please help with 18 month nap and early wakings, im at my wits end with it all

[tracynben]

hi everyone my lo is 18 months, will be 19 month mid this month, his sleeping patterns over the last few months have been on and off for the last few months with learning new skills and teethin, i think hes got molars comin through at the mo.
A good day looks like this
6.30am awake
11.30am nap til 1pm
6.30am bedtime

For the last couple of weeks everything is just going to pot, resulting in grumpy baby and mummy, i work 4-5 days a week, mainly 8-5 and im not sleepin very well and just seem to be constantly knackered, i have thursdays off ideally for cleaning up and spending time with ben, but cos of bein tired and grumpy i laze about all day, nothing gets done and ben gets on my nerves, all cos i cant get him to sleep better, if he sleeps good then its not a problem.
Last week he woke at 4.30 twice, was awake on an off from 11.30-1pm one night, and woke at 5,30am this morning, i try to leave him for as long as i can, ill go in give him dummy, put his music on but nothing will get him back to sleep.
We were out and abou in car and he fell alseep at 10am, arghhh worse nightmare cos it messes the whole day up, obviously not enough sleep from nite before or he wouldnt have fell asleep, its now 2.30pm ( i live in australia) and ive tried puttin him down twice for a sleep but hes refusin, so i know by about 4-4.30am hes gonna be tired.
Everything just seems to be an on going circle, and im just gettin so sick of it now, im just tired and miserable all the time and that effects my relationship with my partner and ben and thats not good, all cos of lack of sleep.
My partner works really long late hours sometimes, avergae week for him can be 50-60 hours, so i dont get much support as hes more tired than me, most of my family in uk , and we dont really have any friends to help us out. My partners paretnts live over here, but there 45 mins drive away, and his dad recently diagnosed with parkinsons, so my partner doesnt really wanna ask for help from them at the mo.
I just wanna get him to sleep about 11-11.5 hours at nite and 1.5-2 hours in the day.
Im going out of my mind, please someone help
tracy xxxxxxxxx

[Layla]

Hi Tracy... sorry its taken so long to reply

Can you please tell me when you work, what time is he put down for a nap? Say if he has only slept for 30mins... do you put him down earlier for the night?

Does she try and get him back to sleep when he wakes early from nap?

Have you tried to give him some pain relief for the teething???

Layla

[Sunshine's Mommy]

I sympathize with you.

And I have a few questions: Is your caregiver consistant with putting him down at the same time?  Are there noise issues that maybe wake him up?

I found that at one point my caregiver was not consistand putting DD for her nap and that made it more difficult to get her to sleep, but after we had a nice conversation, she started putting DD down at the same time every day and it helped.  Also, we started putting her down in a separate room from all other kids to eliminate as much noise as possible and that helped as well.

[tracynben]

Hi there
i work 8-5 mon tues and wed, fri 8-4, and every other saturday, in the week he goes to childcare, we have to leave at 7.30am and im up by 6.30am gettin ready for work, so i cant spend time in the week tryin to get him back to sleep if he wakes early, the early mornings are more of a problem than his afternoon nap.
Hes in toddler room at childcare and they all sleep at the same time, they have little mattresses they put on the floor, and leave the room dark, he sleeps constitant there, always 11.30 till 1, if hes had a bad night he sleepsfor an extra hour, so thats ok.
If he does have a small nap i put him down earlier if i can, but this is difficult cos i dotn get home from work till 5.30 and by the time i done his tea bath etc its abouot 6.30pm, and thats the time he normally goes to bed.
I give him bonjela every nite and panadol if i think he needs it.
If he sleeps til about 6.30 in the morning hes ok, but if he wakes before 6am it makes him a bit more grumpy and tired earlier so i have to bring forward his rountine, i cant get him to go back to sleep if he wakes earlier, i try bonjela, dummy and his music nothing works, so i just leave him in there as long as possible, normally an hour. i think sometimes it could be hunger, cos he waits at the fridge for the milk and cries until i give it him then cries when i finished, and today he got his bib out meaning he wants food, and ate brekfast straight away, in the week i dont have time to do that, but he ate really well yesterday, adn the day before that he woke at 6.30 and didnt eat much in the nite, it just doesnt make sense, im kinda thinkin its cos of teeth, and until all is well i just have to accept it, arghhh
thanks for listenin and replyin
tracy
p.s. sorry for the long post