Renegotiating sleep

Maren has been having some ups and downs. She is going through the typical toddler stuff of being upset when things don't go her way, but also not really being able to communicate exactly what she wants and/or not being able to understand why what she wants is impossible or unreasonable. Some photos of lunch yesterday - I can't remember what was upsetting, but I do recall that our attempts to console her were rejected, at least at first. 

We are also suddenly dealing with a change related to sleep. Basically, it has come down to needing someone to lay on the floor of her room, both during naps and while she is falling asleep for the night. Naps have always been inconsistent and challenging, but for a long time now nights have mostly been easy. And they still mostly are - Maren still sleeps 11-12 hours straight at night, without waking us up. 

But Friday night we had a babysitter who was to stay with Maren after bedtime so we could go out on a date - we haven't gone out for a nighttime date in almost two years. This was the second time we had this babysitter, and expected bedtime to be like normal - routine and easy. But it wasn't - 45 minutes of trying everything, Maren screaming, and then finally she went to sleep in her crib with Jeff in the room (she wouldn't even try to go to sleep in my lap, despite being obviously beyond tired). Then last night she fell asleep three times with Jeff laying on her floor, but the first two times woke up as he was sneaking out. 

We have heard that toddler sleep can be a nightmare, and are afraid of what we might be headed into, even though things are not so bad yet. Things that have worked for us in the past are not working now. I hope that this change is temporary, but I guess we will see!