To be cheeky to ask how old you were when you had your kids? And age gaps?

[ecossegirl91]

I have one child currently, almost 15m old. Not an easy baby by any means - very bad reflux, very unsettled, kinda grumpy even now 😂 but delightful when he wants to be and still not sleeping through consistently! He was conceived and born when I was 31, very luckily on the first go after coming off the pill (which I’m now back on).

im Fairly certain a second is on the cards, not right now, probably with a 3 year gap if I had total control which of course I don’t because who knows if it’ll even happen for me, nothing is certain! I’ve just turned 33 and first born will turn 2 in the autumn.

not sure whether to bite the bullet and try when they turn 2 - that would be a min age gap of like 2y 8m or so if it happened straight away.

what did other people do? How long? What age etc?

I was 27 when I had my first and 28 when I had my second. There's a 17m age gap.
I knew I wanted them close together as I felt it'd be easier to get the nappies/sleepless nights/potty training out of the way at the same time and it's been brilliant in all honesty.
People always comment on how they're like twins.
Thankfully I conceived after the first try for both. We feel fortunate.

18
21
27
28

Someone once told me if you are planning on having more kids (I had one at the time) it's best to have them as close in age as possible. I totally agree, as one goes off to school the one after that follows and so on. It's hard for the first 2-3 years after that, it gets easier. I regret not having all of them a year apart tbh.

41 with first, 43 with second. Age gap of 20 months. I think two years gap is good.

I'm curious, are you pleased with the gap looking back? Or in hindsight do you wish you'd tried sooner?

Started ttc at 36, 3 miscarriages later had DS at 39, another three miscarriages, gave up ttc #2 at 43/44.

So, just the one for me. The apple of my eye 💙

Reading this thread still makes me upset like I was all those years ago. Most, if not all, of you seem to have been very lucky deciding when you wanted to conceive and what gaps you wanted.

I had 10 miscarriages in and around my births....and still all these years later people say to me they wouldn't have had such a big gap between their first and second child (like me)
I had no choice. I wish I had.

I was 31, 37 and 39
My kids are now 29, 23 and 21

💐Bestofall
I had DC1 at 28 and DC2 at 30.
Moved house and jobs and got married between them so was the right gap for us.

Bestofall, people are amazing. To be honest with you, I almost gave difficulty conceiving,as a reason for my age gaps (in the 70s,80s, maternity leave was just 6 weeks after the birth, and you then had to accrue a minimum of 2 years NI ft working I was PT, before another maternity leave. Ex H... redundancy!) I used to have complete strangers coming up to me in Parks etc, saying were they mine, what big gaps,I have 4 separate generations. My first birth was so traumatic I actually vowed never again. I have a cousin of 97 who keeps on about it to this day,yet her oldest has a 15 year gap (2 separate marriages) that's different of course!! In the 80s people used to say, they wanted their babies close together to get it all over with, I never saw it this way. I became a grandparent at 42, DD and DGS grew up together and we shared childcare.

33 and 35. 23 months between. Boy first, then girl. Working well so far as difference in maturity means they can do lots together.

@bestofall Yeah, I know what you mean :( It's like I suddenly can see what normal fertility is like for most of the population.

21 with 1st.
26 with 2nd.

4 years, 10 months age gap. Would’ve liked a smaller gap but had reoccurring misscarriges.

Had my first at 28, found out when I was 27 a week or so before my 28th birthday!

I'm hoping for anywhere between 2.5-3.5 year age gap - giving a year to conceive in case it takes much longer than the first.

2.5 year age gap would mean starting this month! 😬

I'll be 31 (fingers crossed) for baby number 2.

3mcs then DC1 at 31
another mc then DC2 at 33 (2.5 year gap)
now ttc #3 on cycle 4. If I conceive soon I will be 37 with the other DCs 6.5 and 4.

Thank you so much
It's strange that people still feel they can comment after all these years. The most asked question is 'did you have your first child with someone else?'

Nope! They're all mine and my husband's!!!

Exactly!

First baby at 18, last baby at 38, just under 21 years between oldest and youngest.

Had first baby at 30, ideally would have been earlier but we had an ectopic pregnancy which put the brakes on for a while.
Currently 5+4 with #2 and if all progresses well I’ll be 33 when baby is born and DD will have just turned 3. It’s about the age gap we wanted. Caught on cycle 2 this time which was surprisingly quick as it took over a year to fall pregnant with DD