Wits end with sleep

Guys. Tell me some of you are experiencing this too and it’s normal.. my son still wakes up in the night. But for 1-4 HOURS. He’s been doing it for months. He doesn’t cry unless he’s sick usually, he just talks to himself in his crib. And for a while he was not falling asleep when I would put him down for the night, he’d just roll around and chatter for hours. But then he’d sleep in a bit.

At first I just ignored it as a phase. He’s never been a good sleeper. But slowly it has started bothering me more and more to the point where I find it upsetting 😥 I’ve tried pushing his bedtime, waking up earlier and limiting/shortening his naps, thinking it’s a “split night” or that he’s getting to a point where he needs less sleep.. but I haven’t noticed a difference :( And to be honest, it started so long ago, when naps shouldn’t have been a problem.

Being sick notwithstanding (he’s had a really nasty something for the past month), he’s as cheerful as much as a 22 month old is going to be.

I’ve started making it worse at some point by going in and holding him to sleep because I felt so sad that he was laying in there, in the dark, by himself, for soooo long 😢. At bedtime and in the night. So now sometimes he calls for me more out of “hey, come do that nice snuggle thing” I think.

It’s crossed my mind his crib is too small (he’s 3’ already!!) and maybe that’s waking him up. Definitely I’ve almost ordered him a new bed.. but his brother is due in the next 4 weeks and with the night waking already and the new transition to being a big brother I’m terrified of taking away the crib.

Advice but especially experiences would be SO appreciated. I don’t know if I’m stressing over nothing 😓