Whoever came up with the saying “I slept like a baby” had no children. Here are Nanny’s rules for getting some rest.

Are you one of those couples who take turns to soothing the baby to sleep? Are you having baby sleep on your chest in the rocker? Are you driving baby around in the car or swaying baby to ­Carpenters’ love songs at 3 a.m.? Well, if you’re at the end of your rope and need some help, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

By Nanny Stella of Nanny 911

On the other hand, if you are a person who is happy to meet the demands of your baby to be nursed, rocked, cuddled, brought into your bed, or even played with on her ­timetable as opposed to ­training—and yes, I did say training—your baby to sleep through the night, then do not read on. I do not want to waste your time. I am writing this for exhausted parents who want to get some sleep.

My credentials and experience include being a postpartum doula and baby nurse. In fact, my specialty over the past 10 years has been in sleep training babies. There are many people out there like myself who are paid to alleviate the sleep problem and there are lots of books and DVDs on the topic. I believe parents seek advice on sleep training children of all ages more than any other parenting problem. So you can at least take some solace in the fact that you are not alone.

A simple set of rules
First rule of sleep with a newborn: Sleep when the baby sleeps—as hard as this can be with email to reply to and thank-you cards to send.