Help with 2 year old sleep

DS1 had this happen - I was preg too ] We basically had to start from scratch and teach him to resettle.

We helped him calm down at night and had a little box of bad dream fixers with a torch, a sword, and a couple of other bits and bobs that I can't remember now that we'd talk about how bad goblins liked little boys dreams coz they didn't have nice dreams of their own but Jesus sends his angels to protect everyone, especially brave little boys and there were angels sitting allll round his bedroom ready to smack the naughty goblins on the bottom if they tried anymore dream stealing (think Enid Blyton and Bible Stories for toddlers both big favourites in our house). Once the stories were told we'd just sit beside the bed, not laying with him but on our own chair, and read using booklights or listen to the ipod and basically ignore him til he went to sleep. The next night we set the chair up slightly further away and did the same thing. Once the chair was by the door we'd sit there for a few minutes then say I'm just going to go to check mummy/daddy, I'll be back in a second. We'd step out for 10 seconds and step straight back in and say thanks, you were so brave, then sit down and ignore him for another few mnutes then do it again but for a few more seconds - 15-20 say. The next night we'd start with the short bursts then say I'm just going to the toilet, then we'd come back and quietly tell him how brave he was. It got to the point quite quickly where we could say I'm just popping out to the lounge, I'll be back shortly and we could go out for 10 minutes and he'd be asleep or nearly so by the time we got back. We kept it up for about 4 months afterwards, saying goodnight then assuring him we'd be back in to check on him shortly, just to reinforce the fact that he wasn't alone even though he was self-settling again by then.
With the midnight screaming we tried a few things including earplugs but in the end we'd go in, calm him down by patting his back but not saying anything, pull out his kit and slide his sword into bed and turn his torch on by his pillow then because we'd go the beginning of the night thing settled we'd just say we'd be back to check him in 10 seconds and we'd do that with increasing increments til he was asleep. Then he finally stopped doing it TG! But yeah we didn't talk to him at bedtime once the lights were out or in the middle of the night unless to tell him we were stepping out and we'd be right back.

Thats like quite a long post I know lol but I hope it helps abit or gives you some ideas or something!! GL

I hate to say it but we're not as nice here.
DS1 is not a good sleeper and never has been. We've just bought a 'groclock' - it's one of those sleep training clock with a sun face for day time and a star for night time. It seems to have helped a bit.

We also put him in the naughty corner even in the middle of the night. We only do this when the wake ups are attention seeking. (e.g. asking us to straighten his blanket every 5 minutes)

But our first attempt(s) is to get down, get his attention, and talk to him. Explain it's night time (see the star on the clock), and he needs to go to sleep.

There was one night he screamed for Mickey (i.e. mickey mouse club house) for 5 hours non-stop. You'd think a two year old would run out of puff before then wouldn't you?