My 3.5 month old has recently started to become very upset every time we try and get her to go down for a nap or just before bedtime at night.
Before this started, getting her down for a nap was fairly simple. We'd rock her in our arms until she drifted off (with little to no fuss) and then we'd either leave her to sleep in our arms or pop her down to sleep independently. Now, as soon as we start to rock her she starts to cry, and it's not just a whiney cry, it's a genuine upset cry. We have to walk around with her, swaying and rocking her. She will fight it, wriggling in our arms, kicking her legs out and crying. She does go off to sleep eventually but then when she wakes up (around 30 mins later) she will immediately start to get irritable and cry again until we sit her up or do something else with her that doesn't involve trying to rock her back to sleep.
She's the same at night, only she sleeps for around 20/30 mins and then will suddenly start to wail (sort of like she's had a bad dream) and we have to get her up and walk around with her until she goes back off to sleep. Last night she did this twice before she stayed asleep until 6am - which isn't bad I know but this is very different from her usual sleep! She usually goes down around 11ish after her last bottle and stays asleep until 5/6am.
She is definitely tired when we are trying to get her to sleep and her wake windows are currently around 1hr 30 mins to 2hrs.
Please tell me this is a normal part of their development and it will get better! 😩