Thanks everyone for your posts.

Belle - "the books say" he should be having 2 x 2-hour day naps plus another 45 minutes in the late afternoon. Ha! Right now he's feeding every 2.5 hours and having 2 or 3 x 40 to 60-minute naps. I admit I struggled recognising his tired signs to start, but feel on top of them now. But no, I can't just put him down when I see him getting tired (after about 90 minutes of awake time, too) - he'll cry as soon as I put him in his cot. And by cry, I mean scream. I'll leave him to babble or sook, but can't stand to hear him distressed. I left him for about 3 or 4 minutes once, to see if that would work, and he got so incredibly worked up, I'm sure it traumatised the both of us. Never again! I've found he needs assistance to settle during the day. It started with plenty of time spent rocking and and swaying as he fought sleep. Bouncing him in the living room is a compromise that seems to work at the moment - he falls asleep within a couple of minutes usually, and will nap for up to 2 or 3 hours some days (wish I knew how that happens some days and not others!).

organic girl - I record everything! At the end of every day, I say to myself no more, tomorrow I'll just relax and go with the flow ... then in the morning I find myself jotting down his awake, asleep and feeding times yet again.

Arcadia - I am hoping that with solids will come an opportunity to structure our day a little more because I am the type of person to feel more confident with predictability and routine.

I guess the lesson here is to relax! Wish it was in my DNA to chill out a little more. But I will try. And it's true about them only being this little once - I don't think I enjoyed much of being a mother for the first 8 weeks - I was struggling too much with feeding and sleeping that I couldn't even embrace finally becoming a mum. And it makes me sad to realise I wasted time in a bizarre fog of feeling shocked and out of control instead of immersing myself in that first bub love. Now, some days I feel very zen about the whole thing, and others I feel quite overwhelmed. I guess that's all part of parenting!