I didn’t mind when he was sick but he’s totally fine now. I give him some milk as it’s the only thing that settles him (but even that is sometimes not working). It coincides with him going up to nursery four days and week as I’ve just had a big operation and can’t take care of him by myself at the moment. I don’t know if he’s overtired / now used to comfort after being unwell / having some sort of regression, but I need him to get back on track. We are exhausted and it’s making me really
miserable. Any advice or support very welcome!

There is another sleep regression at around 18 months, my daughter was the same, lasted about 4/5 weeks and then she just went back to normal x

Yep, my 19 month old DS experienced this when he was 18 months. It's a leap / developmental thing that causes a sleep regression.
DS is usually a good sleeper & napper but he was waking in the middle of the night and crying out and was in a grumpy mood if he was woken after a nap.
We found if we waited 5 mins at night before going in he would often re-settle himself but if the crying continued then a quick pat, sip of water and shush would get him to a place where he could settle himself again.
It lasted about 3 weeks and now he's back to sleeping through the night again (although his molars are on their way so not sure how long that will last).

The ups and downs keep coming I'm afraid. We've had similar phases and are having another one at present (2 and a half). Just keep consistent with whatever your settling strategies are, don't bring in any bad habits you don't want to keep long term and it will get better.