Talk to me about a 12/13 month age gap

[Ellarose85]

DS is one next week and DD is due in July.

Does anyone who has a similar age gap have any tips that they found made life a little easier?

TIA

Not quite, 15 months here. Main thing was decent slings so baby could be left in sling most the day out the way and feed whenever

Artabdco can you feed baby without taking him/her out of the sling? If so which sling do you have? I have a 21 month old and 3 week old so use a sling all the time but have to take her out so I can pull up my top etc.

Yes I used to feed in sling. Had baby ktan sling ( good indoors and when small), plus boba 4g and manduca.

I mainly wore breastfeeding dresses from seraphine so no tshirt lifting needed. The structured slings I just moved them over a bit but could still walk around park for example following elder and feed baby in sling.

13 1/2 month age gap here. Mine was more complicated as the younger of the two has autism. It can be tricky at different stages especially as both mine were lively. But I found I just lowered my expectations. It's hard when one is walking one way and other is crawling off in enough. The autism made it a lot harder but they're best mates so so close. Our youngest is three so there is a 3/4 yr age gap which hasn't worked at all and youngest is completely left out.

artandco We've got a sling that I never used with DS so I'm hoping to get a lot of use out of it this time around, we go on holiday in Aug too so ideally want to leave the double buggy at home and manage with a single and a sling.

msqueen I can imagine that autism makes things a lot harder. My DS is also very lively, he has two cousins of the same age and he is like a feral child compared to them! Everyone that I have spoken to that has a similar age gap says that the hard work in the early days pays off as they get older and are best friends. This will be our last DC as my body (and my sanity!) cannot cope with another pregnancy! Did you come across any jealousy with the bigger age gap? I've read that the lack of jealously is one of the advantages of a small age gap

Oh and mine are now 5 and 6. Best buddies.

Advantage is you don't have to be up and ready for school runs etc as a 1 year old doesn't care if you all spend day in pjs or in bed. I have lovely memories of us all in bed! Would read eldest mountains of books but he was happy and baby and I could rest

One tip. Get your partner to take eldest for a 20 mins walk/ run early before they leave for work if they have energy to burn. Means you don't have a bouncy 1 year old at 9am so much

Great advice Artandco, thank you.