Just wondering - does your second sleep worse than your first?

[almmummy]

So my first slept through pretty reliably from eight months - at 2.5 she only really wakes in the night if she is sick or has a nightmare, it's rare.

Number 2 is a different ballgame - fairly average early months, up every few hours for milk. A horrible regression at 7 months, up nearly every hour then settled into an up two or three times a night, at best up once on really good nights. He's a year next week.

I have asked around and so many of my friend's seconds have not really settled into sleeping through and are worse than their siblings. Just wondering why???? And if your experience echoes this.

Just wondering if first babies thrive on the attention they get and settle better??

Opposite here. DD1 (2.5 y) was always a nightmare with sleep. She's currently upstairs resisting her nap screaming she wants to play with her toys. I've read her a book, cuddled her, and just been in lying on her floor singing to her. My fault as I got her down late and she's now overtired. But anything slightly out of routine and she doesn't sleep. Has always been that way.

DD2 (15m) is currently sleeping through the commotion. I was gobsmacked when I had DD2, I wanted to run around saying 'see, see, it wasn't me - you just had one of these didnt you' to everyone who had looked at me strangely when I said DDno1 was difficult with sleep.

DD (pfb) was a really good sleeper from an early age. Once asleep she was (and still is) a really deep sleeper.

DS was a nightmare and didn't sleep through until he was 14 months old. To be fair i think this was down to a feeding/eating problem. His stomach just seemed so small that it took barely anything to fill him up, then 2 hours later he would be screaming the place down with hunger.

12 years on he still doesn't need much sleep...

DC2 sleep better than DC1
DC3 slept better than both DC1 and DC2
However DC4 bucked the trend, she slept 'worse' than DC2 and DC3.

Anecdotally, I have a gender split. Both my boys (DC2 and DC3) were 'easy' in terms of sleep. Both my girls (DC1 and DC4) were more needy, sleep wise.

This is the case for me.

Dc1 sleeps like a dream . Always has. She is just 5
Dc2 dreadful sleeper still at age 3.5. She wakes once or twice most nights.
Dc3 is 15 mo. Has slept through since age 1 no sleep training.

Dc1 slept really, really well and still does at 5. He was an easy baby who hardly ever cried.

Dc2 slept even better but she wakes now easily now, at 4. She was/is not quite so laid back though and had reflux and colic and cried almost the whole time until she was 18 months.

Opposite for me, DS was a shit sleeper, woke every 3 hours like clockwork til he was a good 8 months then was waking a couple of times a night til 13 months. One night at that age he just started sleeping through and now at 3 he's a fab sleeper. Stopped napping at 2 but nighttime sleep perfect.

DD, my 2nd, slept through around 8 weeks old and is now 17 months. She's been a fab little sleeper ever since 8 weeks.

Glad to hear a couple have slept through around the 14 month mark - there's hope! Also interested to hear the reflux/colicky babies have been worse sleepers - DS had awful silent reflux and we've only just weaned him off the meds. He's very sensitive, any illness or teething and the night is a horror show