I have three children. A six year old, a four year old and a seven month old. I have found that each has different sleeping habits. Some of those habits were created by mommy and some are just the child's personality.
My oldest had trouble sleeping and needed lots of soothing. She was probably over a year old before she slept all night. Part of her problem started because mommy had her right next to the bed as an infant and if she sighed I patted her bottom or put the pacifier in her mouth hoping to get a few more minutes sleep. Problem is she couldn't go back to sleep without me. It took forever to untrain her.
The second child slept for six hours or more at about three weeks. I didn't keep her in my room but for a few weeks and I put her on the other side of the room so I couldn't touch her all night. I moved her to her room at a very young age and I didn't go to her unless I knew she was wide awake and needed to eat. She has always been a great sleeper. I would never let her fall asleep on me totally. I would feed her and lay her down half asleep. She will literally go to bed at 7 to 8pm and fall asleep before you can get out of the room. And she's out until 7am the next day.
The son has been a bit different. Mommy is tired. I made the mistake of falling asleep in the chair with him when he was just home from the hospital. He got real use to falling asleep in my arms. It took forever to get him to sleep in his crib. He's seven months now and I can lay him down while awake. He might fuss a minute or two, but typically will fall asleep soon. He will cry the sleepy song and then conk out. But with everything it doesn't last. The past week or two he has been fighting sleep. He will cry a bit harder and longer at night when it is time to go to bed. He will wake up at midnight to eat and want to stay up and play. It is a new phase I now have to deal with and honestly I've been letting him cry it out a bit. He's old enough to sleep most of the night without nursing and mommy is exhausted.....so I close his door, I close my door and I turn down the monitor. If I hear him after 15 minutes or so I'll go in and put the pacifier in his mouth and pat his bottom for a minute or two, but then I leave again. Some nights I'm so tired I don't hear him. I'll wake up an hour or two later and he's quiet. I'll go check on him and he's sound asleep. I couldn't tell you how long he cried. but he's learning and he still loves his momma. :)
PS And he's still a very happy, laughing, grinning baby when he's awake...so I haven't traumatized him or made him into some depressed baby.
Oh and the naps varied. The oldest wouldn't nap more than half an hour at a time. Then at a few months she started napping twice a day for an hour or so. That lasted until she was about 15 months and then it was just one nap. At about 2 years old she stopped taking naps.
The second napped an hour or so a few times a day at first. Then she went to one two or three hour nap around one o'clock at about six months. That lasted until she was about 2 1/2.
My son naps about three times a day for about an hour sometimes two. Usually at about 9am, 1pm, and 4pm....then he's off to bed at about 8pm. He gets up at midnight to eat....and will get up again at 3am or 4am if I let him. Then he's up for the day usually at 6am. I've been trying to train him to sleep all night. You know from about 8pm until 2 or 3am to eat and then down until 6am...but he's not on the same page with mommy yet. :)
