Some would say there is a correlation between a baby’s personality and how they came into this world. If their birth was easy, calm, and “drama-free”, then they’re likely to be easy going babies. Sounds logical, right?
My experience with my other kids would also lead me to that conclusion. I had my first three kids in the hospital. My labor was fairly short and simple with all three of them. My daughter was the quickest (she was also my first), and I would say there really wasn’t any drama involved, until AFTER she was born. She was healthy, but developed jaundice after she was initially released from the hospital, and then had to be readmitted. I think this was just more drama for me than for her, because she just baked in an incubator with the bili-lights for a couple of days while I worried! She has been, from the get-go, a really easy going kid. Other than the trouble I had with her nursing in the beginning (the first 8 weeks of her life!!), she was a really easy baby. I would say she was mostly a happy baby too.
My second child was much different. It seemed really calm for about the first hour after he was born. It was so busy at the hospital, they had stuck me in a “closet” of sorts to deliver him. I didn’t care…I was ready for him to be born. Immediately afterwards, I was in my babymoon phase. Looking at him, holding him, trying to nurse, etc. When a nurse finally did come in to check his vitals, about an hour later, she noticed his heart rate was really high and wanted to take him to the nursery to check him out. That started the drama! He spent the next several weeks after that at a children’s hospital, diagnosed with SVT (supraventricular tachycardia), a condition that causes the heart rate to be excessively high. A normal heart rate for an infant is around 140 bpm, where his was spiking around 230 and up (resting rate). I will say that while he was in the hospital he was an absolute angel. He rarely cried. He was so drugged up that I guess he couldn’t do much but sleep and eat. It’s now that he’s older that he’s probably the unhappiest of all three of my kids. Some would say this is just “middle-child” syndrome, but I wonder if maybe all that drama in the beginning didn’t have a lasting effect on his personality.
My third child was another uneventful birth (uneventful = good!). He’s pretty happy go lucky too. Until one of his older siblings starts picking on him. He is a momma’s boy for sure! He was a happy baby as well, and that has bled over into his school years. Not alot seems to really get him down.
Tristan is my youngest, just 8 months. He was born at home, instead of the hospital. It was such a relaxing labor and delivery. There were no nurses barging in to check on me before, during or after the birth. It was wonderful. If you want to read about his birth, click here. I really think that the whole process has had an impact on his personality. He is always smiling, usually happy (until he’s really tired, but…I would expect that!).
Who’s to say what makes a happy baby versus an “always crying” baby? Is it nature or is it nurture? What do YOU think?
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