4 month old struggling at bedtime

[Maufki]

My 4 month old sleeps well at night. However I’m really really struggling with bed time, when she used to come to bed with us at 10pm she went straight to sleep. Now we’ve moved bedtime earlier I’m bouncing her for ages to get her to sleep. She’s clearly tired, yawning, rubbing her eyes etc but is just fighting it. What else can I try?? If she stays up until 10pm she’s really grumpy and just cries until we go to bed anyway

What are her naps like? And what time do you start trying to get her to sleep? Might just need a bigger gap?

She largely refuses to nap in the day apart from the odd stint in the pram on a walk occasionally. We do bath time about 6.30 so it’s 7/7.15 by the time I start trying to put her down

So she's awake all day? That seems impossible for a four month old, she must be massively overtired. I'd work on trying to get at least 2/3 naps in during the day. It sounds counter intuitive but better sleep during the day equals better sleep at night.

Oh that sounds hard. I have a very low sleep needs child and I never got much of naps either. He's always gone to bed pretty late though... currently still resisting bedtime and now he's 4 years so argues 😭

Also agree with just trying to get her to sleep more during the day in whatever what works! We used to have to go out and about

If she is not sleeping until 10pm and having no naps in the day she must be exhausted. You need to get her to sleep during the day in pram/car/rocking any method you can.

Have you tried the Huckleberry app sweet spot subscription? Honestly found it a life saver that helped increase naps for both my older kids and going to purchase it again soon for my 2 month old.

Bed time if they routinely won't sleep til later I wouldn't even bother trying until later. Why spend hours trying to get them to sleep if you know they won't, it's just frustrating for all of you!

My 4 month old LOVES bath time to the point it totally overstimulated him. I would move bath time earlier.

I'd ditch the routine when they're that young (especially if it's not working) and just let her sleep when she wants to sleep. My daughter is seven months and we've only just started her with a loose bedtime routine now.