Separation Anxiety

Anxiety is right. we've been going through some major stuff over here at the Martin household lately. Now, I really try not to self diagnose or armchair doctor but it is safe to say that Cash is struggling with serious separation anxiety. it started pretty innocently with not wanting to be dropped off at daycare which turned into not wanting to let mommy or daddy leave the room or get in the shower or do anything away from him to a full on night time explosion when going to bed. We do our normal night time routine and as we are finishing our last book and saying our "night-nights" Cash will beg and plead for you not to leave. "Lay with me a little longer," or "sleep in my bed tonight" or "no mommy, don't go" are his usual. When you tell him no and leave the room he goes hysterical and screams and cries and kicks the door in a panic. i've tried to do my research and make sure that this is "normal" and that he isn't bordering on a disorder and it seems that this is pretty typical for 2.5 year old kids but that doesn't make it any easier to hear.
The other night he woke up at 1am screaming for me and we couldn't get him back to sleep until 4:30am (when Cooper promptly woke up!). He was trying anything and everything he could to stay awake and to keep me in his sights.
The past 2 nights have been better. we put him to bed and he screamed for about 30 minutes, i went in and laid with him and he fell asleep. i probably shouldn't have gone in but he was totally hysterical and just getting more and more worked up. he was asleep by 8:30 though and slept through the night. Last night he wasn't asleep when Chandler left the room (he was singing "Sunny days, taking the clouds away, Elmo's world" - the mash-up!) but he fell asleep on his own. He gave us two good screams in the middle of the night (1:30am) but never really woke up. He got up at 5:30am which i will take as a victory. I asked him about screaming in the night, he said he woke up because he was sad and wanted mommy but i don't know if he actually remembers.
Anyway, Chandler and Cash go to Oregon tonight so we'll see how this screws everyone's sleep up - except Cooper and I, we are going to sleep for 3 days straight!!