Squirming, back arching & crying before sleep

[Nightowly]

My 4.5 month old will seem pretty happy, comes to nap or bed time, if I put him into a position to rock him to sleep he immediately starts squirming, arching his back like he’s trying to escape my arms. He will sometimes settle and close his eyes then after a minute will squirm and kick again.
Crying accompanies this each time.
is this normal?
I’ve read various things about what it could be:

• over tiredness
• hunger
• not ready for sleep

Im struggling with him getting overtired but waking early from his naps, possible the 4 month sleep regression? The squirming and crying when trying to sleep has been at its worse since about 3.5-4 months old. It’s Not nice seeing him distressed trying to settle, I hope he can just relax and nod off calmly at some point! I take him upstairs to a dark room, away from distractions everytime. Has anyone experienced this, is there something I am doing wrong/should be doing that I might not be?

Is this after milk?

it sounds like you then put him into a cot so he associates this with being away from you

Everytime, whether he’s just fed or not

Sounds like reflux

I contact nap for a lot of his naps, but try to get one decent nap a day in his cot, where it’s quiet and free from distractions. It’s any time I try to get him to sleep:/

Maybe don’t put pressure on him to sleep. He will sleep when he needs to.

My 3 month old does this sometimes, although the accompanying noise is more of a shout than a cry! No issues with milk/digestion or over-tiredness, she is just fighting sleep 🤷🏻‍♀️ It’s just a stage and will pass.

You know your baby best though so if you think there’s anything underlying going on such as digestive issues see a GP.

I wish he did. He doesn’t, then gets overtired and very hard to settle. We’ve been stuck in an overtired cycle many times and it’s awful!

Thank you. Hopefully it will pass for us soon!

Mine was like that around 4/5 months old, if I put him in the carrier for naps he was fine but I used to try and do at least one nap out of the carrier and he would cry and squirm. It just stopped one day so I put it down to the sleep regression or just a phase. I hope it gets better for you, it’s so hard when you’re going through it!