The range of 'normal' sleep and waking patterns is vastly variable, and individual to each baby you have. No one can predict exactly how many hours sleep your baby will have (or need), and their patterns will change from day to day, week to week and month to month. Every child is unique and will present their own set of personality traits. These traits usually perpetuate into their behaviour as children, teenagers and adults. As babies grow older, often their parents will see these individual characteristics more clearly in retrospect. (For example, "She's been like this ever since she was a baby.")
Your newborn baby's sleep and wake patterns will revolve around their daily needs of feeding, nappy changing, bathing and sleeping (after about 3 months these patterns will generally change). The total amount of sleep your new baby will have in a 24 hour period will vary, ranging from 8 - 18 hours. All babies being different (and 'Murphy's Law') will determine if your baby sleeps for as long as 19 hours a day, or as little as 8. The amount of time your baby sleeps isn't really the main issue. What is important is how you are coping, and feeling about it.
Babies with undesirable sleep patterns are behaving normally. It is not because you are doing something wrong (or not doing something you 'should'). In some cases, these patterns can be encouraged to slowly become more 'adult-friendly' but if all your attempts are unsuccessful, then you may have to accept what your baby is doing.
Some common sleep and wake variations (that are all very normal) include:
The day sleeper
The 'shifting' sleeper
The 'cat-napper'
Waking due to changes
The day sleeper. A baby who 'day sleeps' tends to have longer sleep periods during the day, and wakes and feeds more frequently during the night (for example, every 2- 3 hours). Many newborn babies will do this in the first few weeks after the birth, changing their pattern once their body's
biorhythms