Hi, believe it or not, I so miss those days of a newborn . . .they are so precious!
Ya, at three weeks you are on demand still. If you think about it, you actually ARE on a schedule----- it is just eating every 3 to 4 hours. As they increase what they take, they go for longer periods in between. Nursing babies eat more often. I read the book "BAbywise" when my first son was an infant and tried to follow that program. We'd eat, burp, play a little and then they would go to sleep again. This is in the begining and I think it is around 3 months when they "wake up" and have much longer stretches awake. My oldest son would have one longer stretch of sleep so I would try to keep him up in the evening and then put him down. Actually---- while this isn't romantic, in the early weeks like where you are now---- my husband was in charge in the evening and would feed baby his once a day bottle (I nursed) and try to keep him up and I went on to bed. Then when baby woke later, I had had a decent number of hours straight of sleep. That worked for us so that I didn't get too tired.
As far as sleeping habits, I tried to put my kids down once or twice a day awake in their bed. The trick is to watch for them to be sleepy but not there yet and put them in their bed still awake but groggy. The rest of the time they fell asleep in my arms. Both my boys never needed me to go to sleep (they are now 4 and 5) as they got older, so even this occasional putting them in bed awake seemed to work. They never cried like nuts or I would pick them up. At one, though, crying it out is okay and the Furber method is recommended by my pediatrician and others.
I too have a friend that put her kids down at an early time like 7:00 and the kids slept through until 7:00 the next day and napped at 12:00. Lucky dog! We called her the sleep nazi although we all secretly envied her. She was super strict about her schedule and got pretty tense if anything interferred. She has 4 kids now , 3 that are 3 and under (yikes) and works fulltime so this was important to her. I asked my pediatrician about why my kids didn't sleep through the night at 6 months and she informed me that for most babies, sleeping through the night consists of 5 or 6 hours!
Oh, and I agree about the lights. Heaven forbid the baby who gets days and nights mixed up. It happens . . .not good. Good luck and enjoy that bundle of joy!!
I always held mine till they went to sleep. Mine had colic though so it was the only way to get them to sleep. I don't think I ever let them just lay in the crib. But mine are now 3 and 5 and will not go to sleep alone.
My sis has always put my neice down awake in the crib and let her sleep that way and now at 1 will lay in the crib and nap and go to sleep by herself. She puts her down at 730 or 8 and up at 7 then nap at 12 and has done this for awhile.
I would say now at 3 wks where they do wake up every 3 hrs wait alittle while until atleast he is sleeping for longer periods. Right now he will sleep alot atleast for a couple of months. Night time though keep the lights dim, daytime keep normal lights.