One of the most challenging aspects of having a baby is the lack of sleep – for both Mom and Baby. Sometimes it seems you're too tired to even enjoy all that is wonderful about having a newborn. That's exactly how Jessica Winum, a mother of three from Waldon, N.Y., felt with her second child.

"Some mornings I just woke up and cried because I was so tired from having slept with Riley on my chest all night," says Winum. "Because I had a 2-year-old, I couldn't nap whenever the baby did, as all the books tell you to do, and had to be functional for her sake."

Winum recalls when she was sleep deprived, everything seemed larger than life to her. "I couldn't think straight or handle the stress of having a newborn who needed so much attention and a toddler as well," she says. "Sometimes I would just sit in front of the washer machine and cry, or go in the closet and scream. I was, as I realized some weeks later, suffering from postpartum depression aggravated by sleep deprivation. I mean, I am a woman who needs at least eight solid hours of sleep!"

Dr. Cathryn Tobin, pediatrician and author of The Parent's Problem Solver (Three Rivers Press 2002) believes there are reasons why mom and babies can't get good sleep.

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