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	new baby sleep

Nap Tips

In warm weather with a small baby, drive in the car till your baby falls asleep. Find a shady residential street or a parkway near a lake or creek. Roll the window down, recline your seat, and snooze. If you're really lucky, you'll wake up refreshed, and your baby will still be sleeping! So take along some reading or paperwork that you can do in such a peaceful spot.

If you have birthed a baby recently and are living in an altered state of sleep cycles anyway, always sleep when your baby is sleeping. Well, maybe not always, because your baby sleeps about 20 out of every 24 hours; but sleep a lot of the time.

If you have a toddler as well as a baby, and someone is helping you by entertaining the toddler while you nurse the baby, go to a different room from the toddler. Nurse till the baby falls asleep, and always fall asleep with the baby, or at least feign sleep so that your partner or friend or mother will continue giving you some quiet and space.

Go to Italy. Observe Italians who know all about napping, learn to say "siesta" with an Italian accent, and then practice, practice, practice.

Okay, so you can't go to Italy. Lie down--on your living room floor, in a lawn chair, or on the grass under a tree. Close your eyes. Think of Italy. Think of nothing. Do this every day at approximately the same time, and see how much better you feel.

Find articles about the importance of naps or siestas and leave them around the workplace or send them to family members and friends. Be a living example of the importance of napping.