Battles with night time sleeping

[Poppy708]

Can anyone help me? Recently I have been really struggling with night time sleeps with my nearly 4 month old. We’ve tried setting a routine and follow sleep cues and do a change of clothes / nappy change / feed and massage to help settle down - but it doesn’t seem to work and our baby really fights going to sleep even though showing all the signs of being tired. I’m finding I’m getting more and more anxious every night bedtime nears as it feels like a real battle. We have to sway / shush and bounce baby for what feels like forever to help settle all the while crying and screaming we obviously hate seeing baby this way so try and pause by putting baby down to see if that might help to settle but it just feels like nothing is working and I feel like a failure. Baby recently had a growth spurt / development leap and injections and the recent hot weather to contend so I’m just hoping it’s just a phase as before this baby would settle around 7-8pm and have a solid stretch of 4-5 hours sleep being stirring for a feed. Does anyone have any advice or do I just accept this is how bedtimes are going to be for the feasible

Sounds really tough. My son used to really fight his sleep when he got overtired (screamed and cried despite being rocked/shushed etc.) not sure if this is the case for your little one?
We had to be quite strict with routine/wake windows to ensure he wasn't too tired for bedtime.

Please don't feel like a failure. It is normal for babies to fight sleep however you definitely don't have to accept that this is how bedtime is going to be- there should be things you can do to make bedtime easier x

Thank you @sleephelpp yep we get a lot
of screaming and crying despite trying to soothe by shushing and rocking. We have been trying to be strict with wake windows and naps during the day but think we need to relook at it. Baby is only managing 1-1.5hr wake windows at the moment before wanting to sleep. We try and get in early to help settle before it becomes a fight to sleep - sometimes it works others it doesn’t. Really found it a hard slog this past few weeks I felt a bit more reassured when we had longer spells of sleep without being a battle but I’m hoping it’s just a phase.