When, if ever, did your baby get easier?

[Anonymous]

For me, my baby was like that and has never gotten easier. She’s two and the challenges have just shifted. She still doesn’t sleep through the night and woke 20+ times a night until 20 months. Now she cries at every transition, every single time she hears “No” or doesn’t get What she wants. She basically cries all day. She had severe, severe separation anxiety until around 18 months and couldn’t do childcare. She only ate bananas until 13 months. I really hope yours doesn’t end up like mine.

[Anonymous]

It got easier for us at 4.5 months when we did CIO and she started sleeping 8 hour stretches at night. At 6 months she was sleeping 7-7ish and on a schedule during the day as well. This is when it became much easier imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It got easier for us at 4.5 months when we did CIO and she started sleeping 8 hour stretches at night. At 6 months she was sleeping 7-7ish and on a schedule during the day as well. This is when it became much easier imo.

+1. I have three, including a 5 month old. Once they get on a schedule at night and during the day and there are predictable “breaks” from your child it gets easier. But it goes by so quickly too! My 5 month old is my last and I treasure this time. Her baby breath, her baby smell, her amazing babyness! I was at my older daughter’s school with her the other day and another mom came up to me and said “I’m so jealous!” And then asked me how I was. It was perfect. You will probably miss this time but it is also so so hard. How does that make sense? No idea.

[Anonymous]

Hitting 3 months it got a little easier. I also loved when they could sit but not crawl.

[Anonymous]

Our baby was similar but did also have reflux which may have contributed to it. But overall remained a difficult kid for years. Didn't sleep through the night until 2.5. Very sensitive, very strong-willed, very particular. She's now 4.5 and getting somewhat easier, though she's still incredibly strong-willed and very sensitive. I can see where these traits can be positives in the long run actually, if parented correctly. Here's what has worked for us:

- She needed an ironclad schedule. Food and sleep are always on time so we don't have meltdowns. Starting to get more flexible now but only recently.
- We have had to become parenting experts! I have read a ton of parenting books and picked up lots of helpful techniques. What works best for us is that we are very warm/supportive/loving while also having strict rules and high expectations. 100% never give in to tantrums or whining. You must stand firm or else it gets a lot worse.
- Understand you might be in it for the long haul and figure out ways to make your life easier. Get a regular babysitter if you can (ours was little during covid so this wasn't really an option for us).

Hopefully your baby becomes easier than ours did but know that even if she doesn't, you can get through this and be great parents and raise a great kid - you just might need to put in more work, time, patience, and effort than other parents.

[Anonymous]

4-5 months was notably hard. Then it got better until 18 months. After that, better/worse reversal every 6 months until age 5. Age 5+ has been great although now (at 10) I'm starting to see hints of teen sass.

For infants, I found the Wonder Weeks book helpful to explain what I was seeing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4. Sorry.

+1. My kid got easier around age 4. It was really hard until then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LO is 4 months and not an easy baby. No colic (thank god) so not the hardest but for sure not easy.

Everything is a fight. Getting her to sleep, getting her to stay asleep, feeding her. Everything has to be so particular and it changes weekly. God forbid you don’t walk around, pat her butt, bounce her and sing the right song. Even if exhausted she’ll scream and refuse to sleep. Oh! And you’ve got to make sure you can predict if she wants the right breast or left. Give her the wrong one and meltdown.

I thought I was just being crazy but our nanny (with 20 years of infant experience) finally admitted to me that my kid was “particularly particular”.

We don’t think it’s tummy trouble or anything. She’s a doll when everything is going perfectly. We just think this is her current personality. But is this it forever?

My baby was like this. I will say that a lot of the characteristics that made him so difficult as an infant now make him much easier to handle as a teenager. Like the way he was always so particular makes him much less impulsive as a teen, because he continues to be very particular about everything. He’s also keeps himself and everything around him clean and organized, because once again, he’s so particular.

[Anonymous]

4 months was the worst. Teach sign language if you dont know ASL make something up like I did. Trained mine to slap their leg if wet and clap for milk. Transformational.

Also are you sure both of those boobies are producing milk? Like you feel it come in and when it’s empty by now hopefully.

[Anonymous]

My baby is 28 years old and I am still waiting for him to get easier!

[Anonymous]

At 18/19 months with ours, who were both difficult babies for very different reasons. At that age they began “communicating” and letting us know what they wanted life just got so much easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 months was the worst. Teach sign language if you dont know ASL make something up like I did. Trained mine to slap their leg if wet and clap for milk. Transformational.

Also are you sure both of those boobies are producing milk? Like you feel it come in and when it’s empty by now hopefully.

Yes. She’s getting sufficient feedings and I don’t have any supply issues. Gaining weight well and lots of wet and poopy diapers.

[Anonymous]

BTDT. DS hated being a baby. For us, things got better when he could better communicate what was wrong, which turned out to be repeated ear infections. This was around age 2.

[Anonymous]

Around 5…give or take a few months

[Anonymous]

Your baby sounds totally normal. Sleeping through the night at around 6 months of age has improved the situation with our children considerably.