DD has, for the past 6m at least, settled herself happily to sleep every night/day. I could kiss her goodnight and leave after stories, and wouldn't hear another peep.
Now suddenly, literally overnight, she has started screaming blue murder as soon as I lift her into bed. She wants cuddles/more milk/my bed/more cuddles/another book, etc.
I pretty sure it's a 'testing the limits' thing, but the problem is, I have never done controlled crying, and I don't really want to start now.
She won't allow any form of 'in bed' comforting until she has gone through at least a half hour of screaming (it goes from a tantrum to genuinely upset) and even then won't settle for ages (tonight the whole thing was two hours long) I went from calm to firm to angry to furious to shut-down mode.
So my questions are:
Why is she doing it?
What can I do other than leave her to cry (really not an option, but neither do I want to completely give in each time she wants out of her bed.)
If it happened with your toddler, was it a phase or did it turn into a long-term behaviour?

I think I'm starting to ramble a bit - probably some burst blood vessels in my brain - I'll leave it at that. Ta