Sleep.

The word alone triggers parents everywhere.

There are countless books and approaches to baby sleep. The only approach I can highly recommend is a mindset one: adjust your expectations.

It's amazing how much more manageable disrupted and limited sleep becomes when your expectations are that there will be a lot of disrupted and limited sleep in these early years (or is it forever now that you're a parent?).

Our family took an adjust expectations and no-to-minimal crying approach, and these "No Cry Sleep Solutions" books gave us a solid framework and several technique and approaches for different ages and stages. If our approach sounds like your family's style, I highly recommend these books. (That said, I have been home with the kids, so this more go with the flow approach has been more accessible to me than if you need to  return to work and they need to be on more of a regimented schedule). 

The other great piece of advice that all the "sleep experts" (eyeroll) give is to develop some sort of bedtime routine. Since reading books is a central part of ours, I thought I'd share some of the bedtime picture books that have been a hit with our kiddos (even if by "hit" I mean they have inspired our preschooler to ask us to read  them over and over again in an attempt to *not* go to sleep. Oops. What can I say? Bedtime is a continual work in progress over her).

The last three "Buddha Bedtime" books are for the older set. Each collection is filled with short tales that teach an important less. Each book also contains a few guided meditations you can read to your little one to help them off to a peaceful sleep.

Finally, when someone innocently tells you to "sleep when the baby sleeps."

You can shoot back: "Sleep when the baby sleeps; Do laundry when the baby does laundry." ;P

P.S. For more books in the Mamihood Series, click here to check out my full Bookshop.

www.liyunalvarado.com

Disclosure: This list contains affiliate links; if you buy something featured, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work in this way!

Li Yun Alvarado is the author of the poetry chapbook Words or Water. Her work has appeared in VIDA Review; The Acentos Review; and Aster(ix) among others. Through her writing, advocacy, and teaching, she strives to amplify Puerto Rican and other underrepresented voices while supporting aspiring and emerging writers -- especially women writers of color. She is an alumna of Acentos, VONA, and AROHO. Li Yun is Mami to two rambunctious MexiRican comelibritos. She grew up in NY, lives in CA, and takes frequent trips to Salinas, PR to visit la familia. 

www.liyunalvarado.com