3 1/2 Month Old Having Trouble Falling Asleep

The one thing you can be certain about when it comes to babies is that nothing is constant. Nothing in your baby's routine may have changed, but your baby is constantly changing.

It's actually quite unusual for for babies to be laid down and just go to sleep on there own. What you're experiencing right now is much more normal.

There is nothing wrong with rocking him to sleep. There is nothing wrong with him feeling safe in his mother's arms while he drifts off to sleep. Will he get used to it? Probably. But as I said, the only thing you can count on is change. Chances are, rocking will work for awhile and then he will once again require a change.

When my kids were that age they would often nurse to sleep. Later they rocked to sleep. After that stopped working I tried something else.

No matter what you find that works right now, chances are you'll have to adjust again soon.

My point is just try to relax and do what works. If he wants to be held, then hold him. He might be hungry, but he might just need to be near Mommy.

I rocked or nursed all mine to sleep. It was a sweet time with each of them that I will never get back. Now that my little guy who is 13 months and isn't nursing, I rock him through two lullabies from his mobile and then lay him in bed with his 'baby', some little small stuffed animal. I find this time to be one of the best of the day. Sometimes he falls asleep sometimes he just cuddles and gets sleepy. At 3 months I nursed all of mine to sleep which was so comforting for us both, there is actually a nice little relaxation hormone released when you nurse which is one of the reasons babies often fall off to sleep while nursing. Bottle feeding is fine too of course, not sure what you are doing. Anyway, I just threw this out there bc I did this but I didn't co-sleep, my older boys go to sleep just fine every night and always have and everyone has awesome teeth. So if you want to cuddle with baby before bed, it is just fine to do so :)

Yep, that's tends to happen at 4 months! It's because baby is becoming more aware of his surroundings. This will not be the only time you see a sleep regression. Check out http://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-patterns/baby-sle... has lots of great info on why this happens and how to help it. Both my kids went through this at about this time too...and it sucks! lol...hang in there!

He could be hungry or could have gas.
Do you burp him after you feed him eliciting a burp out of him?
Are you breastfeeding him or using formula? If formula-fed, he may have
develped an irritation to the formula.
I would put a call into the doctor to rule out something else.
At this age, I highly doubt he will become accostomed to to "having to be
rocked to sleep". I'd try that.

Get the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. I absolutely LOVED the book and it worked AWESOME for me. I recommend it to everyone on here with sleep troubles.

Newborns sleep a LOT. They sleep easily. Once they reach the age of your baby, they are more aware of their surroundings and like to stay awake to see what is going on. The book talks about the importance of sleep for infants, how long infants "wake periods" REALLY are, and tips for helping your baby develop healthy sleep habits. It really is a great read!! I HIGHLY recommend it!! :-)

Good luck!!

well i was going throught the same problem with my son and i try everything and finally i gave him some gas medicine and it helped a lot.. i was told that babys that drinks formula with iron they get gas really bad so if he eats formula with iron try that.. good luck