u/PNWLovee

Our daughter is 4.5 months old and has always been extremely high-needs and fussy. She’s healthy, growing well, and we’ve seen both her pediatrician and a pediatric GI specialist. Neither has any concerns, so at this point we think she may simply have a very sensitive temperament.

We’re struggling with sleep and would love advice.

For naps, she currently only contact naps while being bounced on a yoga ball. Not just to fall asleep—we have to continue bouncing the entire nap. My husband and I literally trade off every 30 minutes because if we stop, she wakes up. If we try to transfer her to the crib, she wakes almost immediately.

She cannot fall asleep independently. Her wake windows are also quite short for her age—about 1 hour 20 minutes before she becomes overtired. Because of that, she’s taking around 6 naps per day. Her first nap is sometimes about 1 hour 10 minutes, but most of the others are around 45 minutes even while contact napping.

At night, she does sleep in her crib, but since transitioning out of the swaddle she has been waking roughly every hour. Prior to this, sleep wasn’t great, but it was significantly better.

We’re at the point where the yoga ball is completely unsustainable and we’d love to help her learn other ways to fall asleep and stay asleep. Has anyone had a baby with a similar temperament who successfully transitioned away from constant bouncing and contact naps? What worked for you?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Our daughter is 4.5 months old and has always been extremely high-needs and fussy. She’s healthy, growing well, and we’ve seen both her pediatrician and a pediatric GI specialist. Neither has any concerns, so at this point we think she may simply have a very sensitive temperament.

We’re struggling with sleep and would love advice.

For naps, she currently only contact naps while being bounced on a yoga ball. Not just to fall asleep—we have to continue bouncing the entire nap. My husband and I literally trade off every 30 minutes because if we stop, she wakes up. If we try to transfer her to the crib, she wakes almost immediately.

She cannot fall asleep independently. Her wake windows are also quite short for her age—about 1 hour 20 minutes before she becomes overtired. Because of that, she’s taking around 6 naps per day. Her first nap is sometimes about 1 hour 10 minutes, but most of the others are around 45 minutes even while contact napping.

At night, she does sleep in her crib, but since transitioning out of the swaddle she has been waking roughly every hour. Prior to this, sleep wasn’t great, but it was significantly better.

We’re at the point where the yoga ball is completely unsustainable and we’d love to help her learn other ways to fall asleep and stay asleep. Has anyone had a baby with a similar temperament who successfully transitioned away from constant bouncing and contact naps? What worked for you?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Our 4 mo old has colic and we’ve tried: chiro, alimentum, massages for gas, mylicon, goat formula, etc. with no relief.

Her wake windows are now almost 1.5 hours regularly. Her first nap of the day is 1 hr 10+ mins and the rest are 45-1 hr…. but they’re all while we bounce her on the yoga ball. She wakes up almost immediately if we transfer her to crib. How do we get away from the yoga ball? Our backs are KILLLLING us. It’s so bad. We are now able to go out in public a bit with her because her wake windows have gotten longer (50 mins-1 hr without crying, the rest of the time is spent bouncing her to sleep.) Otherwise we are stuck inside at home all day every day because she needs the yoga ball to calm down and sleep.

when she starts crying she doesn’t stop until we bounce her. swaying in our arms, rocking in chair, nothing. she will scream until she’s bounced and calmed back down.

please help lol. I can’t tell if this is habit now or she genuinely needs this to regulate her nervous system. I think she needs it for regulation but my body is in so much pain I need an alternative. she doesn’t like to be worn in the carriers either.

I want to know how you got through this/ when you got through this. everywhere I look says it should’ve stopped at 4 months. so to be 4.5 months and still going through it I feel like it’ll never end.

she used to be easier at nights. shed sleep 3 then 2 then 1.5 hour stretches in that order for the night and I could sit in the rocking chair and rock her with a bottle to put her back to sleep. the past week she screams if we try to rock her at night and she’s needing the bouncing during the night to get her back to sleep. even drinks her bottle while bouncing. please help