BFP for unplanned baby no.3!!! HELP!!!!

[Pbaby0401]

I’ve just had a bfp this evening for baby no.3 and I am absolutely in shock. I have dd1 who is 3.5 & dd2 who will be 1 next week meaning there will only be a 20 month age gap between dd2 & dc3.
We had always planned on having a third but I was considering more of a 3 year age gap and this has just knocked me sideways.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?? How did it work out??? How will I cope??? Dd1 won’t start school till 10 months later so I’ll have all of them at home on some days & we don’t have any family nearby to help!

Please offer some words of advice! To put it simply, I am sh**ting myself!!!

I had my DC3 in 2019 - completely unplanned (if I’m being totally honest, it was a drunken “oops” on both me and my exH’s part ). I practically shit my pants when I got my BFP.
I had 16 months between DCs 1 & 2, who were 2 & 3 when I fell pregnant with DC3. All the worry was unfounded though. DC3 arrived, and slotted into the family perfectly. She has always been such a chilled out baby/toddler, is completely adored by her brother and sister and is just the happiest little thing!
The biggest obstacle was that we needed a bigger car, which we couldn’t really afford at the time, but we worked around it and managed.
In all honesty, when you’ve already got 2 young DCs with a small age gap, adding one more to the mix really isn’t that much of a massive change! You’re already used to buzzing about like a blue arsed fly, doing multiple things at once, watching DCs run in different direction etc - one more doesn’t make much difference to all of that!
You’ll be fine OP if your eldest DD is anything like mine, she’ll morph into a little mini-mum as soon as baby arrives and want to be helpful. It was so lovely (but also very helpful) to have her wanting to be involved with everything, particularly when exH went back to work after paternity leave. DD1 wanted to do all the fetching and carrying - “I’ll get the nappy for you mummy!”. She used to love just sitting next to her baby sister in the bouncy chair, gently bouncing her and singing “twinkle twinkle little star”, it was the cutest thing.
My DS adored his baby sister from the start too. I gave birth at home, so he was there for the whole event and was just in awe of her from the second she was born. We did go through a phase of “my baby!” where he’d want to hold her (supervised of course!) but then wouldn’t give her back 😂

We found it easier adjusting to 3 children than it was adjusting to 2. DS2 was only 18 months when DS3 was born but DS3 was such a placid baby we didn't know we'd got him half the time.

I’ve also had three very close together. I had a newborn, 15 month old and a just 3 year old.
There were times when it was difficult because of teething, sleep regressions or illness coinciding but generally I can honestly say it was fab.
Three all so close together have similar, fairly simple needs. I found it much harder later on when I had a 4th and had to factor in school runs, clubs and so on.
It will be fine. You will find your rhythm and you’ll be fab!
Congratulations on your bfp

Thank you for all your words of encouragement! It’s such a strange feeling as this baby was planned in a way (as we have always wanted 3) but will just hit us hard in terms of finances & stress levels!

I’m due to return to work in 2 weeks from my mat leave and can’t even bare the thought of telling them I’ll be going off again in a few months time!

I know I should be over the moon and I feel really guilty for feeling this way but I think I’m just in shock!!!