Sound sleep advice for tired parents

January 4, 9:22 PMOrlando Parenting ExaminerRobyn Kurth

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A good night's sleep is great if you can get it.

If your baby or toddler has trouble sleeping through the night, it quickly becomes your problem too. Parents can find a myriad of articles on sleep solutions on the Web and entire books have been written about the subject. There is the Ferber method (best known for suggesting that babies cry themselves to sleep) the Brazelton way, the Sears Method and everything in between.

According to Babycenter.com, sleep training can begin during the first three months of infancy:

Beginning at about 6 weeks, you can reinforce your child's biological rhythms by establishing a regular bedtime routine. At about the same time every night, for instance, give him a warm bath, read him a book, and then feed him before putting him to bed. Try to get your baby up at around the same time every morning and put him down for naps at the same point in the day.

At this stage, consider your routine and your baby's sleep schedule as a work in progress: During the first three months of life, your baby will gradually sleep more at night and less during the day. You'll need to keep adjusting the schedule as your baby matures and develops.

My take on all of this? Do what works best for you and your child, because each child will have different sleeping patterns at each developmental stage of their life, and what worked for your firstborn may not work for your other children.

Case in point, as a brand new mother I couldn't bear the thought of my firstborn son crying himself to sleep, so I spent the first two years of his life watching a lot of Late Night with Conan O'Brien while I was rocking him to sleep, followed by Insomniac Music Theater on VH1 when he would wake up 3 or 4 hours later. The transition to the big boy bed seemed to fix that problem and he sleeps like a rock to this day.

My daughter, on the other hand, learned to soothe herself to sleep during infancy, because as all subsequent siblings soon discover, she was not the only child in the house. She continues to alternate between glorious periods of sleeping through the night for weeks or months at a time, and then back to extended stretches where Mommy basically comes to expect a 1:00 a.m. Wake up call.

Take from that what you will, or share your own story here. One thing is for certain, each child's sleeping patterns are as unique as they are.