If your first child was an easy baby, how was your second??

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DD (8 months) is an easy baby. She sleeps from 6.30pm-7am, has a morning nap and 2hr lunch nap.
Naps/sleeps anywhere - pram, cot, bed, plane bassinet..
Never went through any sleep regressions.
Hasn't really suffered with teething pain.
Breastfeeding came naturally to both of us.
She's never refused a bottle. In fact we have many varieties of bottles and she happily takes them all.
She isn't fussed about what brand of formula she has (again tried many varieties while travelling).
Eats well/eats everything.
Always happy and content and smiley. Very low maintenance.

Almost certainly nothing to do with my parenting and mostly down to luck of the draw.

I'm pregnant with DC2 and really worried the next one is going to be difficult.

What's everyone else's experience? Will I end up with another 'easy' baby or are they all different?

Ds 1 was a dream baby, i felt like a great mum, and was probably a bit smug.

DS2 is loud, demanding, stubborn, clingy, hardly naps and still wakes x2 per night, every night, at 2 years. I am not at all smug and almost broken.

Most people i know have found children regress to the norm ie if your first is easy your second is harder, and vice versa. Its just been such a shock!

🤣 DD1 was a dream. DD2 is a nightmare.

First was a grumpy, clingy, awful at sleeping baby, second was a perfect baby, and third is a very easy but not great at sleeping baby, I think its completely down to the individual baby so you could be lucky and have another easy one!
My second 'perfect baby' is quite a stroppy toddler now though!

DD only started sleeping through the night at 21 months, she was up almost every hour prior to that. She is on the cusp of turning two and has started waking frequently again. Reinforcing the fact we are not having any more DC, I couldn't love DD more, she is wonderful, but she has broken me through sleep deprivation and I couldn't do it again.

Dd1 a total dream. We couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Slept through from early age and had two and half hours lunchtime nap till she was three and a half.

Dc2 a fucking nightmare! Good job he’s cute though so we’ve forgiven him.

My middle child was a nightmare. Literally cried from 6am through to midnight. Even with my boob in her mouth.
She was very hyper right up to adulthood.
Horrific.
My eldest and youngest were very easy.

Sorry.

If DD2 had been first she would have been an only. Luckily for her my patience had grown and it helped that she was so cute.

She’s such a well behaved little girl now though and I’m so glad that she and DD1 have each other. Their friendship is amazing! I wouldn’t be without either of them.

I think a lot more is nurture than people sometimes think. My first was a very easy baby and is a relatively easy toddler (though all toddlers are a handful). My second is much more demanding and less accepting of just being left to himself. I feel like this is because he is largely living in his brother’s shadow and he knows that he has to be demanding or he’ll just be left in the background. Both of them sleep well at night though thank god. Though I wouldn’t complain if they slept a bit longer (not keen on the 5-6am starts).

Ha @Tuesday40 I could’ve written the same post!

With DD1 I wondered what all the fuss was about too and to be fair, DD2 was a dream baby for 6 months. I was floating around on cloud smug thinking I was the mother with the magic touch, then BAM! 6 months hit and she became a demon and I fell off that cloud and back to earth with a bump.

Easy too, so I had a third, totally tempered fate an absolute little rascal slept at 3.

Ds was an angelic baby, then came dd, she was the devil

@silkpyjamasallday my DD1 is 4 years older than DD2, first slept through once at 4 and I was still getting up in the night with nearly 5 year old DD1 when baby DD started sleeping through. 🙈
It was reassuring that DD2 slept like a normal baby to know it wasn't anything we were doing wrong at least!!

Bonkers

My two are basically what torty said. I’m not smug anymore

our first was textbook ito behaviour and development, we didn't realise it at the time, but did immediately that ds2 was born.
Did nothing by the book and was the complete opposite, and grew up to be awkward

Ds1 was easy. Breastfed every 4 hours, on the dot. 6am, 10am, 2pm,6pm,10pm,2am.
He was like a robot. Gina Ford would've loved him!
Fed him, put him over my shoulder, he burped immediately and was asleep again within seconds. Honest to god it's the truth!

Ds2 screamed on and off all night every night from the moment he was born. In the end I broke down crying because it was just so awful. HV, GP and Paediatric Doctor (paid for privately) all were useless.

Dd1 was and is high maintenance. Dd2 is a dream in comparison. We had another as “the next one cant be as hard as raising dd1 has been it’s not possible” we will not be having a third as “it might be another like dd1”

Three sons, first two are twins.

All easy in that none had reflux or tongue tie, breastfed easily and never had any separation anxiety or anything. Sleep through from maybe 3 or four months? Can’t really remember as they’re nearly ten now.

My mum always says that they were easy going because I am - while there may be some truth to that, as I mention above none of them had issues either.

Truthfully, awful .

DC1 was an absolute dream. So placid, slept through from about 2 months and you seriously could take him anywhere and he’d never make a fuss.

DC2 was the total opposite. Didn’t sleep through until she was at least one. Screamed over everything, had major separation anxiety and still does now to an extent (she is seven...) She has always been by the far the most highly strung. We couldn’t leave her with anyone else until she was around three, she would scream if anyone other than her dad and I even looked at her. Awful, awful, awful.

I have to say second children are the toughest for everyone I know. I was a great baby and young child, my Dbro on the other hand didn’t sleep through the night until he was two, was always in some kind of trouble, lots of trips to A&E and he was in my DM’s bed until he was ten .

My DC2 was afraid of everything too. She would scream in public toilets, scream if a dog was anywhere nearby, scream if a flying insect came anywhere near her, scream if anyone other than exH or I dared to look at her or talk to her. And I mean she SCREAMED- it sounded like someone was torturing her. She’s still not great now. Weirdly my third DC is much like DC1 and exH and I were/are very much like DC1&3 in nature so we truly don’t know why DC2 is the way she is.

You could have written a baby book about my first, the second was a fucking nightmare. However jump forward 14 years and I would have had 10 of my second compared to the first, another 10 years on and they are both great people.

On the other hand my DNephew 1 was a livewire. He didn’t sleep through the night until he was 4. I’m surprised he’s never broken any bones as he was always climbing and giving us near heart attacks.

My sister waited 10 years before having another! DN2 was very placid and always loved his sleep - still does! He can’t stay up and watch a film without falling asleep and he’s 9.

Only 8 days in to DC2 but so far, touch wood... easy. Very similar. He did give us a bit of a scare when he was born, but has been a dream to look after.

Ds was easy. Lile a pp has asd.
Dd was a shock. Never did the same thing 2 days in a row. But did really respond at sensory classes which was nice.

DS1 easy peasy. Everyone said to us how lucky we were and that we wouldn't be so lucky the second time around. But 3 months in, DS2 is actually even more chilled. Smiles, eats and sleeps. But there's still time for that to change I guess 😬 We had best not get too cocky!