For many families who have decided to make their children’s sleep a priority, one of the most difficult changes is scheduling their daily activities around nap time. We tend to think that all sleep is good sleep, but that is just not true. Unfortunately, sleeping in a car-seat or a stroller does not provide the quality sleep their little body needs throughout the day–although it does make it easier for us as parents, when we need to run errands!

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar… Your baby wakes up in the morning after a solid night’s sleep. You feed her, change her, play with her for a little bit, take her for a little walk outside, then rock her to sleep and put her gently into her crib for her morning nap… And then, 30 minutes later, she wakes up fussy and clingy and, despite your pleading, bargaining, and offers of riches, refuses to go back to sleep.

If there’s anything that can send your child’s sleep off the rails, if there’s an arch-enemy for sleep training, it is, without a doubt, the dreaded condition of over-tiredness.