The difference between Oliver and Ben is amazing. The "how to welcome a second baby" books warn you about saying anything negative about the older sibling in front of them, but hopefully Ben won't care by the time he can read this. You can see there's nature and nurture both at work here. Oliver and Ben have different personalities, but there's probably a lot that I am doing differently too and that has to affect them.
I know it isn't completely accurate, but my memories are that Ben NEVER ONCE went to sleep on his own. He was completely dependent on nursing to sleep until well past a year. When we tried to let him cry it out (and learn to go to sleep on his own), he cried for HOURS. And, it seems like he NEVER took a single daytime nap (even nursing with me) until he was two years old. Ben was also a very unhappy newborn, and cried/fussed almost constantly for his first three months. He would almost never sit content by himself. We kinda understood that he was hungry (starving?), but if half the crying was from being tired, we just didn't understand why he wouldn't go to sleep. After three months, he turned into such a sweet, happy guy (who still didn't sleep very well, but didn't seem to be affected by that), and the rest is history. :-)
Oliver, on the other hand, can sit content by himself for a good long while, amused by what's going on around him. And it seems like the only time he cries is when he is tired. And guess what???!! When he is tired, you can lay him down and guess what he does??!! He goes to sleep!!! Every once in a while he'll fuss a bit, but never more than five minutes. That just seems absolutely amazing to me after our experience with Ben. I know things can change at any minute, but it certainly seems like we're off to a better start with Oliver in terms of sleeping. Yay!!
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