I'm looking for ideas... DD is 5-and-a-half months. She used to take herself off to sleep relatively well - down almost asleep into her carrycot in our room. She's grown too long this and so for the last four weeks she's been going down in her cot at night (still in our room). Once asleep, she generally wakes (mostly) once or (sometimes) twice for feeds.
Now, whenever we put her down half asleep, she startles and wakes, cries and arches her back. We've tried warming the bed, swaddling (which we'd stopped when she moved into the cot). In the end we resort to cuddling to sleep and putting her down asleep. Which would be fine (well...), except then she wakes after about 45 minutes and is inconsolable. Last night she woke at 8pm and screamed on and off - mostly when we tried to put her back in her cot, but sometimes when we layed her down in our arms to try and rock her to sleep. Eventually she fell asleep in my arms, in our bed and there she stayed.
I'm sure it's the cot that's changed things, but long-term co-sleeping isn't really an option - DH is away a lot but can't sleep on the sofa every night he's here!
Naps are similar (she cannot be put down awake), but we're generally out and about in the day so she naps in the sling/pram.
Sorry it's a bit long - thanks for reading.