I am at my wit's end and really have no idea what to do at this point. I'm so frustrated and exhausted and really, really, really need this sleep issue resolved before the new baby arrives. Help!

The boys are just shy of 20 months. For about the last 6 weeks, E has had horrible, horrible sleep. His naps are much shorter. They were about 2+ hours and now a really, really good day is 1.5 hours, but normal is just over an hour. At night, he went from going to sleep on his own with no more than a few minute of fussing to having to be held, rocked, etc. for an extended amount of time. If we leave him in his crib, he'll cry, bounce around, etc. for over an hour and a half, even if he's exhausted. I don't know how much longer he would last, as we've always gone in at that point. Then he wakes up pretty much every night at least once and just can not go back to sleep. Most nights he is happy to lay on us or be held, but he just can't relax into sleep again. Other nights, he's just awake and is content with us but doesn't seem at all interested in sleeping. He has had some molars come in but they are almost in now, and even when we give ibuprofen, Orajel, etc. it seems to make no difference in the sleep issues, plus he doesn't actually seem like he's in pain--no crying, etc. as long as we're holding him. I've had to resort to driving him around multiple times after hours of trying to get him back to sleep because it relaxes him enough to fall asleep and then he'll stay asleep the rest of the night. This has been going on for over 6 weeks, and we had molar hell before that and I just don't know what the heck to do. He's had a well child check in that time period-no ear infections, etc.

I'm assuming this is some sort of 18-month regression that's just lingering forever, but I have no idea what to do. Do we try sleep training again? Ride it out? Something I haven't considered? I'm at the point of being tempted to do some kind of sleep consulting because we just can't keep going like this. Please tell me I'm missing something or there's some way to speed up getting to normal.

F had some of the same issues, but it was only a couple of weeks, and now he's back to normal. At least they're not both doing this every night!

Help, help, help. Please and thank you.