Planning a baby 5months after giving birth

[Poconut]

My DS is 5months old and me and my partner are desperate for another baby! I'm planning on coming off my pill at the end of the month... just wondered what people's opinions or similar experiences are? How have you coped in the same situation?

[SylvanianFamiliesNurserySet]

My midwife told me to leave it a year to give my body a bit of time to recover.

[peachypetite]

How can you be desperate for a baby. Five months is still a baby!?

[PinkAvocado]

My cycles didn’t return regularly when I stopped taking contraception as I was breastfeeding at 2 years pp. So my chances at just 5 months with a yet to be weaned baby would have been very low!

[Poconut]

We really want another one, I have a 6yr old, a 5month old and I would really love to have two that are similar in age, is that so hard to believe? Lol

[avoschmado]

If you had a section, make sure you wait a year at least.

[TwoBlueFish]

My 2 are 17 months apart, so got pregnant when DS1 was 8 months old. It was planned that way as we wanted the kids to be close in age. Had some spotting and a low lying placenta through much of my 2nd pregnancy but no other complications.

[Poconut]

No I had a water birth so no c section to worry about, How do you find it with them both close in age?

[FrazzyAndFrumpled]

I’m currently pregnant with DC2. Fell pregnant when DS was 6 months. Too soon to say how it worked out

[Echobelly]

My sister's SIL got pregnant when PFB was 3 months old! It sounds like the first year or two with both of them was lovely but chaotic, but it probably helped that she was pretty young when she had them. But overall the small age gap has worked well for them as a family.

[Hengine]

I’ve read that pregnancies close together have an increase of premature birth, might be worth a google on the stats.

[BakerBear]

I would just go for it.

I have mine at 4.5 years apart and i wish they were around 18 months apart

[CrookedMe]

For me it was a hormonal thing: I was really broody at about 6-8 weeks then again around 5-6 months.

In the end we waited until DC1 was 18 months and I'm glad. It does all get a bit harder once you've got crawling/walking/weaning/potty training to contend with.

[shecamefromgreece]

Honestly? Wait.
When my dc3 was 14 weeks only I found out I was pregnant again. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. All my others were good sleepers but dc4 was awful he's four now and just started sleeping through. I ended up on antidepressants, I had no history of depression and have since come off them but it was so hard it actually made me ill.
I've got a friend who was in a similar situation and she was exactly the same.
I should add I'm quite a tough cookie and have raised six children but that nearly finished me off!

[3boysandabump]

I was already pregnant again when my first was 5 months.

It's harder than a bigger age gap but as it was my first two I didn't know that and it didn't feel hard at the time.

They're really close, they have Similar interests, same group of friends etc.

Double buggy was a pain and it was hard to get to baby groups because one or the other was the wrong age.

I found pregnancy easier because you just don't have the option to do anything else other than get on with it when you have a baby to take care of 24/7.

[RandomMess]

I had similar to what you want:

8.5 years
3 years (just)
Nearly 2
Newborn

So 14 months between no's 2 & 3

Got pregnant first time we tried and it's my favourite age gap!

[pastabest]

As someone with a 16 month age gap I can tell you the first six months is really hard.

But it's getting better

[Ineedtonamechangenow]

I was already pregnant by your stage. There's twelve months between my boys.

It's been absolutely great but the sleep deprivation has been bloody awful. My nearly two year.old still doesn't sleep through. The second pregnancy was hard carrying a baby around but he napped well so.i got a.reasonable.amount of sleep.during the day

[Stuckforthefourthtime]

It's not great for your body. Evidence suggests that 18 months plus has the best outcomes for babies - reduced risks of prematurity among other things - and also for mothers as it lets you rebuild your body's stores and your pelvic floor!

That said, if you have other reasons for needing to rush, then lots of women do this and it works out fine too - it's just about risks of worst cases. Good luck with whatever you choose!

[ZigZagZebras]

Mine are 6, 2 and 1. 12 month gap between younger 2 and it's been great so far.

We went for a small gap as I have very bad pregnancies so meant by the time middle one was more active and napping less the pregnancy was over.

It really wasn't as hard as I expected and now they're both walking and similar developmentally it's lovely seeing how close they are, I think it's easier than a 2 year gap in a lot of ways as my middle one doesn't remember a time without youngest there and didn't pay him much attention when he was a newborn so there wasn't a big upheaval or any jealousy issues when he was born.