A few of mine were good sleepers in the newborn period, then switched to multiple night-wakings once things "settled in" (6-8 weeks, give or take). A couple of others were the opposite-- horribly turned around and confused for the first several weeks, then settled into "sleeping through the night" (which is technically only 5-6 hours at a stretch, anyway) for the next several months. Even then, by the time teething began (anywhere from 4 to 8 months with my babies-- no late teethers here
), those patterns were upset and night-waking resumed for the duration (usually around 2-2.5y).
I know it sounds like a "suck it up" answer, but my experience is that breastfed babies who are fed on cue by day, do better when they are also fed on cue by night. Babies who are held, cuddled, nursed, and "attachment-parented" by day, are happier and sleep better when they have those comforts and connections during the night as well. Of course there are babies who have naturally well-ordered sleep patterns, and all they need is a gentle nudge to settle into them. The books are all written about THOSE babies.
(I only had *one* like that, BTW, out of six.) But, when we choose a particular parenting style that fits us, our babies, our families, well, it doesn't shut off at night. I'm quite certain I was a total zombie for 12 years running, one baby after the next. I really don't remember rightly, though, as my brain is still a bit fuzzy... LOL You *will* get through this period, though, I know that much. One of my favorite sayings WRT to parenting is, "This too, shall pass." It has proved itself countless times over the years! The issue
du jour will be forgotten tomorrow and replaced, no doubt, with a new, even more pressing issue (or several)!
You know your baby best, though, and if it seems to you that there may be some underlying problem or issue-- colic/gas, earache, teething, illness, etc.-- of course you should look deeper into things to rule those things out. If you find a "nudging" method you feel comfortable with, try it out and see if consistent application will help. Almost *anything* will work, over time, if you repeat it consistently long enough!
One thing my babies taught me, was the importance of routines. I started out TOTALLY anti-scheduling and just let my whole life "go with the flow". That went fine for baby #1, even for a spell with babies #2 & #3, but eventually along came a baby who *needed* routine (not strict scheduling, just a predictable pattern to his day). I didn't recognize that until he was well into toddlerhood, unfortunately, but I did eventually catch on and learn to structure our lives a bit more predictably for his sake, at least. Little did I know we would all benefit! He's almost 8 now, and still is the only one of my children who stops what he's doing around 8-8:30pm, says, "I'm tired, Mama. Please come tuck me in." And he is done for the day. He just does better when his day runs by predictable routines. We all do better, in fact, but with him it's just more obvious when things are "off"...
Sorry, this is rambling all over the place! I just wanted to offer a bit of my experience as well. HTH!