Following what we're supposed to eat during pregnancy can be really annoying. Some say you can't eat this. Others say you must eat that. And of course we can't forget the prenatal vitamins. Some of us follow every rule we hear; others ... well ... don't. But I'm fairly certain that if we're told that something we eat during our pregnancy could affect the way our baby sleeps once he or she is born, meaning it would make baby sleep better ... well ... I bet we'd eat it. 

This is revolutionary! This very study could eradicate the contentious cry it out debate. Maybe.

Can you guess what this food is?

Now this is something I never, ever thought I would say: Victoria Beckham has charmed the pants off of me, or at least the mom in me. After years of watching that skinny lady pop out baby after baby, always appearing thinner when she steps out in her impossibly high heels, it appears Posh Spice has hit a wall.

You see, baby Harper isn't treating the Beckhams very well. That little girl they wanted so badly is not much of a sleeper, and it's starting to show on Vic's face. Am I horrible for rejoicing in this, or just relieved that this particular celebrity is finally being honest about the toll being a mom takes on a lady? Even a beautiful, rich lady, who happens to be married to an incredible hunk. Thanks Mrs. Beckham for finally being honest about what's going on in your house.

Before I had kids I would hear people talk about how their child sleeps with them and I thought, Oh hell no. That will never, ever be me -- not in a gazillion billion years! My kid will sleep in a crib! Fast forward to me with kids and, well, let's just say I get it now.

My daughter sleeps with my husband and me in our Queen size bed that has proven to be way too small for the three of us. And that's mainly because one of us (the littlest one) is essentially a sleeping windmill. I am quite thankful that my son (I have 2-year-old twins) prefers the crib.

I know I'm not alone. Millions of parents are out there losing sleep and getting punched in the eye by tiny fists attached to tiny bodies that go thump in the night. And dads Andy Herald and Charlie Capen have illustrated our co-sleeping plight to perfection with these baby sleep positions.

Advice. It's the one thing you never need to ask for, but always have too much of.

People are more than happy to share exactly how they managed to raise the most perfect children in the world, telling you everything from how to get them to sleep to the best way to wean them off the pacifier to getting them to study at night. Everyone and their mother are an expert on child-rearing, it seems.

I asked by friends for the worst piece of parenting advice they ever received and got some whoopers -- sound familiar?

If you think your baby sleeps through the night, I hate to break it to you, but you're wrong. Unless you've spent an eight-hour stretch looking at your kid and baby didn't wake up once. (Nobody does that, right?) Babies wake up. Some cry. They may self-soothe themselves back to sleep unless they have a diaper or are hungry. But if they cry and you let them cry, it's a bad idea.

Besides the emotional, mental, and physical issues it can give your baby, crying it out doesn't really work in the long run. And we all know babies aren't a short run kind of deal. They are with us for life. What we do or don't do now can screw them up for the rest of our eternity, so why not suck it up and get it right at the start?

I'm all fueled up talking about CIO after reading a super smart post by mom Sarah Ockwell-Smith on her blog Baby Calm. She calls it "controlled crying" and while I think that does sound slightly less harsh than crying it out, she (like me) believes it's a dangerous thing.

We don't let our kids cry it out. Recent research has come out saying how Ferberizing a child is dangerous, though I have always felt that letting a child cry alone in their room was not just damaging to the child, but to me as a mom. So we never did it.

This doesn't mean my twins don't ever cry. They do -- they are kids. It just means we don't leave them in a room alone to cry until they fall asleep. It also doesn't mean we never sleep. We do. Soundly. Mostly. Though we have worked out a unique way to keep our sanity and the kids happy, and get some zzzzs.

This is what we do ...

We all know 'em. We all hate to know 'em.

The minute you open your mouth to say, "I'm really tired, baby hasn't been sleeping," or "potty training sucks," they take the opportunity to jump down your throat and tell you how by THAT age, THEIR precious Little Billy was doing complex geometry.

I understand the urge to brag about your kid. I also understand the urge to throttle someone who is bragging about their kid.

Here are some nice easy steps I've mastered to ignore those people who are dead set on making you feel like the worst parent ever. Because hey, your kids are doing a good enough job making you feel impotent as it is.

When my first child was an infant, sleep did not always come easily for him (or, as a result, for me or my husband). Some nights our son would conk out on his own and stay asleep through the night (though I'd still wake up to check on him). Other nights, it didn't matter what we tried, our baby wouldn't go to sleep until he was good and ready, and it was impossible to predict when (and how) that time would come.

Many people suggested that we let our son "cry it out" in his crib. "Have you tried 'Ferberizing' him?" they'd say, referring to the methods of Dr. Richard Ferber, a pediatrician who recommends parents let children fall asleep by themselves at bedtime -- even if that means allowing them to cry for extended periods of time -- in order to train them to be self-sufficient. "Ferberizing," such an ugly term. Machine-like. Cold.