One of the first things you'll notice when bringing your newborn home is that they love to sleep. During your first week with your newborn you'll notice that baby will sleep up to around 14 to 18 hours a day. Upon reaching their first month it typically goes down to about 12 to 16 hours a day. Now for some of you thinking you'll be able to get tons and tons of sleep that's just not gonna happen. While your baby may be sleeping somewhere between 12 to 18 HRS and they will not be sleeping for more than 2 to 4 hours at a time, day or night, for at least the first few weeks. So by now I'm sure you're guessing your baby will be nice and rested and you will be completely and utterly exhaust.
These first few weeks are going to seem like an eternity. You will be sleep deprived wondering when you're going to be able to get to sleep next. Your baby needs these short bursts of sleep which allows them to go into REM or rapid eye movement sleep. This is thought to be essential to their early development of the brain. It may seem to last forever but you just have to make it through the first couple of weeks.
Now you're hovering somewhere around a 3 to 6 month mark and you notice your baby starts to sleep quite a bit more somewhere around 5 to 6 hours at night. This is a much needed break from sleeping almost zero at night. While you will be giving the regular sleep that your normally used to 5 to 6 hours will seem like a dream come true. A great thing that you can start with your baby as soon as possible is to get them into a bedtime routine this way they do not get their days and nights confused.
Begin by laying them in their cribs getting them ready for bed and may be singing a lullaby and giving a kiss goodnight. Babies have a tendency to learn quickly when taught by routine, so the quicker you start a routine the better it will be for you and baby. This is a good example to follow for other things as well everything from feeding to cleaning up. Babies learn quick and as long as you stay on top of it they will learn what you are teaching them very very quickly.