Bedtime terrors?

Oliver has developed an odd behavior at bedtime recently and I am wondering if he experiencing his first nocturnal fears. Or at least voicing them for the first time.

When he goes to bed, I have noticed that he lies in his cot (which still has its bars - a whole other debate!) at the edge of his mattress with his right arm around Julien and his left hand on his left cheek. He seems to find this comforting. OK, noticable but not worrying.

For some time he has also made odd comments about Barney. Quite often, out of the
blue he will say "Barney won't bite me" in a serious but slightly concerned tone. This seemed to happen more at bedtime.

But what has concerned me is that at sometimes during his bedtime routine he will suddenly change from my lively cheery boy who is looking to choose extra toys to take to bed and find a way to have just one more story into someone quite different. He will stop talking and hold both hands to his cheeks and eyes as if to hide his face. Then all he wants to do is go to bed. When I ask him why, he's say things like "Is Barney coming?" or "Barney's not here". Sometine I distract him out of it, but other times he just goes quietly to bed.

I don't like it. And I don't know where it has come from. And why Barney? He loves Barney! I haven't seen it for a few nights but I doubt it has gone altogether. I just keep trying to reassure him and go straight into his room now if he cries out, which is getting quite exhausting as Lucy is also teething and keeping us up. (In fact I'm now full of a cold with a temperature of 101F at one point today.)

Maybe it's just a game. It's so hard to tell. But I'd rather be safe than sorry.