When did you feel ready for 2nd DC

[Yesso]

DS is 9 months old, despite a few rocky months in the beginning he’s an absolute joy, he’s happy and smiley, sleeps well most of the time and I love spending time with him.
That said I absolutely can’t imagine ever doing it all again, I always wanted 2 dc and I’m thinking about it more now as with my sibling there is 18 months gap, and I know a lot of people who have had similar age gaps. I thought I’d want the same. The thought of getting pregnant now fills me with dread.

Does this sound normal, has anyone felt the same and over time has gone onto have a second?

Never DD has rarely slept through a night, too tired to even try making a baby let alone looking after another one.

Not until DC1 was almost 2. And even then it wasn’t so much a case of feeling ready as knowing that sooner rather than later might be better as if we got too used to sleeping again we probably wouldn’t be able to handle the idea of a DC2.

Thank everyone, so interesting to hear other stories.
I think one of the other big things for us we will need IVF again, so it’s going to be a very conscious decision when/if we do it again. I almost wish it could just happen and trust it’s the right time but that won’t be the case for us.
There is clearly no rush and I’ll keep reassessing as DS grows.

I'm currently pregnant with my first and worried about this as I'm already 39. If I want a second I won't have the luxury of time to leave it very long!

Ready or not - we wanted 3, all 13 month gap. My OH wanted 4 a few years later but we both agreed we could not afford 4 at the time so stayed with three. First child was when I was 22, best to get it over and done and when we reached 50 you can work out our children's ages and often when our children were younger, poeple that did not know us though we were siblings, lol

5 years. DD was 6 when her brother was born.
I was quite young when DD was born and I really wasn't prepared.
We coped but it was not as easy as SIL made it look and she had two with 9 months between them.
The age gap never mattered, and the kids are still very close now in their late 40's.

Around 18 months or maybe a bit before.

Obv you have to factor in time to conceive plus time being pregnant so you kind of have to predict what your child will be like once baby is here and take care of anything you need to beforehand. Eg sleep issues, potty training.

Around 9 months - my first baby was easy, number 2 less so!!!

I think it sounds perfectly normal, yes. I always wanted 2. But no way I would have wanted to have a 2nd after 9 months! We have a 5 year age gap, so I got pregnant shortly after my 1st turned 4 and was ready to start school in a few months.

That was an intentional decision. I wanted only 1 in nursery at a time and I wanted time to focus on my career before another mat leave. Also we wanted to get back to normal life and time for ourselves and hobbies and just being adults again before we had another baby to care for.

Always been very happy with that decision and the age gap has worked well.

@Surprisedbuthappy

I'm similar - 37. Hubby and I have agreed to not wait tbh, go directly into trying when I'm physically healed. If you're already 39 when you give birth I wouldn't wait around

We tried again when our eldest was 9 months old. We have an 18 month age to the day 😆 It's hard work with two toddlers now, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

I felt ready when DD1 had her second birthday and not before. She was a difficult baby though. Got pregnant very quickly so there is a 2 year 10 month gap. It’s worked well for us. Round about 3 years is by far the most popular age gap in my peer group. Added benefit is that the childcare funding started at that age meaning a break from toddler while on mat leave and a bit of help with fees when back at work.

My baby slept through from 6wks and was a very happy baby that hardly ever cried. I still cldnt imagine doing it again while she was a baby. Although I did know that I wanted to do it again but not then.

I thought I cld handle a 2 1/2 yr age gap so only started trying around that time. Got pregnant very quickly and I have that age gap.

For us it was perfect my eldest was potty trained, dummy was gone and was in a big girl bed by time baby arrived.

Well, I'm ridiculous because I started discussing a second child 5 minutes after having DC1 placed into my arms. Not an easy delivery either, but I was so overwhelmed with love I was a but high.

There's 2 years between mine and that worked fine.

DC is 6 and I'm still not ready so we're having an only!

My first child was almost 7 years old before I felt like I could go through childbirth again , as that was the big thing putting it off. By that time I wasn't in the right circumstances.

Like a pp my next children were with a new partner after a much bigger gap.