Putting the Babies to Bed

How to get little ones to sleep through the night may be the most hotly debated topic among parents. Whether it's co-sleeping or crying it out, parents seem to hold fast and hard to their beliefs about what works best.

And it's no wonder. After trying method after method, when you've find one that allows you to close your eyes and keep them closed for more than an hour at a time, you stick to it.

Since I'm now on my third child, I know that what works for one kid has no bearing on what works for another. My oldest child never wanted to sleep. My second one would sleep for hours. Of course, now the older one is up and ready for school on time and the younger would sleep forever if you let her. I think the third falls somewhere in the middle, but I'm not sure. She's the third, so she sort of has to take life as it comes.

Parents are known for loving to share both their sleep-inducing advice as well as their woes. For those of you out there without circles under your eyes and babies under two, what is your secret? Is it a trick you learned from your grandmother's grandmother? If it's crying it out, how long do you let them cry? If it's co-sleeping, when do they move into their own bed? Whether you are brand new parents or old pros with four-plus kids in college, your advice is welcomed, loved and, for the parents working on 45 minutes a night, NEEDED!