Hi, I have 2 boys, my oldest is almost 2 1/2 years old and my youngest is 6 1/2 months. I can tell you from experience with my first to work on the sleep issue big time now b/c it only gets worse the more overtired they become (I'm not talking days or weeks, I'm talking about months of sleep deprivation.) Our oldest struggled with this b/c we were newbies at parenting and didn't read his cues so well and then teething, separation anxiety hit etc..... With our second we've made sleep an absolute priority as it is as essential to health as eating well and working on emotional, cognitive and developmental milestones.
Okay - all that was a long winded intro to some basic advice: watch your baby's sleep cues (lack of interest/focus, eye rubbing etc..), follow the 2-3 hour rule of thumb, develop a schedule with flexibility to provide best sleep situations, most important be consistent!!!
The 2-3 hr. rule of thumb is essentially check the time when your baby wakes up in the AM and be working on getting down for nap #1 about 2 hrs. later. Then again after nap #1, wait about 2 hrs. after wake up time, plan to work on napping again and so forth. If your baby is already overtired it could be a shorter window of time. (Check out Dr. Weisbluth's book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child)
There are so many prescribed methods for helping your baby get to sleep. Find the one that you are most comfortable with and be consistent about implementing it for all sleep times.
Another tip, is put your baby to bed very early for a while to give time for some catch up sleep. Early as in 5/6PM at night.
Developing a sleep schedule but NOT a rigid one should give you and your baby some idea of when sleep needs to occur. Little ones need in the neighborhood of 14-16 hrs of sleep total for a 24 hr. period between naps and night time. A simple routine for nap and bed time that you do everytime helps your baby learn it is time to sleep (books, bath, rocking and cuddling, listen to soft music or a mobile, bottle or nursing). It can take days or weeks of the routine, consistency is key, for your little one to process and accept sleep times. Temperament plays into this process too.
There are lots of books, blogs, info about sleep and little ones. Check it out and find what fits for your family. Best of luck! Happy Holidays!
Heather