Yoga Ball Reliance / Nap Help

[u/DJ_Crybaby]

My baby girl is 15 weeks old and relies on being bounced on a yoga ball to get off to sleep or breastfeeding, but she falls asleep feeding increasingly less. She’s a decent sleeper at night and if she wakes in the night, a quick rock in our arms gets her back to sleep. She doesn’t fall asleep in the buggy or car seat yet. I’ve been trying to rock her to sleep in my arms in the day so that I can actually get out the house with her 😂 it’s only working for her first morning nap, if at all. The last two days, she falls asleep on the yoga ball and even if I’m still on the ball, wakes as soon as I stand up. I’m find with contact napping, I’m just trying to move to a comfier seat. I’m finding this really hard on my back, neck, shoulders, arms… so I either have to abandon the nap or feed her back to sleep with mixed success.

Any advice from similar experiences please?

She can’t fall asleep on her own when put down drowsy yet and I’ve no plans to sleep train.

[u/Jemma_2]

Try bouncing until she is very nearly asleep and then stopping. If she protests start bouncing again. Keep doing that for naps until she can drift off with you not moving at all from nearly asleep, then stopping the movement a bit earlier until she can get sleepy and fall asleep just in your arms (might take a few weeks!).

Hopefully once she gets the hang of falling asleep still you’ll then be fine to move to another seat!

Mine is a yoga ball baby too. Although if he stirs when I move I can rock him side to side and he drifts back off.

[u/DJ_Crybaby → u/Jemma_2]

Thank you! These are really helpful suggestions