Multiple night wakings 19m old

[lovingdad]

Hi all

my son had a chronic cough for 3 months (which was a recurrence of bronchiolitis which he had in Jan 2017 which only came to light recently after seeing a specialist - dr's kept fobbing it off giving him inhalers which did not help) and was waking 2-3 times a night. we'd often pick him up and give him water and he would re-settle, now his cough is better he is still waking multiple times. Its worth noting he has been through the 18m sleep regression which was pretty painful with 4.30am starts. His general daytime routine is:

Wake up 5-6am
4oz milk 6.30am
Breakfast 7.30am
Snack 10am
Lunch 11.30am
Nap 12.30pm for 1.5hr
Snack 3pm
Dinner 4.30pm
Snack 6pm
6.30pm bath, followed by 8oz milk around 6.50pm and asleep by 7pm

2 nights ago we pushed bedtime to 7.15 and it took him 25 mins to fall asleep but eventually did by himself, however woke at 12.30am, 1.30am, 4am, and then eventually at 6am. Last night we kept it at 7pm as i gathered he was over tired the night before and he woke at 10.30pm and went down after a quick cuddle, and 1.30am (went down after a cuddle and a sip of water) and eventually woke at 6am.

he eats really well, and some times need to wake him after 1hr30 from his nap. he used to sleep through when we initially sleep trained him at 4 months, then again at 7 months. does anyone have any suggestions on what to do to help him sleep through - i feel now when we go in, as we pick him up and give him a cuddle and some water, we lay him down and he generally goes back down he is becoming reliant on either a cuddle or developed a habit of wanting a sip of water. having read online ive heard kids develop habits of wanting water and often not needing it (he never needed it before his cough and did used to sleep well, albeit waking early at times). any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Katet]

Sounds like he's going through a normal blip of separation anxiety, where reassuring a parent responds to his needs is enough. It's often an up and down pattern.
The water, i found from about 15mo mine  could find a sippy cup in the corner of their cot and learnt to drink from that. In terms of nights, we all go through lighter sleep cycles, so it's hard to stop the part waking and if it is for emotional reassuring, then it's worth looking at how you engage in the day time. At 18mo they have a mental leap (sleep regression also goes with that) so we adults need to change how we engage. More freedom to explore and climb, more challenging puzzles to play with more 'brain tiredness'
They say that a toddler just pottering around the garden digging in dirt etc gets more tired than them going on a 1km walk, because the brain is processing stuff, and the more natural brain stimulation they get outdoors the more mentally tired they are, which often helps with the lighter sleep cycles.