Weekend wonderings: Teething, tummy, (sleep) training trauma, or just terrible twos?

The boy, during one of his cheerful moments this weekend.
These moments are getting rarer!

We have been faced with the challenge of training the boy to sleep on his own, since my preggie back can no longer take sleeping on the mattress on the floor in his room (and I will eventually have to move out anyway, since I will have to nurse number 2).  We started the training about 1.5 weeks back, with us following our usual bedtime routine (stories and milk, prayer and nurse, sing a song), however, instead of me sleeping on a mattress next to his, I would go out.  Since we had already night-weaned him and he was able to fall asleep without me being right next to him, so it went ok for the first few days, with him falling asleep on his own with no protest at all.  He did wake up two or three times each night though, and we would go in to comfort him, while slowly extending the period of time we would wait before going in, and these waking sessions seemed to decrease in frequency (except for a night or two) until there were some nights where he would sleep through (with of course the usual stirring in between, but without requiring us to go in to comfort him).  There were one or two times where he did get upset that I did not stay with him until he fell asleep, but he managed to go back to sleep pretty quickly after some protesting.  Only once did we have a major meltdown, where he screamed and cried and did not let me out of the room, and would run out to pull me back in, but this was during the night when we had our bible study group over and I think the break in usual routine might have contributed to his meltdown.  But after that night (we were wondering if we should stop the training), everything went back to normal, so we thought the sleep-training was going ok.

He's still interested in learning and playing each day,
so we thought the sleep-training was not affecting him negatively.

However, even before the little boy started the sleep training, we noticed that his appetite had gone down the drain for about two weeks or so.  We initially blamed this on a sprouting molar (of which the gum still looks rather red and sore).  He was eating less than before, and would sometimes spit out certain foods (like meat), and there was one night when he woke up about 8 times, screaming and crying (that was before we even started the sleep-training).  Then we thought he had caught a tummy bug as well, since he started throwing up half-way through meals, and having loose stools for a few days.  That started less than a week ago, but seems to have resolved, however, his appetite has been getting worse and worse.

And to top it all off, he's started becoming more and more clingy and difficult, and it has been particularly bad for the past few days, especially this weekend.  So on top of not wanting to eat his meals, he would mess up his food on purpose and insist on having his way for everything.  With the hubby, he's been insisting on being carried all the time (he knows I will not carry him, so he doesn't try his luck with me most of the time).  We thought things were improving on Sunday when he woke up and was extremely co-operative for once with the hubby (I was away at a run), and he was his usual smiley, sweet self all the way to Sunday school... then after that everything changed.  He refused to sit down for lunch after church, then proceeded to knock his head on the table and howl the entire restaurant down.  Then when we went home, he refused to nap, and was so grumpy by dinner time, he threw a tantrum and refused to eat his dinner entirely.  This morning, I had this major tussle with him to get him changed out of his jammies, and got a few kicks in the tummy for my effort.  He later then threw up part of his breakfast, cried and wanted me to carry him when I had to cook his lunch (I had to leave him screaming on the sofa after reasoning with him failed), and it took quite alot of coaxing before he finished his lunch.  Its as if we took the wrong kid back from Sunday school yesterday.

I guess we've been blessed because Junior J has been quite mild-tempered and good-natured, and his terrible twos seemed to be quite manageable previously.  Now I wonder what happened to that dear little boy of mine.  Could the terrible appetite be still due to the molar?  (It has erupted 90%, and the boy seems to be ok chewing now.)  Then what about the recent bad behaviour?  I was initially worried that it was due to the sleep-training, but the problems started a week into sleep training, and for the few days at the start of the training he was more or less his usual sweet self.  Or perhaps the boy has not really hit the terrible twos yet, and is now experiencing it in full force?

Have any of you tried training your toddler to sleep on their own?  How did it go?   And did the eruption of molars cause any of your kids to really lose their appetite for a few weeks?  Meanwhile, I guess we can only wonder (but we are going to bring him to see a dentist, to be on the safe side), and pray for patience and wisdom to ride out this hopefully passing phase.  Parenting sure is challenging!