Help me - someone has swapped my DS for the demon child

[mamababa]

I'm hoping someone will offer some help here before I go nuts. DS is 2yrs 3months and has always been a good sleeper and we've always had a routine of bath, pj's story/milk then kiss and bed. 3 weeks ago we took the sides of the cot so he's in a bed. Worked fine, a couple of nights of falling out etc but within a week he'd got it. Around 5 days ago he turned into the devil child. Not wanting to go to bed, then throwing teddy, dummy out of bed (he used to do this in the cot but a couple of times then settled), screaming if you leave, getting out of bed etc. This went on for an hour. Friday night it was 2 hours. He finally went to sleep after I stayed with him in the room. He's doing the same in the night, not settling unless I'm there. 90 minutes in there last night.
I thought it could be that he's ready to lose the afternoon nap, so yesterday kept him awake but still this. So I has absolutely no peace yesterday. I really dont want to stay with him as I think this is a bad idea long term but I need to sleep, rapidly getting to end of tether. Is it separation anxiety or what? My mum says 'he's testing you, pushing boundaries'. Yes that's really f&*K$ing useful its the answer I need not the problem

dd started doing this around Christmas, so I had taken her into bed with me but we ended up with a nightmare scenario of her keeping me awake all night.

So, last Friday I started doing what you've been doing - sitting with her in the room until she went to sleep. I did this for four nights and sometimes it was an hour and a half/two hours as well before she went to sleep.

On the fifth night I put her in bed, said goodnight and went outside the room, leaving the door a bit open. She came out of the room to me a few times but I just kept putting her back in bed so she got the message and was lying in bed whingeing but went off to sleep fairly quickly. I was happy to sit outside the door because I knew she knew where I was. So any crying was because she was annoyed, not scared or anything.

I've been doing this every night since and she has slept right through for the last 3 nights.

I don't know if we were just lucky that we didn't have to put her back into bed hundreds of times or anything, but I think if you stick to your resolve this should work.

Thanks Besom, I think thats a good plan. Its just so hard to keep resolve after hours!! He throws the comfort blanket on the floor, but can reach it, just chooses not to! clearly stopping the nap didnt work so I'll let him have a samll one today, if only to give me a break