My son woke up yesterday morning, despondent that the tooth fairy had missed him. This was only his second tooth, so he has illusions of hitting the lottery with a take that would keep him in new Lego sets from here until his next birthday. His faith was unbending on the existence of said fairy, but he needed a reason for her non-appearance. Like any dad trying to keep the magic of mystical creatures, including Santa, alive, I had to think quickly.

Quizzing him, I discovered that he had been up since dawn waiting for a little flying creature to appear bearing banknotes to exchange for his “lost” tooth. The solution was easy. As man has done for millennia, the trick to maintaining faith in whatever is to embellish the story to make up for every exception. Faith isn’t created by belief, it’s created by the desire to believe. All I had to do was suggest that the Fairy only comes at dawn and would never appear if he/she knew that a little boy was sitting wide-eyed waiting for the guest appearance. With a quick “OK,” I bought myself another day.

This time, I had my cash ready and I surveyed the position of the tooth before sleep so I could get at it early. Within 15 minutes after my little boy went to sleep, the fairy arrived. His existence was secured. And all was right with the world.

If you have a child with at least two lost teeth, I bet you already have a tooth fairy story. Let’s hear ‘em!

Face it. Doctors are pretty lame with practical advice on stuff that should come naturally to babies. So here are a few tricks we’ve picked – none risky, we promise – that might help you get your baby to sleep or back on track sleep-wise.

1. Dads, take charge. This is one area where dads can really add some value. Sadly, it’s because we have nothing more to add than just being odd and different though. Send dad in to do the final diapering and reading and baby won’t get distracted by the thought of mommy milk or the comforting sensations of the mommy aura. This goes also, unfortunately, for midnight diaper changes when you’re weaning the baby off breastfeeding. Babies won’t think “food!” when they see daddy’s breast-less chest and dad has a better chance of getting baby back to sleep.

2. Pump up the volume. Don’t let your child get used to a completely quiet house, or you may be subject to a baby who wakes to every siren or dog bark. Usually, yes, babies sleep through anything, unless they are conditioned to complete silence. If you’re using complete silence as a tactic in the sleep wars, you may be doing more harm than good.

3. Be all business at night. While moms and dads often can’t resist a cuddle with the baby or even trying to get the baby to smile or laugh while changing and feeding, everyone will get back to sleep faster if you are calm and efficient in the semi-dark, getting the baby back in bed with as little distraction as possible. This way, baby knows that daytime is playtime and nighttime is “get back to sleep as soon as possible.”

4. Let the baby fall asleep on his own. Every doctor or sleep specialist will encourage strict routines to help the sleep ritual. What some won’t think of though is making sure you put your baby in bed when he or she is drowsy rather than completely asleep. Falling asleep on your own is an important development step for a baby, which you can help by getting your baby in bed when you sense he is getting drowsy.

5. Treat your baby like he or she has jet lag. Experts recommend that when adjusting to new time zones, you should spend daylight hours in bright sunlight and keep out all light at times you should be sleeping. The same goes for babies. Make sure his or her internal time clock knows it’s nighttime.

6. Turn down the baby monitor. If you’re so sleep-obsessed that you have to check on your baby every few minutes, you’re going to end up teaching the baby that every gurgle or whimper gets mom or dad’s attention. I am definitely not a “let them cry it out” dad, but I do know that giving in to the temptation to just peek in on them usually reset the timer on my efforts to get my kids to sleep.

7. Skip the diaper change? Yes, maybe, if you don’t smell #2 and you think the diaper isn’t really full. A full diaper change, complete with baby wipe hitting warm skin in the night air, will definitely wake up a sleeping baby.

8. Wake up a baby for one last feeding before you go to bed. This might be the one trick that scores you some extra sleep. While it might be risky to wake up a baby for more stimulation, if you can accomplish the feeding to a half asleep baby, it might mean your baby remains full and satisfied all the way until morning This means you get some much needed baby sleep of your own.

In our careful watch to ensure our baby slept on his back to avoid SIDS, our newborn son started to develop a flat head. While only a cosmetic concern, our pediatrician recommended we put him on his side while sleeping to mitigate the potential problem. The challenge was, our active son actually rolled over by himself at 1 week, so was not likely to stay on his side.
We found the Symmetry Sleep Positioner useful to keep him on his side (and rotated sides). In the months before he was able to really move on his own, we place him in the SSP within his crib, and he slept comfortably. The device stopped being useful once he could roll himself off of it, but by then he was moving enough that the flat head syndrome was not an issue.
While we never used the caliper to actually measure change, the improvement was visible.