Baby keeps waking a few minutes after being put down

[Plateofcrumbs]

I've got a 4 month old baby who started off very clingy but we have managed to get him to sleep in crib at night and usually does ok stretches when finally settled (4-6 hours before first wake up to feed).

The problem is that for the first hour or two he nearly always wakes up a few minutes (maybe 5 mins, maybe 20mins) after we have put him down. He has to be rocked to sleep in our arms and the only way to settle him again is to pick him up and rock then try again. This is about half a dozen times each evening.

Any tips on how we can make him less likely to wake so often in the early evening?

[Redling]

When is his last sleep before bedtime? I find that if my 14 week DS is overtired and cross at bedtime he will not feed fully before he goes down and so wakes about 3 times the first hour before going down for 5 hours. It's like he wakes up a bit, remembers he's in a massive tired grump and so he cries. But if he naps until about 90 mins before bed he's calm and has a nice big feed and we have no 'call backs' as we call them! I never thought letting him sleep more before bedtime would make it better but it does.

[Plateofcrumbs]

I tend to try to leave about 2hrs between waking from his last nap to starting to get him to sleep. Maybe it's too much? He isn't showing obvious signs of overtiredness though, but I can give that a try.

Wakings during the night are usually fairly straightforward - he is usually easy to put back down, or might have a little grizzle that can be soothed without having to pick him back up.

[Plateofcrumbs]

Sigh - worse than ever tonight, only getting 5 mins after we put him down and taking loads of rocking to get him back to sleep each time.

[BabyHaribo]

Plate I think I'm in the same situation!

DD is 4 months and just will not stay asleep! Wakes constantly in the evening as last few nights all night as well!

The only way to settle her seems to be co sleeping which I'm not keen on. Arghhhhh I wish babies had a manual!

[fuzzywigsmum]

OP I had this with DD2 - sounds v similar to her although we'd got into the habit of feeding. Some babies jolt in and out of sleep as they go into a deep sleep, so if they get used to a prop to help them sleep eg rocking or feeding, they need that prop to be there until they fall deeply asleep and every time they come out of a sleep cycle. We ended up sleep training DD2 at 5 months as we decided quality of her sleep was so crap and she often ended up screaming an hour a night anyway because she wasn't able to fall asleep. It felt harsh as she was a clingy baby but I felt it was our only option.