Lately I’ve been reading Rocks in My Dryer, which hosts Works For Me Wednesdays. This is where bloggers can share tips and suggestions that have worked for them. This week, I thought I’d jump in with what has worked for me for soothing a fussy baby…
Yoga Ball
At the recommendation of our prenatal class instructors, my husband and I bought a yoga ball as an aid in labour. He got it blown up, despite a bad pump, and we practiced a few of our pain-coping strategies with it. I thought about taking it to the office (a few of my coworkers had balls under their desk to help with back pain and posture), but never got around to it. We did take it to the hospital with us, and at one point it helped alleviate the pain of the contractions as I sat on it rocking back and forth. Then we brought it home again, and it bounced from corner to corner in our apartment. I figured it was a good thing we hadn’t spent that much on it, as we’d barely used it.
It has since gotten more use. One day when Sunshine was about a week old, she wouldn’t stop fussing. I fed her. I burped her. I changed her. Still she fussed. I rocked her and sang to her and swung her in my arms. Still she cried. I dropped down on the ball and bounced twice, just for a break from pacing with her. She stopped crying and looked about with her big blue-grey eyes. I bounced some more. Blessed silence filled the apartment, other than the squeaking of the bouncing ball. Finally, something to soothe her fussiness!
Since then, the ball has become my guaranteed anti-fuss strategy. When nothing else works to calm her down, bouncing on the ball for ten minutes or so will. I usually hold her upright against my chest while we bounce, and she looks around, making me wonder what she can see and what she thinks. Often her eyes will start to droop and I can slow down the bouncing until she’s on the verge of sleep. So if you have a yoga ball and a fussy baby… perhaps they’ll also go well together.
6 Comments
When your little one gets older you can start using the ball in the bathroom for tubby time. That is what I use to give my 2 year old a bath so that I don’t have to torture my knees!
Good idea !
Oh, I so could have written this post (even the bit about buying it for pregnancy and labour and not really using it much for the intended purpose and being glad I only bought it on eBay)! 9 months on the yoga ball is still a winner.
sounds awesome! Great tip!
We learned about bouncing on a yoga ball with our first and still use ours all the time with our 2nd. It works better than rocking to get him to sleep! And when he was a newborn I would put him in the Moby wrap, sit on the ball, bounce, and I had free hands to read or type on the computer while he went to sleep!
Love those accidental discoveries!