Sigh

Trying to figure out how to get Riley to sleep at night. Maybe a routine. I've read it often helps to give him a bath, read him a book, feed, then lay him down. They say to lay them down before they're fully asleep, so they get used to falling asleep on their own. But if he's not ready to sleep, he kicks and fusses. He makes noises like he's about to get angry, and he scratches his face, and he grabs fist fulls of his hair.

I want him to learn to sleep on his own, but I don't want him scratching and pulling his hair. Do I just ignore it until he starts to cry? I don't always pick him up right away, sometimes I rub his chest and talk to him quietly but that never seems to calm him down. If he's acting hungry I'll feed him and try to put him back down but then he's wide awake, and is up for about an hour longer.

He doesn't seem to get sleepy after a bath. I'm not sure if it's counter productive. Nothing seems to make him sleepy but the swing, and as soon as you pick him up he normally wakes up.

So we're looking for suggestions on how to get a fussy baby to sleep better. He'll sleep an hour or two, then he'll be up for an hour or two, and we'll do that all night. It's really exhausting us.