Daniel, go the F*@K to sleep! (a cry for help after a sleepless night)

Dear Daniel,

You've always been such a dream.  So fun, so smart and (seriously) the best sleeper we could have ever asked for.  When you were a baby and we were ready to "cry it out" you just slept.  Your naps were like clockwork and long and sweet. You used to reach for your crib at night because you loved being in it.  Moving to a big boy bed was easy as pie.  Sleeping has never been an issue...  (see exhibit 1)

Until 4 nights ago.

Suddenly, every night is a struggle.  You don't want to go to sleep unless we are either in your bed or in your chair.  You struggle against sleep for as long as possible, constantly popping your head up to make sure we're there.  While the "5 minute" rule has worked for as long as I can remember, you suddenly freak out after we try to leave, screaming and crying (and more screaming).

But, during bedtime, you eventually fall asleep.

And then sometime between 1:30am and 3:00am some kind of secret sleep demon sneaks into your body and turns you into a complete lunatic.  What is this?  Where did this sleepless child come from and how the hell to we make him go away and return our Daniel to us?

Last night was the worst.  We were up with you from 1:58am until Daddy eventually got into bed with you at 3:30.  You screamed at the top of your lungs the entire time.  I didn't get back to sleep until after 4:30.  Yes, 4:30am!  Amazingly Lucy didn't wake up - but I can imagine that our neighbors did.

We read a part of a book that tells us that locking you into your room is better than hurting you.  I said "hurting?  are you kidding? who on earth would do that?".  But after 2 hours of that crap, I can totally understand why that author says it.

We need help.  We need sleep.