Easy baby stories pleaseeeeee!!!

[Iret]

Feeling so anxious. Just want some positivity rather than the ‘you’ll never sleep again’ very helpful remarks.

My DC has always been a bad sleeper and still is at 3.5.

I won’t speak for others but I just got used to it, and tbh it was the only issue with my little ray of sunshine esp as he didn’t cry much at all, just wouldn’t fecking sleep.

DH is a night owl, so when little I used to go to bed 8/9pm leaving a bottle of expressed milk. DH did 10/12 feed and I did the rest meaning I was tired but never exhausted. I still go bed before DC maybe once a week.

Every few months I spend the night alone in a hotel as does DH (DC hasn’t spent a night away from us yet).

Good luck.

My eldest was an easy baby, I mean yes he woke in the night for the first few months but that is totally normal. He was, and still is, totally laid back. It is just his personality.

I am totally eye rolling at prev. comment from an OP suggesting her baby is easy because of what she does rather than luck! Because it is just luck.

My second was a high needs baby, people don't understand that term until they experience it. I ended up very unwell both physically and mentally because of it. I didn't see it coming as my first was so easy.

You know what though OP, it passes in the blink of an eye. My DC are 9 and 5 now and I would love to go back, even to the times that seemed like they would never end, because they do end and the babies grow up.

Your baby will be who he/she is. Might sleep through from birth or might still be waking in the night at 5. You will manage and you will love them and it will all be fine.

Some of the best advice I got was to surrender to the situation instead of trying to control everything. Really helped my mindset!

I mean I don't have anything to compare it to but I would say my DS was "easy". He woke every 2 hours at night but pretty much went back to sleep straight away on the breast and we co slept so I went back to sleep aswell.

He had no colic/reflux issues and was generally a happy, smiley baby and was rarely inconsolable.

He would be happy sat in his bouncer for 30-45 mins so I could get bits done.

He napped reliably for 2-3 hours in his pram either at home or out and about.

He never had teething issues or separation anxiety.

Having said this they still consume your life and its by no means easy having a newborn or child in general. We had some issues with feeding, sleep regressions at times and he was a very active baby - crawled at 5.5 months and got quite frustrated from around 4 months because he wanted to be on the move. I have an extremely hands on supportive partner aswell which I think is fundamental to stop you going mad 😂

My first was great he slept from 9 weeks and was mega chilled and vey snuggly. Not saying there weren't times he was harder work but honestly his first year was fab.

Ignore stupid comments like that. Every baby is different. I suffered quite badly the first few weeks but we had a lovely baby who was very easy and enjoyed his sleep. He still does at 2. Fully aware if we have another that will probably be different but I don't think it's that bad, especially if you're part of a couple who can share the load.

I think a lot depends on your attitude. I remember pushing my baby in the pram thinking 'is this it, what's the fuss about?'. Very easy. Eat, change, cuddle, sleep on repeat. And I had two close together, bizarrely it got even easier with the 2nd. I guess because I was settled into a routine.

I agree that it's better to have realistic expectations, otherwise you'll be upset and depressed when you have a perfectly normal baby that disrupts your previous life.

I've had three babies, two were pretty easy and the first one was a bad sleeper. I do remember with my first being just so shocked by the sleep factor and thinking 'why didn't anyone tell me this?' I would have found it easier if I was expecting it to be hard.

Ds1 was an easy baby and came out with his own routine. As long as I followed his routine, everything went well. With the exception of when he was ill. Even then, he is the type that prefers to sleep it off. I used to feed him little and often and put him down (otherwise he would cry more).

At first he woke up at 12, 3, 6 and 9. Where he required feeding and every other feeding he would defecate. He didn't care who feed him and after the 6 o'clock feed I used to fall asleep and dh used to give him his only bottle for the day at 9.

He loved other people, even strangers. He spoke early and was content with watching me clean or the washing machine over watching TV (when slightly older).

Warning, he saved up all his crying for his terrible two stage.

It’s good to be positive…but…it’s good to be realistic too! Having had one good sleeper and one terrible sleeper I know how difficult it can be. Having a baby isn’t all that hard, when you get a non-sleeper it’s the sleep deprivation that makes everything feel hard.
You don’t know how it’ll go. You might get lucky and get a baby who sleeps easily from a few weeks old. However, you might get the opposite so it is best to be prepared mentally for that.

I find mumsnet extremely negative about babies tbh, way too many stories of “you’ll never sleep again / all they do is cry / your body will be ruined / toddlers are nightmares”

perhaps I’ve been lucky in having 2 unicorn babies but my experience is very different. Neither of them really cried, they both slept well from the start (but I did make sure to put them down awake and not be too quick to feed at every little noise), they were both very placid content babies with no health issues who have been a real joy to have around

now a toddler, my dd is hilarious and has avoided all the toddler tantrums, she sits and chats with you, makes jokes, but also happy to play on her own

we have had some rocky moments - 4 month sleep regression hit but we were happy to sleep train, and as a covid baby DD got s lot of illness last year

but I can honestly say I never ever had beyond about 5 minutes of crying with either one, never had to let a cup of tea go cold, never had the misery of them not sleeping

they’re both a total joy and it’s been way easier than I thought. Interestingly, it’s a similar experience to most of my friends. I don’t believe everyone is sugar coating everything as some of them have definitely battled reflux, crying babies, sleepless nights etc but on the whole everyone still makes social plans, still is able to brush their hair, still gets lots and lots of joy in their baby

a much more positive experience overall than mn would have you believe!

DS was, just wanted his bottle and sleep and a bit of entertaining. Only cried if he was hungry or bumped his head
He’s 13 now and not much different.
We did deserve an easy one after DD though who though sleep was for wimps!

I had 4 "easy" babies and no family help. FiL. Had. Cancer when dd1 was born and died by the time dd3 was born. Mil was not able to help my family is not in the UK.

However dd1 slept 6 hours a night from day 3. I was told I had to wake her we tried this once she was comatose and I thought to myself "How would I like it if a giant pulled me out of my bed and force fed me?" We let her sleep she had her routine. Fed 4 to 5 times in the evening slept from midnight to 6 am. Fed and slept until 8 9.

Dd2. Followed a roughly 1 waking around 2 3 for a 10 min feed then back to sleep for 4 to 5 hours waking around 7 for a feed and then back to sleep.

Ds was like dd1. Liked his sleep. Still does.

Dd3 co slept i do not recall her waking up at night but she could have just helped herself to s feed if she did.

All 4 of mine were easy temperament babies that fitted into our family life well. I remember the baby days fondly.

I learned very quickly to not tell people we had "easy" babies. People don't want to hear that it causes genuine resentment. However as mine grew older and I started speaking of it a bit more I've found many other parents who said similar. So not impossible to have a baby that i s happy and content without a lot of scheduling and stuff to go with it.

Good luck op. For me the baby times were a lovely time ..

Oh as I am at it. Don't let anyone make you dread the teenage years either. Teenagers are amazing..

My second baby was a unicorn baby (the type you hear about but never actually meet)

Her birth was an easy water birth which took less than 3 hours. No tears or stitches. No long term damage. Home in a couple of hours.

She fed amazingly from the first feed. She was 45 mins old and latched like a pro. She gained weight at the first weigh in.

No reflux, very content baby. First few weeks were hard with sleep, but that's every baby. By 8 weeks she was sleeping 10pm to 5am pretty much every night. Only changed when teething or poorly.

She settled into a great routine early too and by 4 months was in her own room and napping like a pro.

At 5 months she sat up and started weaning herself (though she insisted on BLW which I didn't want to do)

I'm not going to say she's without challenge, but compared to her brother she was the perfect baby.

It does happen, but it's pure luck.

This is great advice! I think that's why I found my second easier as well. I knew the path of least resistance was likely the best in the first year.

This!

My 2yo was the most MISERABLE baby until he hit 2. But I still thought he was the best thing ever!

My easy babies turned into little demons as soon as they got to the toddler stage and my harder babies became more settled. Nothing really stays the same, babies and kids go through different stages of development and some will be harder than others. You just get on with things and adapt, try not to overthink or stress because all you can do is your best.

Mine were fairly easy. But I bottle fed and my husband is a proper parent.

Babies aren't easy and anyone who says they are or their kids were is either lying or they had loads of help i.e grandparents nearby, daycare or even night nurse.

I know lots of people including us who had easy babies but we don’t really say it as we get accused of lying!

I agree with this. If you dare to comment your babies were easy you would get shut down.

Also in response to the bottle fed made a difference all 4 of mine were fully breastfed so it can happen to breastfed babies too.

I had three easy babies, all breastfed, slept through the night (10.30-6.30) by 12 weeks and continued to be happy children who slept well in a crib or cot. I didn't have any help as didn't live near my parents and DH was never home from work until 8pm and left for work at 6.30am. Thank god they were easy or I don't know what I'd have done.
They're all adults now and were easy teens too, I have been incredibly lucky.

The best advice I was given was to be available but very boring at night, feeding was done with a dim light and I read throughout, no phones then thankfully and I didn't have a TV in the bedroom. Nappies were only changed when dirty.

I love this, what an incredible adventure you must have had backpacking with him like that @Rtmhwales

The husband thing is SO TRUE. Very depressing to read the number of threads from women here with useless husbands who don’t do any parenting and leave all the housework to their wife.

I guess the other reason why I found babies easy was that it was my only job on mat leave, apart from cooking dinner. I’d do dishes / laundry if I could but husband picked up everything else and we had a lovely cleaner once a week. So no external pressure on me to get anything done beyond just hanging out with the baby

Mine was easy, and I'm on my own with no family in this country so didn't have any help! She slept 6-7 from a few days old and only half woke up for feeds in the night, straight back to sleep. We had one bad night when she had a cold at 3 months. She's 3 now and still sleeps 6-5. She's out like a light.

DD1 was so easy that I got through lots of novels and cleaned skirting boards for something to do while she was napping. Slept 6 hours at a stretch from birth and 12 hours at night from 4 months.

DD2 not far off either but she was more disturbed by me as I had DD1 to take to nursery, play groups etc