Any ideas what could be causing

Blake to fight his sleep every night? He used to go to sleep and stay asleep easily, but not anymore. Pretty much every night for the last week he fights his sleep like crazy, either fussy and thrashing around in our arms or just wide awake and looking all around. I've been trying to do a sleep routine so for the last 2 weeks I give him a bath at around 6, then put on his pj's, read a story, feed him and then try to put him down but nothing works. I've rocked him and it takes forever and then he wakes up right away as soon as I put him down. The swing he will just wake back up and be wide eyed, swaddling worked once. The only thing that usually works but still takes forever is if I go lay down in my bed. I really don't want to keep doing that because I don't want to set him up to have bad sleep habits. With the twins I could just lay them down in the crib drowsy and they would just go to sleep, but he will not. One night I just held him for as long as he wanted to stay awake and he didn't fall asleep until almost 1 a.m. It started out only happening in the evenings but now he's starting to do it during the day too. I'm afraid the more sleep he misses out on the worse it's going to get. And wouldn't you know just not too long ago I was posting about him sleeping too much. LOL Any advice would be great, thanks!

 

Unless he's freaking out, I'd leave him be. Make sure the room is as dark as you can get it, comfortable temp and white noise. He'll soon associate those things with sleep. It's possible he's just now "waking up" and really noticing things around him.

 

Yeah if it's just at night time, it could just be that he's decided he doesn't want to sleep at night, he wants to be awake! A consistent routine is good, and I agree unless he's crying, I would just lay him down awake and see what happens! He may surprise you and conk out himself (eventually).

He's not showing signs of reflux or anything is he? He's not acting hungry? Have you tried cluster feeding him before bed? How is the room temp? Do you run a fan or white noise machine? Have you tried lullabies?

I use a fan and lullabies for my kids, it's always helped calm them down at bedtime and helps them realize that this routine, means bedtime!

 

I have tried laying him in his crib drowsy and he will usually fall asleep on his own although sometimes I have to go in a few times to give him his paci, but he usually always wakes up within 20 min. If I don't go get him right away he freaks out and I don't feel comfortable letting him CIO until 6 months. He does have some symptoms of reflux although it isn't bad, I see him making a chewing motion with his mouth and then makes a disgusted face and a strange noise so I think that is acid coming up in the back of his throat and he sometimes spits up a huge amount. He has been sleeping in bed with me pretty much since he was born and when I go to bed for the night he's fine, only waking up 2 times to eat and goes right back to sleep. Even if I go lay with him until he is asleep he will wake back up shortly after I get up. Our room is pretty chilly even though we have the heat in our house set to 70, that room never seems to get warm so I try to dress Blake warm. I have used a music machine with him but he doesn't really seem to care either way.

 

Sounds to me like he might be hitting that age where he is more aware of his surroundings and thus easily stimulated. I know you said that you tried swaddling once but I would try it again and stick with it a couple days to see if it helps. My DS used to fight the swaddle like crazy but once he was a snug little burrito baby he would settle down and fall asleep pretty quick. I also found that having a fan running in their room for white noise helped and after feeding and snuggling until they were sleepy or asleep I would lay them down very slowly and keep my hand on his belly for several minutes after laying him down so that he felt snug and secure. I always had lullaby music playing during the last feed of the night and this helped calm them and they seemed to nurse better with it on. I found with mine that until they were about 4 months I couldn't lay them down awake, but with the swaddle and the paci they let me rock them to sleep and then lay them down afterward.