Fondly Remembering Sleep

Griffin's sleep patterns have completely gone to shit in the last few days. Help me please!

My little darling, who used to cuddle with his parents and have a bit of milk, and then point to his crib and ask to go to bed, then lay down, get tucked in, and wake up in the morning feeling cheery and adorable, well that little darling now screams and hollers and throws himself on the ground when it's time for bed. There's no cuddling in the chair, there's no milk, and there is most certainly no asking to go to bed. If I manage to calm him down enough to chill out, the whole rigamarole starts all over again when I go to put him in the crib. PLUS, the whole escapade repeats itself between 1 and 3am.

The putting down at bedtime eventually ends up with me putting him screaming and protesting in his crib, closing the door, and hoping for the best. Last night it only took him about 10 minutes to calm himself and go to sleep, but it was also more than 2 hours past his bedtime. I was also exhausted and spent the 10 minutes of him crying sitting on the top of the stairs and crying right along with him.

There is no crying himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. Or at least there might be, but we gave up after 2 hours of it and I went and slept with him upstairs. Same thing last night.

It's like he has suddenly lost the ability to calm himself. WTF? Don't loose that!!

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I haven't been around at bedtime for the past few weeks because I was running a show. But I would think that he'd be happy to have me back, not angry and throw-himself-on-the-ground-y!! He's been pretty clingy lately, nothing but Mama will do.

So, what is all this? Separation anxiety? A toddler trying to exert his independence? Or should I take this monkey to the (twit) nurse practitioner and have her do a once over (not that I trust her...I'm on the hunt for a new doctor. AND, not that I could actually get in to see her, because she's currently booking into JUNE, and I'll be damned if I'm putting up with this crap till JUNE!)

Is it time to switch to the toddler bed? (That's mostly my back talking, since there's no bloody way I'm sleeping on the floor one more night! We did agree that keeping him in his room was part of the key...but damn that floor is hard!)

Mamas, I need your thoughts...advice...offers for babysitting!