3 month old cries before naps

Katherine

Hello everyone! I would love some advice and suggestions as to what may be the problem. My daughter (just turned 3 months) is typically a happy girl. she is happy when she wakes up from her nap, she eats, and then has about 20 minutes of happy play time before she she starts to fuss until she is picked up. Then she gets more and more distressed (sometimes wailing) as she gets closer to her naptime and will cry until she falls asleep. Her wake window is 1h15-1h30, so I end up spending about 40 minutes just bouncing her on an exercise ball or pacing my living room. Articles only say that she’s overtired, but she has a good wake window and I can’t get her to fall asleep any sooner even if I start bouncing her/soothing her sooner. I want to sleep train her, but I’ve read that you shouldn’t until they are 4 months. I just assumed this was how she needs to unwind for each nap, but my mother in law says it isn’t normal for a baby to cry that much before sleep and thinks maybe she is having a colon spasm and is very uncomfortable right up until her nap… but I can’t find any information on that and it doesn’t seem to address the signs that indicate that her discomfort increases the more tired she is. This past week the crying has gotten significantly worse and she will only settle if I bounce her, not my husband (poor dad). Maybe it has gotten worse because of a sleep regression? Has anyone had the same thing with their little one? Could there be something else going on or is this just her way of unwinding before sleep/feeling sleepy makes her uncomfortable?