If you have a 2-3 year gap....

[Chosenbyyou]

Just wondering what ages you found the hardest?

My toddler is almost 3 and my baby is 5 months. I found the start very hard with a baby under 12 weeks. It's got much easier now but I have a nagging worry it's going to get much harder again?!

Is it harder again when the baby starts moving? I spend a lot of time doing bedtimes on my own and feel like it's a mission every evening!

Any insight would be great?

X

When youngest was between about 10 months and 2.5 - sorry! Fast-moving but not yet old enough to be left unsupervised for any time at all.

Mine are all grown up now, but the hardest most draining time was when I was up most of the night breastfeeding the baby then he'd go down for a good sleep and my toddler would wake up for the day at 5.30am, I remember the exhaustion now!
Once the baby slept a decent amount through the night it was all massively easier!
The next hard bit was when they got to be older teenagers

Now-5 and 8. Constant fighting, bickering, winding up-it's exhausting......

I like this age gap because your toddler can entertain themselves a bit whilst you look after the baby (possible jealousy issues aside). I always think what would I do with a young toddler who can't be unsupervised whilst I am sat breastfeeding etc.

My three year old used to struggle when he wanted to play trains or jigsaws but the one year old would destroy it immediately. We just sectioned the room a bit and used a playpen (which the baby hated but hey ho, toddler needs some attention too). Youngest is 16 months and they play okay together now. Not always but often.

Thank you for your responses - really interesting!

It's great to hear from those with older children as I can't imagine ever getting through the toddler years! I'm sure teens are hard work to be fair and much more expensive!

X

I have a 2yr gap. Found the first 10 months a breeze. Then baby started crawling and destroying DC1s stuff and the fighting started. Up until that point DC1 had largely ignored DC2. Really not end of world stuff but it was a small hump in what had been fairly smooth sailing. 6m on and DC2 is started to understabd DC1s games and is less destructive. They still fight though all the live long day interspersed with heart swelling acts of love and affections between them.

I can't say I found much of it hard and they are /were both very easy boys, however I just wanted to say it's a great age gap. Mine are now 13 and 11 and are the best of friends and really always have been.