DS (2.3) has never been the world's greatest sleeper, but whenever I get desperate and try to look for a way to make it better, all of the solutions assume that you have a consistent pattern that you are trying to fix.
Sometimes (rarely), DS sleeps from 7-7. Sometimes, he wakes up 4 times a night, rising for the day at 5am, usually something in between the two. I can't work out what is making the difference.
No change in the amount or timing of naps / food / exercise / stimulation that he gets during the day seems to have any effect. He has had a consistent, fairly standard bath/story/cuddle/bed routine since he was around 8 weeks old. His room is dark and around 18 degrees most of the year round.
I can't work out any difference between the nights when he does sleep and the nights when he doesn't. I know that illness and teething sometimes get in the way of a good night's sleep, but this just seems so totally random.
If he was consistently doing x/y/z then we would be able to find a way to 'fix' it, but we just have a few days at a time of one thing and then it changes - for example, this week he is mostly waking up and wanting a cuddle at around 1.30am, then waking up at 5am and either staying awake, or dozing on and off until about 7. But the week before he did 2 nights of 7-7.30, plus a couple of nights of waking 2-hourly.
Can someone please reassure me that this is normal (or at least that we are not alone??)?