Easy Baby

When Annabelle was little I never considered her a tough baby, but I didn't think she was an easy baby either. I didn't realize just how not-easy she was until Corgan came along. He has really been a great baby and so much easier than Annabelle was. Aside from a cold that we all got recently, he's been healthy from the get-go, whereas within her first few months Annabelle had jaundice, eye goop that had to be treated with medicine for a few months, and she had trouble pooping and it kept me up for many hours during the night. By 9 months, she had been diagnosed with urinary tract infections and roseola too. Also, I know these aren't medical problems because they're very common in babies, but she had pretty severe baby acne on her face, chest, and back and she had cradle cap, whereas Corgan only got a few little bumps on his face and has had barely any signs of cradle cap (of course, that could be because he still has no hair).

The only way that Corgan has been any tougher than Belle has been with his spitting up. For the first couple of months he seemed to spit up lots constantly (but nothing that was a problem medically), but Annabelle only spit up maybe 5 times in her life. He still spits up now, but it's not like it was even a month ago. While we're on the subject of eating (or responses to eating)... Corgan was and still is SO much easier to breastfeed than Annabelle was. With Annabelle, she was about 2 months old before I felt like we got the hang of breastfeeding and it wasn't a struggle, but he seemed to get it from the very beginning. At first I thought maybe it was just because I had experience already when he came along, but a friend was telling me that her second one wasn't too bad, but her third child had a hard time with breastfeeding and she knows that she didn't forget how to do it during the 9 months in between breastfeeding each of them. :) It also didn't hurt as bad with Corgan, which I'm sure is a combination of having already been broken in (so-to-speak) and that he seemed to latch on better.

One of the things that I have been uber-thankful for with Corgan is that he actually sleeps at night! Annabelle had me up every couple of hours for many months, and never really slept through the night on any regular basis for her first nine months! Corgan started sleeping through the night after just a few weeks, and on a regular basis now will sleep from midnight to 7am. If he does wake up at night, he's almost always right back to sleep within 15-30 minutes tops!

Another way that Corgan has been "easy" is that he gives me a bit more freedom than Belle did. She would never take a bottle which meant that I couldn't be away from her for more than a couple of hours until she started solids. While he still prefers the boob (what guy doesn't?), he takes the bottle pretty well and will even take formula so I don't have to pump... which is great! Sometimes he will take a pacifier, but he's rejecting that more lately. This seems to come and go. He's trying very hard to be a thumb-sucker right now, but I'm trying very hard to not allow him to be (I had that struggle with Belle too).

Annabelle never wanted anything to with her swing, but Corgan does okay in his. He'll stay in it for a while, and is now at the point where I can put him down for a little bit in his exersaucer, in the swing, or lay him down to play on his baby gym/mat. He even lets me leave him in Annabelle's crib to lay there and watch her mobile and I NEVER remember her paying attention to her mobile until she was old enough to stand up and reach it. Although he likes to be held way more than I remember Belle needing to be held, if he does cry (and he isn't hungry or needs a diaper change), he will stop just about immediately if you pick him up. He will also often lay in one spot and just laugh at the ceiling for quite a while. He's SUCH a happy boy (as you can see from the picture above). He will just laugh randomly quite often and has the best toothless smile!

I would never trade either kid for an "easier" one, but I have to say... I'm glad that Annabelle was the tougher of the two and came first because if I'd had Corgan first and thought all kids were that easy, I'd have been in for an ultra-rude awakening when Annabelle came along.

P.S. Don't you just LOVE that smile that he has!?! He is just SO happy!