How long would you wait before having a 2nd child?

#16
I just had my first child, and like I am thinking about when to have the second one. (if my hubby agrees, that is,... sigh, kind of a hot topic at the moment...)

anyway, I thought about 2 years between them or maybe 3 should be fine. My brother and his wife also just had their first, and she has a plan to have the next 2, they want three, in 2 year steps.

I don't want too much of a difference bec I think once you pack up the nappies it is just so difficult to get back to that stage...
 
#17
I'm not sure how long I'd like to wait...Maybe 2 or so years?

I am an only child so I don't have anything to compare to. Bart comes from a very large family - a mixture of "natural" brothers & sisters, adopted siblings and foster children. His natural siblings are about 1.5-2 years apart. His mom is a foster-mother (is that the correct term?) so she has children of all ages in her home! I admire her so much for doing that :smile:
 
#18
I guess you go with what you know - there's five years between me and my sister and I waited five years before having my second son.
The plus side was it was so lovely to do all the baby bit again and to have time to dedicate to the baby while my elder son was at school.
The downside is that sometimes my younger son, now 6, can't understand why his 12 year old brother doesn't want to play with him and why he was to go to bed earlier etc.
But, overall, I wouldn't change my age gap. It was right for us as a couple and for our family.
 
#19
I think 2 to 3 years is perfect. Thats how long I would wait. You don't want to have them right after the last one, your body is still recovering.
 
#21
Ask me in about 7 more months. My 1st born is 13 months and I am now entering my 2nd trimester of my second pregnancy. I am nervous about the whole thing. We didn't expect to get pregnant so early but at the same time I'll be 35 this year so we were kind of in a rush.

My brother and I are 25 months apart and I know it was easier on my parents growing up because we kept each other occupied.
 
#22
I have 2 sisters and I love the fact that the age difference between us isn't that big. I think that the age gap of 2-3 years is perfect, because me&my sisters are very close and interested in the same things, but we don't fight almost at all, because there's still a difference and we aren't too alike.
 
#23
I have 3 younger sisters and it was pretty much a 2-3 yr age difference all the way down. I'll be 26 in a few weeks and I have an 8 year old brother and I feel bad for him. As much as my sisters and I fought we still had company, all Michael's siblings are adults now and we just can't relate to him at all. My fiance was in the same situation. He had 4 older siblings 20+ years older then him. I can't even imagine.
 
#24
Well looking at it from a medical standpoint...I read in a magazine that you should wait at least 18 months so your body has time to recover and rebuild all the nutrients, etc it lost. And then you should wait no more than 5 years and I forget why that was.
So between 18 months and 5 years medically.
 
#26
I don't have kids, but I think that an ideal gap would be between 2 and 4 years as then the mother has the time to regain some strength at the same time as the kids aren't so far apart from each other that they feel like strangers. I'm an only child, but I know that if my parents would have had another child after I was old enough to being used to being an only child, getting a brother or sister then would've been quite uncomfortable to me.
 
#27
I am a fan of having them closer together so they can all share school experiences, play together and relate more easily. Additionally, once you are done with diapers and all, you are actually DONE, not just preparing for the next go-round.

I had three in exactly 4 years, and I think it is perfect. My last is almost out of diapers now, and I cannot wait to be done with that!
 
#28
I'm all for either one child or....a large gap.
I have one 8 year old.
My brother is 8 years younger and my sister 13 years younger. We are so close and get along so well....it has really helped out with supporting each other emotionally...and my parents got to "enjoy" each one of us(that's what they say).;)
 
#29
I have a 14 year old Daughter who is an only by choice.:heart: We talked about adopting an older child, because I did not enjoy the infant/toddler age too much and I felt the older children were less likely to find parents. :crybaby: Unfortunately, time slipped away. Our daughter enjoys being an only, but she has 19 :nuts: cousins close to her, so she still gets the family atmosphere.
 
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