If you were "super laid back," you wouldn't be posting this kind of post.

You will drive yourself crazy trying to make your baby like another baby in terms of sleep. My baby was a light sleeper and always very alert. Hard to get to sleep and woke up at every tiny thing. I remember going to a mom's group for the first time and there was a mom there who's baby fell asleep part-way through -- she just laid him on the blanket and got ready, and then put on his coat. He kept sleeping. I was amazed. I didn't know babies could do that.

Remember those baby pictures that went viral a while ago, where the mom/dad posed the sleeping baby against all sort of scenes they created while the baby slept on the floor? That would be this baby. Would never have happened in a million years with mine.

OP - there's an article in the post today about a mom who had a perfect first baby and a colicky second baby. Go read that article. It's just a baby's temperament, nothing you did.

Our priest has a dd same age as mine. He was so devastated when he saw my dd walk like nuts at 10 months, run around and be overall hell raiser as a baby and toddler! While his unicorn baby sat in the high chair for hours, never moved and was overall easy as can be. What he didn't see is that my dd had insane GERD, and never slept and barely ate and we were at the doctors and in hospitals all the time.
By 2 his darling was running and active. Now they are both 18 and both party and are heck raisers here and there.
So, you see how that works? My dd was a unicorn to him as a baby and his dd was a unicorn to me!
Funny, preachers dd raising heck as a teen and mine actually a bit better behaved now? Maybe their babies will be impossible soon enough?!

My first was not a unicorn, but not awful. He STTN at 10mo and after that was awesome and fairly easy.

My second was the unicorn you speak of. He slept long stretches as an infant, super happy, we can take him anywhere. He stopped sleeping at 5mo and didn’t sleep TTN again until after he turned 2.

Both my kids are picky eaters - but they sleep late on weekend mornings (8-8:30am) and people get jealous of that. Every kid has their struggles, you don’t always know what they are.

Anonymous wrote:One unicorn baby and one baby who was super fussy. Both C section at 40 weeks. Both DH and DW are very laid back people, but one parent has "tiger"ish tendencies due to Asian upbringing.

Tiger-ish and laid-back don’t really go together.

Its hard to imagine when you are in the midst of the baby vortex, but everything could change tomorrow. Don't spend time comparing babies, there are always better and worse scenarios.

Mother of an awesome 7 year old who was a crap sleeper and napper. DS did not sleep thrugh the night until he was 2. He was born at 39 weeks, c-section,and was 10 pounds 2 ounces. Everyone told me that he would sleep through the night easily because he was so big that filling his belly would be no problem.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

Outside of the not wanting to sleep, a trait that he still has, he was a very happy baby. He just doesn’t want to miss out on anything and sees sleeping s a waste of time. It doesn’t matter how tired he is he fights going to bed. No tantrums or getting out of bed but the normal trying to extend bed time and then wiggling around in bed and deciding that is the perfect time to have long philosophical conversations about life and his day.

Seriously, his desire to not sleep is probably the reason he doesn't have a sibling. The sleep deprivation was real.

But he is a great kid. He remembers his manners most of the time, does well in school, listens pretty well, and is a snuggler.

But his sleep patterns as a baby were enough to take down a grown adult.

I had one of each. It's all about the baby. Interestingly, they grew up to be the opposite of the kind of baby they were.

Other people’s babies always seem easier than your own.

I did. While my DH and I are pretty high strung in general, we had basically dealt with a bunch of crap before becoming parents-----lots of serious medical issues for me, etc. For that reason, we just decided we have had enough horrible stress in our lives, and we are going to do this parenthood thing by not stressing out over the day to day stuff. It's all solvable and temporary.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I say this kindly: this way madness lies.

I agree. FTR my kid was borderline colicky for the first few months and hardly slept at all for the first few years but otherwise has been a very easy kid— no eating issues and now sleeps 10 hours a night.

My first was born very premature (end of 2nd trimester), but he was such a sweet baby. Rarely cried. Happy. My second was 39 weeks and screamed for 2 years.

You get what you get.

I have two unicorn babies. One born at his due date, the other born at 38 weeks. I wouldn't call myself super laid back - I care a lot about schedules and setting ourselves up for success. That being said, it's just luck. I think we just got lucky twice. It helps that I make an effort to set us up for success, but 90% of the fact that my kids are generally good sleepers, good eaters, and compliant in terms of behavior has nothing to do with me.

Anonymous wrote:One unicorn baby and one baby who was super fussy. Both C section at 40 weeks. Both DH and DW are very laid back people, but one parent has "tiger"ish tendencies due to Asian upbringing.

This is us, too. It's luck of the draw, OP. My unicorn is now 9 and still a unicorn. My fussy baby is now 7 and still fussy. But, she has SO MUCH PERSONALITY. She is magnetic. I cannot tell you how much people love this child.