Ask any parent with children, under the age of 12, what is the most important thing in their lives and I'm willing to bet just about anything they will unanimously say SLEEP. 

  It's the difference between a happy child and a screaming one. A pleasant mealtime and a total breakdown...either your child's or yours... I don't judge. Music lessons, soccer practise or homework usually go smoothly with a well rested child. Usually.

  The big question is how to make sure your child sleeps enough. We all know the "crying it out" for infants. We've probably all tried it. It's hit and miss because most parents cave before we ever find out if it does work. With the first child any way. 

  We try co-sleeping mostly because as parents we really need to get some rest too. At least this way we get a solid six hours even if they are spent hanging on to the side of the bed so we don't fall off.  Again no judging here, even though this is my absolute last resort.

 Noise machines, routines, set bedtimes....the list is unending. As parents we will try absolutely anything that will get them, and keep them, asleep.  And we will ask total strangers their secrets to sleeping angels....the only topic we will easily take parenting advice for.

  I have crawled out of rooms, laid under cribs holding my child's finger and sat on cold floors all in the name of sleep. My all-time low happened when the bug dreams were a nightly event and I would run around the room with a Kermit the Frog stuffy eating the bugs my son could see. 

  The answer to a child's sleep problems? Time. Plain and simple. Time. Almost every child will just one day start sleeping. Through the night. Every night. For no apparent reason. We just need to stay alive long enough to see it.

  Then they become teenagers and sleep all day...then we don't want them to.

  Ang