5 Great Ways to Get Your Kids to Sleep

Congratulations! You are now a parent. Bringing home that bundle of joy is an experience like no other. On one hand it fills your heart with a joy and love like you never knew you could experience. On the other hand, sleep never sounded so good. Before the baby came people told you babies seem to be up all night, but you never knew how true that was until now. Nothing can truly describe the experience like living through it yourself. Here are a few tips on how to help train the newest member of your family to sleep.

1. Napping Now you have learned that babies sleep a lot. When they are not sleeping they are eating, pooping or crying. I have found that when I let my children sleep when their body needs to they go to bed better at night. A sleep deprived baby tends to be in overdrive. They get cranky, angry and they can't seem to calm themselves down. Funnily enough one of the best ways of getting my kids to sleep through the night was sleep itself. I found it was okay for them to sleep, for an hour or two, a few hours before bedtime. This way when it is time for bed they aren't frustrated and angry because of things they got in trouble for or boo boos they got because they were too tired from skipping a nap. The trick here is to have a relaxed child. If napping isn't the thing that works for your kid, try reading a book, playing with blocks, or the oh-so-forbidden TV. Whatever you can do to get your child calm before starting the bedtime routine.