At the third month the baby begins to take notice of what goes on around him and will lie awake a little longer between naps. If undisturbed, however, he will soon drop off to sleep of his own sweet will. At six months he should sleep from six o’clock to six straight through the night, with just one feeding at 9 P.M. This 9 P.M. feeding should be given quietly and the baby immediately returned to his bed or crib. He should also be having two naps a day—from nine till eleven in the morning, and from one till three in the afternoon. If he sleeps too late in the afternoon he will be wakeful at six, the hour set for going to sleep at night. After his first birthday baby has only one daily nap in the early afternoon; but the twelve-hour sleep at night is essential to his health until he has passed his sixth birthday. It is nonsense to say that a young child does not want to sleep. Nature cries out for sleep. Parents interfere with nature by starting the baby off wrong and teaching it not to want sleep. The best argument is that the baby who is kept up to romp with Papa in the evening, at the age of two, three, or four years, is a late sleeper in the morning, irritable and heavy. The baby should not be rocked to sleep, nor should he be tucked into a carriage and then trundled to sleep. In clear weather he may be snuggled up in his carriage and set outdoors, in a corner screened from draught or direct rays of the sun, for both his morning and afternoon naps. At six o’clock he should be undressed, made perfectly comfortable, fed, and then laid down on a firm hair mattress without a pillow, to go to sleep without further attention. Do not form the habit of singing a baby to sleep or holding his tiny hand till he drops off. There will come evenings when you are too tired to sing, or there will be other work for your busy hands to do—and Baby, not understanding, will raise his voice in protest. From birth the baby should sleep alone in a dark room well ventilated. Baby knows no fear and needs no light. Neither does he need the warmth of an adult body. There have been sad tragedies of babies smothered by tired mothers, too heavy with sleep to know they had rolled over on the tiny, helpless form. There have been other cases where babies permitted to sleep with adults, afflicted with chronic disease, have contracted the ailment and died. Ventilation is most important. Occasionally we read of unusual cases where parents boast that they have raised eight, nine, or ten healthy children in unventilated bedrooms. These children have been constitutionally strong enough to survive such doses of vitiated air. The modern mother does not take the chance. She supplies fresh air to her baby from birth.