Put down awake only works sometimes?

[SugarPlumFairyTale]

My LO is about 4.5 months and fell asleep on his playmat the other day. So for midday nap today I decided to see if I could put him down awake in his crib (never tried before). Usually I rock him to sleep. Well to my surprise he wriggled around for 10 minutes and fell asleep. He then did this again for the afternoon nap. Proud mum! However at bedtime I did the same thing and he screamed the place down. Why is it harder at bedtime than for naps :( if it helps he is exclusively breast fed and he doesn’t have a dummy (won’t take one)

It is the same for my DD too. Sometimes she wiggles for a few minutes and falls sleeo. Othertimes, she needs to be rocked along with a pacifier she sucks furiously!

I think the background noise of day to day things helps them to nod off. Whereas at night everything is quieter. Remember it was probably very loud in the womb only a few months ago!