The secret trick on how to get your baby to nap or sleep longer.

For a new parent, every extra minute of sleep is gold. Learning how to help your baby to sleep longer is a way to avoid painful sleep training for the baby and sleep deprivation for parents. The trick is to catch your baby as they're starting to wake up and see if you can gently soothe them back to sleep. Elizabeth Pantley is one of the world's leading experts on how to get babies to sleep. Her book “No Cry Sleep Solution for Newborns” which is available in twenty-seven languages should be on every pregnant woman's wish list. What Elizabeth suggests if your baby is a light sleeper is: If he normally sleeps about 20 minutes, have a chair in the hallway outside his bedroom door and at about 15 minutes before he wakes up sit there and read a book or knit and wait and listen. The moment your little one starts to make any sound like he's waking up, rush in there and pat him, rub him, rock him, do whatever you need to do to get him to go back to sleep. If you have caught him before he's fully awake, he will go back to sleep and then finish his nap, and if you do this for a week or two, you'll find he'll get in the habit of taking a long nap, and that will become part of his daily routine. Many mothers who co-sleep tend to start feeding their babies as soon as they wake up. Elizabeth recommends that even when you're co-sleeping, it's better to try to soothe your baby back to sleep rather than feeding them. Many babies wake up even when they are not hungry.