So...up the duff. Tell me all about 3 year age gaps!

[takingtheplunge]

That's it really. Just discovered I'm pregnant and DC2 due end of May 2011, meaning a 3 year 2 month age gap. Please come and tell me all that is fabulous about this gap

That's the gap between my dds and it's fine - was worried it would be too big but dds adore each other and play together - took till dd2 was about 18 months for them to start interacting with each other.

Congratulations same gap here it is brilliant Ds was old enough to be a bit more independent but loved his little sister from day 1.

He enjoys the control that comes with being a big brother , and has always liked to play with her for about 5 minutes at first gradually increasing.

He sleeps through, no nappies, or feeding which makes things a lot easier as I am sure you can guess yet them still seem really close.

A bit of advice that was given to me: a new baby needs to be loved, a older sibling needs his mum. It worked brilliant for me and dd didn't notice who was doing her bum or anything so I took the moments when guests came to play with my ds.

That is excellent advice BigOfN and should be promoted.

I'm the same as Bigof Noorks and completely agree with all that she said inc how our DS and DD interact. Works really, really well for us and now they're nearly 4 and 1. We didn't have one bit of jealousy which I was very worried about. Also, I had a planned CS so I couldn't lift DS. But at 3 I was able to explain that to him. Plus the lack of nappies on DS was a real bonus!

Only issue is that our DS didn't and still doesn't sleep through but that's a whole other story....

Congratulations!! Hope you have an amazing pregnancy

Have 3 years 2 months between DS and DD. I've found it worked really well -- DS was old enough to understand about babies and what they could and couldn't do, and to be able to wait a little bit for attention, and so forth. But they are close enough in age that now they can play together (to an extent) and certainly giggle together over stuff.

Snap for our gap between DSs 2 and 3, and much better than the 2 year 5 mo. gap between DSs 1 and 2.
Good tips others gave us:

1. Read books to DC1 about becoming big bro/sis
2. Get them a present to give to DC2
3. Get relatives to make a big fuss of DC1 (and you) at birth (rather than of the baby, who won't know anything about it)
4. Get relatives to give pressies to DC1 at birth, rather than to your newborn...after all, you already have the things you need for a baby - we have an absolutely enormous box of cuddly toys...about 90% of which were given to our children as babies!
5. Discuss names with DC1...
6. Make sure DC1 is securely integrated into some childcare/nursery etc well before DC2 arrives (our DC1 thought we were just trying to get rid of him to nursery, cos it coincided with the arrival of his younger brother...only 2.5 years into his life)

Good luck.

I have 3yrs 3 months between DS1 and DS2, and 3yrs 6 months between DS2 and DS3.

Really lovely age gap -

that's all lovely to hear...keep 'em coming! DS has just started nursery and loves it, so that's good. Baby's due end of May and DS will be in nursery all thru June and July, so that's good....was one of my reasons for having at least this age gap.

And further on, one will do GCSEs, AS and then A levels, and then the brother/sister will do theirs. You won't have two teenagers doing exams at the same time.