For mummies with babies with sleep problems, maybe you can try reading the book "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg. I found the book very useful and picked up a few tips. Will share some pointers from her book here.
1) White noise - vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, etc
Babies like white noise cos it reminds them of the womb, prob cos of blood whooshing around.
I use the hair dryer and my kitchen hood on my 5 week old Ethan. It works! He will be crying and the moment I turn on the hair dryer, he will be silenced! So I just leave it on till he's drowsy, then turn it off (trying not to rely too much on it).
2) Sshh..pat - Make Sshh sounds resembling white noise. Sometimes got to make very loud 'sshh' sounds accompanied by patting (make it resemble the heart beat in the womb).
3)Swaddle - I dunno whether swaddling is popular in Spore cos of the hot weather, but it is common here. I found that it helps my baby sleep more better cos it feels like being in the womb and the hands are swaddled together (cos they can't coordinate their hand movements and I found that Ethan always gets woken up by his hands when he stretches).
4) Pick up/Put down - This is a technique that requires patience. Put your baby down once he's asleep. If he wakes up, pat him, rock him, etc. But once he's asleep, put him down immediately. Might need to do many times. The author once did it over 100 times for a couple's baby, but there was huge improvement the next day. Only had to pick up a few times.
5) Put the baby down when drowsy or wide awake. Cos the reasoning is that when the baby falls asleep in your arms, and wakes up during his brief awakenings (which is about 10-20 minutes into his sleep cycle), he will be startled to find himself in another place and will cry. Pat him or continue sshing to aid the transition. I found that this works on Ethan, I will put him down when he's drowsy, then continue patting him until he sleeps. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I need to start the process all together again. But i found that he is sometimes able to go to sleep on his own again during his brief awakenings. This morning i didn't even carry him, just patted him and he fell asleep. I am aiming for the stage where I don't even have to do anything and he will fall asleep. I am still very far from my goal but can see slight improvements day by day.
About carrying all the time, the book calls it 'accidental parenting'`- unintentional parenting. If u always carry ur baby to sleep, he will only learn to fall asleep that way. It might still be alright now, but it would be a different story when u have to lug a 10kg baby ard.
Abt naps, they need to take good naps (abt 45 min each) to sleep well at nite. It takes them abt 20 minutes to fall asleep. I used to be very impatient and expected my baby to fall asleep in 5 minutes. Sometimes crying is also a process of falling alseep. Ethan has to struggle and sometimes cry a bit to sleep.
There are a lot of sleep books out there. I usually borrow from the library and read it when I m breastfeeding (nothing else to do then). Another good book to read is 'No cry sleep solution'by Elizabeth Pantley. Oh, btw, the baby whisperer book has a forum where lots of parents ask for advice on sleep and feeding, etc. It's at
http://www.babywhisperer.com
Hope some of the tips here might help.