StrongFeather, is your baby reflux-y? i think i recall you posting about that awhile ago. my son was/is reflux-y... he was gaining very slowly and sleeping very poorly until i figured it out at five weeks old. we chose to medicate him with liquid zantac (non-alcoholic formulation) and it has helped a lot. it has also equally helped a lot for me to totally watch my diet to remove all reflux triggers, coffee, carbonated drinks, chocolate, tomato anything, etc. etc.
he cosleeps with me. nurses to sleep at 8 pm (after getting his zantac) or so, sleeps until maybe 11 pm, i get out of bed to nurse him overnight b/c doing it sitting up i *know* he gets more milk faster. i generally get a good burp or two and then he starts to fall back asleep even before i lay him down. repeat at 2 am, and again at 5 am. thereafter, i stay in bed with him and let him nurse sidelying (we do sidelying better when there is some daylight coming through). i stay in bed with him as long as possible (tough with my 3 yo, who gets up and moving at the crack of dawn). we get up, play together (the three of us) and go downstairs. he gets his zantac medicine again (two does a day), nurses again, and i put him in his swing, where he sleeps anywhere from one hour to three and a half. when he wakes up from that, we generally do something out of the house (gotta keep the three year old moving) , and then is awake off and on at least until bedtime again.
so, yes, more than 12 hours. but before he was medicated and my diet was uncontrolled, it was barely 12 hours.
that said, maybe your baby is not having problems from reflux (?) i would ask yourself if he seems generally happy, in a good mood, or does he seem stressed and crabby? is he still gaining well? (i bought a $30 scale, non digital, but i've come to trust it's accuracy) and everyday i weigh him to feel comfortable that it's been a good day for weight gain-- generally mine is putting on an ounce a day). also i've instituted a nightly bath time routine (for baby and three year old). i have yet to use any soap on baby at all, but he gets in his little bath tub and i pour warm water on him, which he seems to enjoy. and it's a signal/routine that this is the last part of the day before sleep.
my feeling and from what i've read is that reflux-y babies/fussy babies benefit from routines. sometimes i can't avoid going out or having people over, but i notice that he spits up on those days/at those times, and seems generally fussier. i wear him out almost every single time, and he stays latched the entire time, but really not asleep for the most part.
i hope all this helps. i don't mean to talk about myself too much, but wanted to give you some ideas if they seem like they could possibly help for getting your baby to sleep more. as a SAHM, having the little one sleep away some part of the day is i think a really really good thing. and i've noticed that my son seems to actually grow visibly after a good nap, and it certainly puts him in a better mood. he is touchy about loud noises waking him up, though.
good luck with your little Sam!
Keagan is SLOWLY sleeping a little more, and I'm learning his routines a little better. But, he's pretty sleep-deprived in the grand scheme of things and I know that until I can get him to sleep for a decent (deep) block of time, he won't sleep well at all. Our secret at this point is letting him sleep in our bed during the day with the door shut (we surround him so he can't roll off of course- and the baby monitor is in the room so we can hear from a distance). DH can get him down when I'm out of sight, and if he manages this, he'll sometimes sleep for a four hour block- it's amazing, and the rest of the day goes much smoother! My other kids were able to sleep through normal household rhythms, but he is super sensitive to sound/activity and if he isn't deeply asleep, he'll wake every 20-30 minutes.
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