Like 99.9 percent of new parents, my husband and I tried everything on the list [1] to get our newborn to calm down and go to sleep at night. We tried the chair, the swing, a baby wrap, and taking her on walks and mostly resorted to walking down the hallway in the dark, rocking and shushing her, for what felt like hours. Parenting a newborn is exhausting on so many levels [2], and these late-night sessions felt like the final straw that could break both of us.

Enter: the stability ball [3] ($16). This kind of yoga ball has so many uses [4] already, but I had no idea it was also a baby whisperer. It started with a friend texting us. Then I joined a mommy-and-me group that had balls on hand for everyone to use during meetings. It was like this secret no one talked about and everyone but us somehow knew: bouncing their babies to sleep on a stability ball. It was genius!

Within minutes of bouncing our daughter, she calmed down completely. We started using the ball every night and it became our little trick to calm her down at any fussy moment. Aside from just plain working, the ball came with some other perks.

• We already owned it!
• We didn't have to leave the room but could carry on conversation or watch TV while bouncing.
• Bouncing on the ball turns out to be a little bit of a core workout.
• It's a rare opportunity as a new parent to actually sit down.
• And it's not as tiring as walking back and forth . . . forever.

While no two babies are the same, the ball seems to be a trick that works for most. If you're having trouble getting your newborn to sleep, give it a whirl.