Putting Baby to Bed Awake - Is it Really That Easy?

We know that sleep is necessary and natural, so why is it so hard to establish good sleeping habits for our babies? If the magic formula is simply to put your baby down to for a sleep when he's still awake, why is that so hard in reality? I know from experience of both my children that as soon as I'd put them down awake, they would protest! Settling them would take so long I'd be tempted to feed them to sleep. The easy option would only take five minutes instead of sixty!