what’s the best age gap?

Ours is 3.5 years and in some ways its great but in others I kind of feel its a bit big. I would have liked Charlotte to have someone to play with now, rather than a blobby newborn but thems the breaks. Its good from the point of view that she can 'help' me with things (like getting nappies, bathing him etc).

We had initally planned a 5 year gap but I feel that would have been waaaay too long personally. Others, however, rave about it!

we have 2yrs 8mths between, it's going well so far, no issues. Was hoping for 3 years but closer enough! i felt 2 yrs was just too close for the 1st child to understand. DS1 plays so well by himself and is understanding and caring towards baby.

It helped we talked about the baby heaps before hand, read books, looked at pictures of babies, explained he won't be able to play with him e/t/c

Next baby will be hopefully whn DS2 is around 3 years old.

I've got 2 yrs 10 mths between my 2 girls and it's been fantastic! AS everyone has said, there are pro's and con's but personally I wasn't ready for another one too soon after Brenna and she is at sucha great age to help and understand. I've never had any jealousy issues and I don't have to worry about leaving them together alone. Brenna dotes on Ellie. It's so nice to watch when she doesn't realise I'm I'm looking. She reads her stories and brings her toys etc

We've got 3 years 8 mths between Maya and the gremlins, which altho not planned (we wanted them closer together but it took us over a year to fall pregnant and we lost a baby in between) was perfect - Maya was old enough to understand what was going on, she could be distracted with some crayons or a book if I was feeding/tending to the babies, and now that they are 3 and 6 they play together really well most of the time. We've never had any jealousy issues, they do fight sometimes now but that's a sibling thing and would happen regardless of the age gap.

3 minutes between Sienna and Mercedes - I wouldn't recommend it, if it can be avoided .

20 months between Chiara and the gremlins - it was horrific during my pregnancy as I had hyperemesis and some days was so ill I couldn't stand up (I ended up in hospital) and they weren't walking to start with so I was still carrying them everywhere and having to lift the buggy in and out of the car.

We never had any jealousy issues once lil miss arrived, but the gremlins really had no idea what was going on - they kept going into her room to see if she was still there coz they didn't realise she was ours . It was exhausting tho as they are really bad sleepers and always have been and I could never seem to get the nap times to coincide. Plus going out was a mission - it was either the gremlins in the buggy and lil miss in the Moby wrap or lil miss in the snap and gos and the gremlins on their monkey backpack leashes.

Now it's awesome tho, it gets easier every day/week/month and they play together really well. They love "teaching" her things, and she is really feisty and stroppy and likes to join in their games which is cool.

I think you have to look at it both long- and short-term - in the short term, a small age gap is bloody hard work, so you have to think about what strategies you can employ to make things easier over that period (support from family/friends, PPL etc.) But longer term, if you can get thru that first few months, it definitely has it's rewards.

We'd definitely be looking at 3 years + if we were to have another, but this shop is definitely closed!

We have exactly 2 and a half years between our two and it is pretty perfect
Samantha is old enough that she can do a lot for herself and is able to entertain herself for the periods of time that I am busy feeding Anthony etc. She also helps look after her 'bubba' by bringing me nappies, toys etc.
It was hard during the pregnancy as she was still little and wanted to be picked up a lot, plus I worried about how much she would miss out on once No 2 arrived so overdid it a lot.

Samantha is such a great big sister though. She loves her little brother to pieces and has really taken the less attention and other changes so well - she makes me so proud