Sleep Deprivation Training

Where, oh where, has my excellent sleeper gone?

Rollie has gotten to the point where he fights us at bedtime now. This is very frustrating as we have been spoiled by his excellent sleep patterns up until now. For a year and a half, we could put him down slightly sleepy, and he would smile, say nightnight, and roll over and go to sleep. no crying.

Now, he fights naptime. He fights bedtime. He seems happy to participate in the same old bedtime rituals bath, naked time, pjs, reading, same old sleepy cd, saying goodnight to everything in the room a la Good night Moon. Same old stuff we've done since 6 mos or so. Gives us the goodnight hug and kiss, and doesn't look unhappy about it. But the minute we set him down in the crib, he stands immediately back up and starts wailing! If we pick him up, he puts his head on our shoulder, and gets quiet, but putting him back in the crib and he starts back up.

We have never given in to his crying at night before - we would make sure he had the necessities covered (not sick, wet, etc), and then he was on his own. This was never a problem before.

And now, it's like he has forgotten he ever knew how to sleep well. He wakes and it is like he is scared to be alone. WTF?

And this doesn't even take into consideration the fact that we want to get him into a bed, rather than the crib. My gut is telling me to just get the crib out of there and start letting him try to fall asleep in the twin bed. Todd thinks if we can't get him to sleep in the crib, why bother yet with the twin? My thoughts are that if we are going to be fighting to get him to sleep somewhere, and the twin is the ultimate destination, why not go ahead and try it now, rather than letting him get used to the crib again, then switching things up on him yet again to get him into the twin, all right before we bring a newborn into the house, which should really throw off all semblance of balance.

I just wish I could pinpoint a root problem - is it separation anxiety? Is it teething? I think he is maybe getting his eyeteeth. Do those hurt more than the others? He has four molars, so he could be getting more of those, but he is not showing his usual teething signs (lowgrade fever, loose stools, etc.)

I am just at a loss.