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My kids are 26 months apart. It was hard to be pregnant with my kid that young. He wasn't fully mobile and I had to do a lot of lifting and holding. He was also too young to fully get what was happening.

My kid potty trained while my newborn was 2 weeks old (obviously that was LO's idea, not mine). It wasn't bad. I have a little potty in my living room and nursed while helping him undress and wipe multiple times.

Having two little ones is a challenge, but it's a lot of fun. My big boy loves to help and loves the little one

We have a three year gap (actually 34 months). We went with three years so DD would be potty trained before DS arrived. She turns 3 in two weeks and still isn't potty trained.

We had our boys about 22 months apart. I guess we never took into consideration the timing. It just felt time to try for a sibling for DS1, and six months later we conceived.

Having them close in age has its ups and downs. There was some initial jealousy but it never really surfaced in extreme ways. But I just love how close they are. They annoy each other yet love each other. Clothes are easily passed down. They help each other and play well together.

With both boys now in school we are more comfortable trying for our third musketeer. Plus the boys have been asking. So I guess it just naturally feels like it's time.

Go with your gut instinct mama. It will have its challenges but will also be a blessing.

So my situation was reversed. We have a little girl that is 18 months old and I'm 5 months pregnant now, so she'll be 23 months when second baby is born It took a full year to get pregnant with her. I had long and somewhat irregular cycles. I ovulated, but it just took forever (cycles were like 40-50 days long). I had a chemical pregnancy a few cycles before my daughter was conceived. I ended up doing fertility acupuncture and making an appointment with a prominent infertility center as I was approaching 1 year of TTC with no viable pregnancy. I got pregnant before I ever saw a doctor for infertility, but I didn't cancel that appointment till a few days before because I had a previous chemical pregnancy and knew how easily a miscarriage could happen.

For this second baby, the soonest we could try was 12 months post-partum because I had a C-section. My cycles didn't come back until I fully stopped breastfeeding. I'm subfertile, so that didn't really surprise me. Also, I was working with a hip preservation surgeon for a fourth hip surgery. I figured I might even have surgery before a second baby. We were planning on it taking at least a year to conceive baby #2 because my husband and I are even older (33 years old (me) and 37 years old (husband)) than we were with DD1. I conceived this second baby on the first cycle trying, and it stuck XD I kept telling myself how easily we could lose this baby, and mentally preparing for this pregnancy not to work out. We were so happy and excited, but a bit scared because we weren't sure if we were ready for another baby so soon.

My daughter doesn't really understand that I'm pregnant with a baby, but if I raise my shirt up and pat my belly, she flashes a big smile, raises her shirt up and pats her belly too X3

Long story short, you never know how things are going to turn out. If I had to plan for a second baby, I wouldn't have picked a Dec. due date because DD1 was born in January, and my husband's birthday is Dec. 20th, so Christmastime will be extra crazy, but it is what it is, and we are looking forward to our Christmas baby From my experience conceiving DD1, planning was of little consequence. Babies don't really care XD I think I would have preferred the 3 year age gap, but there are pros and cons to a 2 year age gap. I also would have preferred to give DD1 a sister, but she's getting a brother instead

If you want another baby just start trying now and see what happens. It may take a month or 12+ months. It's hard to say. My mom was 26 and 28 when she got pregnant with me and my sister, and she got pregnant first try each time. So if you're under 30 and it happened easily the first time, chances are it will happen easily the second, but you really never know.

My first and second are 3.5 years apart. My second and third are exactly two years apart. It was def much easier with the bigger age gap. She was already potty trained. She was independent and played alone. When pregnancy left me tired and in bed, she could go and eat a granola bar by herself With the second and third, it's a little bit more of a challenge bc he's still young. He turned two right before 3rd was born in March. Sometimes I feel like I'm changing diapers all day. When we leave, I have to make sure I have enough diapers for two. He still needs help with most everything, etc.

But with all that being said, I'm a firm believer that pregnancy can only be planned so much and you never know what happens so I would start trying right away. I actually had secondary infertility (unexplained) and had to go to RE for medications, shots, triggers, ultrasounds, and eventually an IUI to have our second. Our third was a complete surprise!

@Mamatimes3: totally thread crashing for a second. Are your 2nd & 3rd's birthdays within a week of each other? Does it make it hard or cause jealousy or any other issues on birthdays?

I ask because I'm in my TWW that happens to line my potential due date up exactly with my now 2 year olds 3rd birthday. Like to the day same first day of last period, same ovulation date, and will likely end up needing a c-section a week+ early again.

@Sams Mom: yes, my daughter is on the 9th and my son is on the 12th. They are 2 and 4. When my daughter turned 1, she had a party but my son didn’t. And then this year, he had one but she didn’t. I don’t really know what we’ll do going forward. It just doesn’t seem right to have them share a party and then their brother doesn’t? We’ve discussed doing one in April and then one in June. Right now it’s the same people invited to both. But in the future as they get different friends, I think we’ll definitely have to do two parties.

So far they are too young to understand what really is going on. We do go out to eat and do cake for each on the actual birthday.

@Mamatimes3: thank you. FWIW my sister's youngest stepdaughter's birthday is a couple months after the older two's and she doesn't care that she's not included in the joint party. (As mentioned above, the joint party died this last year)

We have a 3.5 year gap and it’s been amazing. I truly can’t imagine doing it anywhere closer to 2 years.

@MsBAM: 33 is not that old

Our age gap is 2 years 8 months. I think it's a great gap, I would have been ok with a little longer but I don't think I would have wanted any closer together than that. It's enough that DD has been able to understand what's going on during my pregnancy and when DS was a newborn, and quickly caught on to her new role and immediately took to helping out with small tasks.

I personally would be prefer 3 years apart. DD and DS are 4 years apart and DS will have a 2 year age gap between him and the baby on the way. For me having a toddler while pregnant has been much harder than my second pregnancy. Its nice to have one fully potty trained before the next one comes along

I feel you! I posted about this exact thing last week! We already have two girls, three years apart, and I love the gap. I would like to replicate that again, but for a variety of reasons, we’ll probably end up aiming for a 2 - 2.5 year gap this time around. We just made that decision a few days ago, but were going back and forth on it for awhile.

If you’re thinking you’re only going to have two (so time isn’t a huge factor), I would lean toward the three year gap!