[ADVICE]2.5yr old with sudden sleeping troubles

My 2.5yr old son used to be an amazing sleeper, would go to bed without a fuss and sleep through the night. This was while he had his pacifier and was in his crib. About 6 weeks ago, by an amazing happenstance we were able to take his pacifiers away from him and his sleeping habits continued to be excellant. Unfortunately, the following weekend we were pressured into converting his crib into his toddler bed and that's when the disaster started. Bedtimes went from being 10minutes to being a 45minute yelling/crying fest, where he would finally go down because he was exhausted from being upset. As such, he has been quite sick twice during this time, and very sucky leading us to have him co-sleep in our bed for comfort (I acknowledge this can set things back, when he was sick prior to the disaster, co-sleeping would not hinder his regular sleep).My wife is expecting our third (we lost our 2nd at 24 weeks gestation), and experiencing nasty fatigue/nausea so I am responsible for getting our son to sleep. Not wanting for him to cry or make a fuss which will upset my wife (crying kids is an emotional trigger for my wife over our loss), I have become a bit of a pushover. Both my wife and I are at wits ends right now, we are getting agitated and angry at our son a lot quicker than any time before (we don't yell or hit, but we need to take breaks from him).Once my son does go to bed, he is now up 3-4 times a night crying out for myself or my wife. If it was simple whimpering we would let him self-soothe, but this is crying out for us. When we go to check on him, he lies back down and falls asleep, however if we try to leave he gets up again and cries worse.We don't know what to do anymore. His lack of proper sleep has started to affect his behavior, he is throwing massive tantrums, hitting us and throwing his toys. We are going to look into hiring a sleep coach to help us, but with it being the holiday season, no one is available until the New Year. Any advice would be amazing. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2inV723