sleep deprivation

New moms often miss out on rest because their kids aren't sleeping through the night, but catching the right amount of sleep doesn't get any easier as moms age.

If your baby is waking up every hour or two to breastfeed, bottle-feed, or locate his pacifier, you may be wondering just what it is that causes him to wake up so often. The reality is that brief nighttime awakenings are a normal part of human sleep, regardless of age. All babies experience these. The difference with your baby, who requires nighttime care every hour or two, is that he is involving you in all his brief awakening periods.

Do you have a new baby? Congratulations! Do you have one or more small people running amuck in your home? How wonderful. Does that home now more closely resemble a bomb crater than it does a dwelling place fit for human beings? Are you picking your way through the debris -- the rubble of strollers, bottles, dirty clothes, and talking plastic gizmos...

I knew that new parents were supposed to be sleep deprived, but I had never expected anything like this. What's the best sleep strategy for exhausted new parents? How can you be there when you baby needs you, but still get some rest?

Sleep, for parents and baby is precious, and luckily there are many ways to help improve the length and quality of it for all. For babies under a year old....What if your child is older; a toddler who needs more than a bit of encouragement to enter dreamland?