Age gap between 1st and 2nd Born

[augustine77]

Our LG is turning 1 this week. I always said that the max age gap I'd like between my first and second child is 2 years. Now that LO is 1, I'm starting to panic. I'm not sure whether to start trying now or wait a few months so we have an exact age gap of 2 years. What would you say is the best time? Does the few months difference in waiting even matter in terms of how hard it is coping with 2DC, one of which is a newborn?

Hi OP, I always wanted a small gap between my dc. But also panicked when ds was 1 as I wasn't ready mentally or emotionally to start TTC #2.
The gap between my ds and dd is 3.5 years. Love the gap because ds has assumed the role of responsible older brother. But gap is small enough that they still play and wrestle together.
Lovely to watch 🥰

Sorry forgot to say..ds was old enough when dd was born that he understood that she needed a lot of my time and was very good about having daddy bath him and put him to bed most nights.

Well if the age gap is very important to you then I'd start trying now as you don't know how long it will take you to conceive. I fell pregnant first cycle with DS but took 8 cycles for DC2.

There is no best time. There are pros and cons with any age gap. We have 2 years 3 months between ours (DC2 conceived when DC1 was 18 months.) The first couple of years were exhausting but I'm glad we got that baby/toddler stage over with fairly quickly. Now they're 8 and 6 and have similar interests, can play nicely together. Days out are easy because they enjoy the same things.

3y10m between mine, two girls, great age gap. Meant I had dd1 all to herself for a few years then when she was in nursery dd2 cane along so I could have alone time with her too.

There's just under 3 years between our two. We'd originally wanted a 3 year gap but my consultant told me when DD was 14 months that we needed to start TTC again because of my health. Sadly I had a MC so we did end up with the gap we wanted even though originally we thought it would be smaller. Only you can decide what's right for you though.