we love routines, we love everything that can make your life as a mom easier. Well,

the number one thing that has made my life as a mom easier is "the crib". You might think,

when you bring a little tiny baby home from the hospital, that he looks very lonely in

a big old crib and actually many people invest in a bassinet for this reason. I actually

say, "Save your money." You can comfortably, safely, and easily put your baby in the crib

from day one. Now, many people don't do this. Many people co-sleep and actually many moms

are just too exhausted to get out of bed in the early days. They end up nursing their

baby in their beds. This is not something I've chosen to do for two reasons and they're

personal to me. Number one, my husband is a very late sleeper and he needs to get up

and go to work the next day, and it was pretty hard for him to be woken up during the night

by me dealing with the baby in our bed. I also found, though, all those little adorable

noises that the baby makes to be a very hard thing for me to fall asleep with. So, that

the noise factor was one thing and also I was just worried about harming the baby. I

was worried about rolling over. So, I just chose from day one to put my baby in the crib.

And it actually has really worked for us. A lot of people ask me, how have you survived

having had five kids in six and a half years? And this is what I tell them. "I think that,

they've never really had the notion of sleeping in my bed." And I'm gonna say something that's

gonna make a lot of people think I'm a really bad mother. Ready? I have never once had a

child in my bed, ever. I mean, they've come in my bed to read at the end of the day and

that sort of thing, but I've never had a child sleep in my bed, not even once. And they actually,

my kids, have this very secure feeling in their own beds and they never have put into

question the fact that at the end of the day, I go to my bed and they go to their beds.

So, this has worked for me and if its something you wanna do, give it a try. Now, how do you

do this? Okay, you're gonna be out with your baby, you're gonna be taking walks, you're

gonna wanna meet people. Here's what I suggest. Obviously, you can't just sit at home waiting

for the time when your baby is gonna nap. Say, "Sorry, can't have lunch. Gotta be at

home." You do that a little bit, try to have your baby nap as much as you can, at home.

When you're at home and you see your baby starting to nod off and its time for your

baby's nap, swaddle her if your still swaddling, or otherwise just get her in the crib. When

you're out once in a while and your baby falls asleep in the stroller, fine, don't sweat

it and you might find that once your baby's asleep, if your coming home, its too disruptive

to then wake her up and transfer to the crib. So, don't sweat those times when your baby's

out and you're having fun and baby's in the stroller. Have fun, that's what you need to

do as a new mommy, you need to get out. But when you can, consider, as I did, putting

your baby in the crib because it might really give you a very nice break. It might make

your life as a mom much easier and down the line, it might make it much easier for you

to sleep through the night and not have a lot of the sleep training issues that all

of us have to deal with as our kids get older.