How long did it take you guys to get your baby to sleep through the night, and did you have any tricks that helped?

My boys were consistently sleeping at least 6-8 hours straight at night by time they were 8 weeks. I just made sure that they ate regularly during the day and not letting them go longer than 4 hours between meals. Then at night, I never woke them up and only nursed them when they woke up on their own. Then I would change their diapers and put them straight back to bed.

So, did you train them in this schedule, or did it just sort of happen? How long did you let them nap in the days? Some times, I want to wake him up in the days, but those breaks are so nice!

I would say that by the time K was 6 months old she was sleeping from 6pm to 5am...... I just let her set her own schedule but I did make sure to keep her VERY busy during the day. Before she was sleeping that long in one strecth, when she would wake up I would nurse only in her room with no light, (just the night lite) and put her right back down as soon as she fell asleep.

I was lucky with my son. He was a great sleeper. By the time he was 2 months or so, he was sleeping through the night.
With my daughter, she still doesn't sleep through the night. She was a nursing baby and I co-slept so I would just place her on to nurse and fall back asleep. I have no idea how many times she woke up at night. She just turned 5 and she still wakes at least once a night to climb into my bed.

I did sort of train them (except for my 2nd who was a fabulous sleeper and scheduled himself like clockwork - sleeping 12-14 hours a night by time he was 4 months old, with 3 hour naps during the day). Rather than letting them fall asleep while nursing, I nursed them after they woke up from their naps (or would wake them up if it's been 4 hours since their last feeding) and have their wake time after they ate. So, I would have what I called a flexible schedule where I would aim to nurse them say around 6am, then every 2-4 hours after that as needed. Then I would do their final feeding around 10pm, or right before I wanted to go to bed) then put them down and not wake them up until they woke up themselves to nurse. Eventually they would only wake up one time to nurse in the middle of the night, then eventually they'd drop that one. Your little one is still so young, but it might be worth working on a pattern now since you'll need your sleep when you go back to work soon! I wish you many hours of sleep!