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Newborn was so hard. DD didn't sleep like people supposedly say children and babies are supposed to. She hated being strapped in, so she screamed and cried in the carseat. She only slept if we were wearing her in the ergo. We walked A LOT.

With DS1, right now (he just turned two) is the hardest. He's behind verbally and gets super frustrated that we can't understand him, we're going through his first major picky phase, and the temper tantrums are crazyyyy.

With DS2, the first few months were the hardest because I was so sleep deprived and couldn't take naps during the day since his nap schedule never overlapped with DS1's nap.

Right now--3 in August. He's suddenly very defiant, and it's hard to keep my patience when I'm trying to get dinner together or just decompress for a minute when we get home (and D works second shift, so I don't have any help).

From 3.5 to 5 months was the hardest. I went back to work, I was struggling with a tough elimination diet that hadn't started working yet so LO was in pain and crying all the time, and the 4 month sleep regression nearly killed us all. I pretty much started losing my mind from exhaustion and stress. LO is 20 months now and when things get tough, I just think back to those months and it doesn't seem so bad!

For us, newborn stage, without question. Tantrums and other terrible 2/3s are still a cakewalk compared to the first 2 months.

@HLK208: Is she sceam/crying or just screaming? I have a friend with a 13 month old that she's having issues with just screaming. All the time. It's so odd. Poor thing's been buying all sorts of book trying to figure out how to get her to stop because she feels like she can't take her into public.

Newborn! Lo might be defiant, throw tantrums, etc., but she sleeps at night, I know what's wrong most of the time, and she also does things that makes printing more rewarding. (She'll be 3 in a few months.) Even on days where she has thrown her 1 hour+ tantrums (there's been days of several of these a day) it's cake compared to a newborn that cries for hours on end for seemingly no reason.

5 was horrible for my DD. The worst. My DS has been really good up until recently, at 3.75. He didn't have terrible 2s or 3s. I think it's gonna be F'in Fours for him just like it was F'in Fives for my DD.

Right now at almost 3. It's the worst.

First 6 months was the hardest. Actually maybe months 2-6 (first month was easier), because LOs MSPI was in full force but undiagnosed and she was refusing all forms of eating and losing weight and not sleeping and generally just causing me alot of frustration and exhaustion.

Things got significantly easier once she started sleeping better at a year old. She's still pretty easy now at almost 2.

Not looking forward to these 3s. She does have tantrums now, but never whole days of all tantrums, like some of my friends' kids. So that's probably coming at some point.

19months to 27 months!! The whining and crying and not being able to reason with her was hard. So much better now at 2.5 years! I'm scared about the 3s tho! So far so good with my son who is almost 11 months!

I think maybe 18-23 months. Throwing food, defiance, not wanting anything to do with me. I felt we hit the terrible 2's early. Things have been pretty calm for the last 6 months so now I'm waiting for the shirt storm that is the 3's....

The first 5 months were horrific. The colic scream fests from 4pm to 11pm every single night, followed by 3-hourly feeds, followed by full days with a crap-napper. She was miserable, I was miserable, it was terrible.

Newborn period has been the hardest with both kids. My DD is 2.5 though and I'm worried about the 3s!

For DD (she's 4.5), I still think the newborn phase was the hardest. For DS (he's 2.5), I'm going to say 18 months-ish!

@HLK208: OMG F screams through every diaper change and clothing change now that's he's mobile. That's definitely the downer of this age for us too. Of course, he's always calm as can be when I see them changing diapers at daycare.

I don't think that we have really hit it yet at almost 2.5 years. Around 1 was that hardest I guess because she went through a SUPER shy stage and we could barely leave the house. She has attitude though, I can see the 3's being hard.

DS has had a feisty, very vocal 'tude since birth but he's also always been an easy sleeper, eater, traveler...that balanced it out and made any challenging behavior easier to manage.

These days, however, at 2.5, he's better able to express his obstinance. The past few months have been the hardest thus far....tons of "I don't want to", whining, and outright refusal to listen. He's also become much harder at bedtime and naptime.