Sleeping woes and a nest?

I'm not sure if Elizabeth's arrival has triggered Caleb's sleeping woes, but the past few weeks has been a little trying when it comes to bedtime. Caleb has always been an awesome sleeper. We could put him to bed as early as 6:30pm on days when he skipped his nap and he would sleep until 7am the next morning. Those days have been missed!

Caleb has developed a fear of the dark and comes up with all kinds of things he "needs" to go to bed. A drink of water, his tractor, his other green blanket and any other item he may have left downstairs. He has been crying when we close his door and ends up falling asleep on the floor behind his door. Then he wakes periodically and kicks his door. I hate that he is afraid and so upset when bedtime was always a sweet time of reading, talking about our day and cuddling.
On top of having troubles falling asleep, Caleb has been waking up several times during the night crying. Sometimes he can be consoled and put back to bed and a few times he has either ended up in our bed or is up for the day around 6am. Not fun when I am up with Elizabeth at least once and Blake is up for work at 6am himself.
Well, last night Blake created a "nest" in the middle of Caleb's room with all of his blankets, 2 pillows, his beanbag chair and some stuffed animals. For whatever reason this provided a safe place to sleep because Caleb slept there until 4:30 without any crying or kicking his door. He did still need a light left on in his room, but that was progress. I was able to put him back in his nest at 4:30 after a trip to the bathroom and then he woke again around 5:30 and invited me to sleep in his nest with him. So, I laid on the floor and we slept/rested until 6:30. He is sleeping in his "nest" again tonight and hopefully the wakings will decrease. I miss hope this is all a phase! Poor Blake is going to have his hands full when I go back to working three nights a week in November!