Help! We have fallen victim to a yoga ball!

[poppyflower1803]

Hi everyone,

I have a four month old. She has been a fairly good sleeper (once asleep and in her crib) since newborn but I have always found it super difficult to get her to go to sleep. We have just gone through the sleep regression which I believe has reinforced some bad habits we used to use when newborn, one being bouncing on a yoga ball to get her to sleep. I am now finding it impossible to use any other method to get her to go to sleep apart from bouncing. She hardly ever feeds to sleep anymore and I have started some 'sleep training' by trying to put her in her cot while drowsy and she just screams until I pick her up and bounce her. It's become a real crux and is getting me down as I would like to sleep train her without using the cry it out method, but she will not respond to any comforting stimulus such as me stroking her head or singing lullabies or shushes unless she is bounced. How do I break this association? How the hell do I get her to fall asleep in the crib without me bouncing her?

She can self soothe, she falls asleep by herself in the car, and at night if she wakes up I have seen her self soothe herself back to sleep. We also use the same lullaby to signal sleep time and have a comfort bunny that she sucks lol. Why is it different for naps and when I am initially trying to get her to sleep at night.

Her schedule is all over the place but here is an example:

Please note: I am trying to get her into an earlier wake up and earlier bedtime. I think we need to drop her last nap and focus on a bedtime routine then. We are also having building work done which is making it nearly impossible to get her to sleep alone, though she is slowly becoming more accustomed to it.

Wake up: 9am

Nap: 10:30/11am for 40mins/1hour

Feed and play: 12pm

Nap: 1:30/2pm for an hour

Feed and play: 3pm

Nap: 4:30/5pm for 2-3 hours

Feed and play: 6:30/7pm

Nap: 8pm for 30mins -1 hours (trying to drop this nap!)

Feed and play: 9pm

Bedtime: 10/10:30pm

She then wakes a couple times a night for a feed but will sleep about 5-6 hours straight on a good night, will few and go back to sleep until 9.

Please help a very confused FTM.

@poppyflower1803 It's ok, I'd written 'her' you were right!

She was probably 5 months? 5.5? She had a little cot that rocked so one day, I just felt the time was right, popped her in there and gave her a bit of a rock and off she went.

I really wouldn't fret too much about nursery (hard as that is). They sleep so much differently there. Mine only really naps in her cot in a darkened room and stirs if someone walks past the door too noisily. At nursery, she sleeps on a mat in the corner.

You sound like a lovely mum, she's lucky to have you. Try and block out some of the noise and just enjoy your lovely baby ❤️

@Cashew22

Glad to know we aren't alone with the pram! I keep trying it as I'm hoping it is a bit more of a gentle way of introducing her to falling asleep independently, and sometimes we are successful while other times I abort mission completely and walk home with baby in one hand, pram in another!

I haven't thought about trying other slings if I am honest! It hasn't been my go-to in getting her to sleep as she spends most of the time trying to turn her head 180 degrees to look out! Though it's always worth another shot so I may give it a go and see where we end up.

Oh the amount of cold dinners I have had too 😅 I am hoping that she will naturally bring bedtime earlier and earlier herself, especially as the days start getting shorter and the nights a bit darker it might help signal our babies body clocks to go down a bit earlier! Because again, we can't force them to fall asleep earlier if they aren't ready (even if we know it's best for them lol!)

Yesterday was a nap disaster day for us too, must have been in the air! She was waking every 15 mins!