Family Tips

There is no sleep schedule for newborn kids, as their internal clocks work differently. Usually they sleep for 16 -20 hours a day. Most infants awake every 3-4 hours because they get hungry.
At the age of 3 months, a baby begins to sleep about 5 hours during the day and 10 hours at night, usually with some interruptions. About 90% of babies in this period sleep through the night for 6 - 8 hours without a break.
It’s important to know that babies aren’t always awake when they cry; they can cry and make all sorts of other noises during light sleep. Even if they do wake up in the middle of the night, they may only be awake for some minutes and then fall asleep again on their own. It’s best to learn babies early to get themselves to sleep.
If a baby continues to cry, it’s already time to come to it. Your baby may be sick or just uncomfortable: hungry, wet, cold or frightened. But you should shorten this time as much as possible and it is not worth talking, playing, or turning on the lights. Try to encourage the idea that nighttime is for sleep only.
It would be ideally, if you place your baby in the bed before he falls asleep. Remember that it’s never too early to establish a simple bedtime routine. Your baby will associate these activities with sleeping, and they’ll help him to fall asleep.

When your child reaches 6 months, he may nap about 3 hours during the day and sleep about 11 hours at night. At this age you can give your baby a few minutes to settle down on his own and go back to sleep. If he doesn’t, you can calm down him without picking up (talk softly, rub his back), then leave — provided that the child is not ill. If you are sure that your baby is not sick, but continues to cry, you can wait a little longer than 5 minutes, then come to him again. After several days, your baby will find it easier to get back to sleep on his own. But if your 6-month child continues to wake up five or six times each night, talk to your doctor.
Between 6 and 12 months, separation anxiety becomes a major problem for many children and cause waking up again and again. Strict rules say: don’t pick up your baby, turn on the lights, sing, talk, play, or feed your child. All these activities encourage your child for further wake.
If your baby wakes up crying at night, you should check in to make sure he isn’t sick. If your baby continues to cry, you can pick him up for a short time.

In the age of 1 to 3 years, most toddlers sleep about 10 to 13 hours. But anxiety, or just the desire to be up with parents to not miss something interesting can cause long wake periods and problems with going to bed.
Note the evening time when your child begins to show sleepiness signs, and try establishing this time as his regular bedtime. And don’t force your 2- or 3-year-old child to nap during the day unless he looks sick and overly tired.
Very often parents make the mistake, when they think that keeping a child awake for longer time will make him sleepier for bedtime. In fact, overtired child has problems getting asleep. It is better to put baby to sleep before he gets overtired or overexcited.
Setting a bedtime routine helps kids relax and get ready for sleep. You may try calming activities such as reading, bathing, and listening to music. If it is possible, allow your toddler to make bedtime choices within the process: which pajamas to put on, which teddy bear to take to bed, what music to play. This gives your baby a sense of control over the process.
At this age active dreaming begins, and for very young children, dreams can be pretty alarming. Nightmares are particularly frightening to toddlers, who can’t distinguish imagination from reality. Calm down your child; let him talk about the dream if he wants to. Then encourage your child to go back to bed as soon as possible.

Preschoolers need about 10 to 12 hours per day, and there’s no reason to be completely tough about day hours. A 5-year-old child who sleeps enough during the night doesn’t need a daytime nap. Instead, a quiet time may be offered. Most preschools and kindergartens have brief periods of quiet time when the children lie or just rest.
Preschoolers very often have nightmares and problems falling asleep some nights. You can prepare some calm games, which will help to pass the time and relax your child before sleep. These activities may include book reading, or listening to cassette or CD player and story tape or CD.
Junior school children need about 10 hours of sleep each night. Bedtime difficulties can arise at this age from a child’s need for private time with parents, without brothers or sisters around. Try to stay only with the kid just before bedtime and use this time to share confidences and have small discussions, which will also prepare your child for sleep.
Children ages 10 to 12 need a little more than 9 hours of sleep a night. But in any case only parents can judge the necessary amount of rest for their children  and control that they’re in bed in time for sufficient sleep.
In this age lack of sleep for children can cause sensitive behavior and can also make a condition like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) even worse.

Teenager need about 8 to 9.5 hours of sleep per 24 hours, but many of them do not get it. In puberty period they even need more time for sleep. Teenagers` schedule is often packed with school, extracurricular and sport activities, and often they are sleep deprived (or lacking a healthy amount of sleep).
Lack of one hour of sleep per night is like a full night without sleep by the end of the week. And among other things, lack of sleep can cause decreased attentiveness, short-term memory, delayed response time.
And all these in its turn can cause generally bad behavior, problems in school, stimulant use, and driving accidents, as according to statistics more than half of “asleep-at-the-wheel” accidents are caused by teens.
Adolescents also experience a change in their order of day — they want to stay up late and wake up later, which often leads trying to catch up on sleep during the weekend. This sleep schedule abnormality can actually intensify the problems and make getting to sleep at a reasonable hour during the week even harder.
Best for a teenager try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning, having at least 8 to 9 hours of sleep.

Many children dream of a Wedding Day, special and magical. But the truth is that to fulfill this wish you should plan it as a movie producer and be very patient.
To have fun of this day you should do some planning and organization.
During your wedding day you have a lot to do in a short time, so time is your enemy, not to speak of money involved. If you can develop a good thought-out schedule and stick to it you can do a lot. Do your planning back from the time you and your caterer have decided you should arrive at the wedding party. This is a crucial time point because all of invitees will follow this point. Remember that if you have booked a 6 hour reception that begins at noon and is set to end at 6:00 PM, you can usually suppose that at 6:00 the caterer will begin to clean over the hall for the next 7:30 reception.
If you are even a half hour late getting to the hall, either the meal will begin to get cold, or other activities will be done in a hurry. By the way, if you will be offered a separate room for the Bridal party to spend there some time during the cocktail hour, let your bridesmaids use it, but you’d better spend your time with the guests.

Many couples forget to include into their estimates, that time for travel and traffic jams may take too much time. Very often cars with guests get lost. Try an idea to hire a party bus to transport all together: nobody gets lost and you can all have fun together.
The Formal Portraits are important record for the future and you should devote some time to creating them if you wish, of course. You will appreciate them more when looking together with children and grandchildren. Such photos save your time and will be best done right after the ceremony. All the important people are there already, assembled and freshly. Receptions and wedding parties will be nice for informal and fun photos.
Don’t forget to eat! That is not joke. When you don’t eat you loose energy and you won’t have any fun if you are tired or hungry. Think about good breakfast. Even if you think you can eat nothing, at least drink some shake. And let one of your bridesmaids compile a snack basket for everyone to have a snack during the day. Note that alcohol early in the morning may end in hangover at the wedding party, and it is not fun.

These seats are designed to protect children from birth until they reach about 10 kilograms, so approximately to one year. Seats should always be installed to face the rear of the car to prevent serious damages of the spinal column.
These seats are the optimal choice for newly-born child. Many models are also very convenient as they are designed to double as carriers, chairs, or rockers when not used in the car.
A baby who weighs about 10 kilograms but has not reached 1 year yet should also ride in a rear-facing seat, because the baby’s neck as a rule is not strong enough to support the baby’s head in the event of a strong jolt.
When a child reaches one year, many parents turn him or her to the forward-facing position and switch to an infant seat designed for elder babies. However, in rear-facing seats smaller children are just better protected.
But remember that too much time in the car seat may limit your baby’s movement and opportunities to develop different skills, such as sensory and motor.

It is parent’s first responsibility to ensure the child’s safety when traveling in a car. Great number of children are killed or seriously injured in automobile crashes or incidents. Auto death-rate is higher than in any other type of incident, but parents can prevent widening of this horrible statistics by keeping some basic rules and taking simple measures.
Using a child car seat is the best protection that you can give your child in a car. Law in many countries requires that an infant or small kid be fastened - and with a good cause. Safety seats can lower the risk of a potentially lethal injury strongly for babies in particular and also for toddlers. Unfortunately, many car seats are used incorrectly.
Choosing any car seat, you should stick general guidelines to ensure your child’s safety. The best car seat is not always the most expensive one. First of all it should fit your child’s weight, size, and age, as well as your vehicle - not always a chosen seat can be fixed in your car.  Once you pick out a seat, try it out, remembering that displays illustrations might not show the correct usage. It’s up to you to learn how to install a car safety seat properly.

Many couples would like to plan their own wedding but are afraid of the stress situations. Planning own wedding can be less stressful and you really can have fun during the process itself. There are some main factors that will significantly help you to reduce the tension. To enjoy you should have the right attitude, start your planning as early as possible, work on available budget and share your tasks with others.
The right attitude is necessary first of all. You should remember that wedding is a very happy occasion and its planning should not be boring for you. Wedding planning will allow you to try on beautiful clothes and accessories, visit beautiful places, and taste delicious foods or cakes.
Start your preparations by gathering ideas and attending local bridal shows, purchasing appropriate magazines, talking with married friends, shopping around. Starting early will allow you to be better organized, use more possibilities and leave you free time to relax.
One of the most important things which you should do is to estimate how much available money you are going to spend on your wedding. The more detailed your budget, the better.