What a perfect baby... Your experiences?

[Beach Mama]

Mine were the "perfect" sleepers up until 4 months. I was told with both that it wouldn't last - and it didn't. We basically went through the newborn stage at 4 mths. Up until then they slept for 8-12 hours every night - fed and went back to sleep again. I remember at my MG when DD was 8 weeks old, all the girls were talking about how they were up 1-2 hourly and I was getting 12 hours straight and no feeds in that time and had no idea what was to come.

I was also told that #2 would be a terror because DD was pretty good once we got through a few months of sleep issues and went back to being a very happy sleeper. Turns out that DS was pretty much the same - we had issues but he loves his sleep. Amazing how many people fixate on sleep as the indicator for a "good" or "bad" baby isn't it. Hang in there, just nod your head and know that these little creatures have this unfailing ability to keep us on our toes and can change in an instant (or may not!).

[MummyNaomi]

Maybe because then I wouldn't get so many responses based on the word "perfect" I was not being literal. I was looking for those to share their experiences. Thank you so much to those that did.

Babe this is a GREAT thread, have loved reading it, thanks for posting it

[HotI]

Babe this is a GREAT thread, have loved reading it, thanks for posting it

I agree. That's why i wondered why the OP wanted to change it. Different perspectives make a thread interesting.

[westy]

I agree this thread has been a great read, thanks everyone who has made a contribution.

[deletedit]

#1 was the perfect baby, except for that one time she didn't want to go to sleep. Yeah, one time. I used to take her to restaurants, movies, whatever, and didn't think anything of it. She used to sleep 16 odd hours a day and only dropped below 12 hours a day when she was about 7 or 8, now she sleeps 10 hours each night. Turned into an argumentative toddler and an even more argumentative tween and is only just growing her logic circuits and actually agreeing with us now, at almost 10 and a half. I don't need to say "I told you so", she's actually noticing things herself and telling ME, its like ... wow, FINALLY, all these years of pain ...

#2 is the crabby grouch from hell who never sleeps and didn't go to bed before midnight until she was 14 months old. She's still horrendously grumpy when she first wakes up or when she's tired, and considering how little she sleeps that is quite a lot of time each day. She's quite easily upset and takes a long time to warm up to new people. If I had her first, I would have never had any more kids ever again O_o. But she's quite easy to reason with and play with so the polar opposite of #1 in almost every way.

#3 seems to be the average of the two. Doesn't sleep all that much and I don't think he'll sleep overnight until he's weaned, but doesn't turn into a hellspawn when he's tired and he's happy when he wakes up. And he's a really cute happy smileypants most of the time. Not the perfect baby by any stretch though, again because of the sleeping.

[Dragonbub]

Bit hard for me to comment, but DS#2 seems quite like DS#1 in the early days. He is a great feeder and sleeper, with the odd unsettled moment during the day when he wants to suck but not the milk (spits it all over us the little munchkin). He has one major unsettled period at night from 9 to 10 pm, but then sleeps for about 5 hours before the next feed, so all in all not bad for a two week old.

HOWEVER - DS#1 was like that and flipped a switch at 6 weeks. Took us another 6 weeks to figure him out, we finally went to Ngala here in WA and they sorted out his sleep issues. Since then he was much more settled and I ended up with the "good" baby after all.

i just hope DS#2 doesn't go through the same thing because it was quite horrifying, but this time I am more prepared and have ALOT more support around me than I did before.

For the record, DS#1 is the "perfect" toddler. EAts well, shares, uses manners, makes his bed, is rarely sick or grumpy, and is generally a well-behaved beautiful loving little boy. I guess I just make feisty babies