How do YOU deal with a grumpy baby?

[cc1983]

Hi all, I would say 'morning', however If eel sure most of you have, like me, been up for HOURS!!!
How do you lot deal with a grumpy baby? By grumpy, I mean dry, fed, cuddled, talked to, played with but just grumpy.
My 4mo is INCREDIBLY alert, he is smiley, giggly, very strong and HUGE but.. BUT his tiredness comes on almost instantly, often he only looks away/ stares/ yawns/ rubs face AFTER the grumbling has started.
I'm finding the only way to get him to sleep is to put him down in the cot, let him grizzle, pick him up, comfort, put him down, let him grizzle, pick him up etc until he falls asleep on me then finally put him down.
This makes me feel like a terrible mother, but just jiggling/singing/patting/rocking in a darkened room can go on for SO long that he ends up working himself into a worse, more tired state.
Help!

If he's just grizzling (and not crying), can you leave him to fall asleep on his own without picking him up? At that age my DD would do this before falling asleep. If I picked her up it would take much longer for her to sleep. From birth I bounced her to sleep but around this age she seemed to want to be put down to sleep.

Around 4 months I started to put DD for naps at set times (ish). Even if she wasn't showing tired signs I knew she would be tired. Her maximum awake time then would have been around 2 hours I think.

There is also a 4 month sleep regression (google it) which doesn't help!

Totally agree with Poosnu. I figured this out only much later. If only I knew that at the time, it would have saved a lot of angst!!

Yep. Sometimes putting them down, walking away and getting on with something is the best thing to do. Obviously you'd go back if they got properly upset but sometimes babies just whinge their way to the land of nod and fussing just makes it take longer.

Also if you've done everything to make sure he's comfortable and he's going to be grumpy anyway stop making an effort to cheer him up. Stick him in a sling and go out or get on with some jobs. It probably won't make any difference to him but you'll be happier having achieved something rather than wasting your time trying to find a way to make him be content.

I'd put mine in a sling go for a walk or do a few jobs. they would then just fall asleep when ready. even if they vetted or grumbled I'd at least feel they weren't being left on there own.