Thanks for all your suggestions gals.

We don't want to do CC, usually we cuddle him until he's drowsy (he cries and carries on during this, too) then put him in his cot, then he'll really go to town with crying and flailing around. We try to pat him and sooth him until he drops off, but usually we end up picking him up and re-settling him that way a few times because he gets so upset. If we rock him to sleep he wakes up when we put him down anyway, and see above for the result of that... Even feeding him to sleep he wakes up when he's put back in the cot He sleeps in his cot for naps, too. He usually ends up going to sleep at about 11pm to midnight just because it takes so long to get him to sleep, we start trying at about 9 most nights.

We only use the baby bedtime oil on his feet as he's broken out in a rash from it before, he's still only breastfed, he's not teething as far as I can tell... I have no idea why he's so hard to get to sleep! Aren't sleep schools just controlled crying?