You know, I think it really just depends on the kids and you. And in the end, you just make it work, whichever way.
:yeahthat: I think no matter what the age gap, there are advantages and things you have to work harder on with both.

Having said that, my kids are all very close together.

DD1 and DS - 12 month gap
DS and DD2 - 15 month gap
DD2 and this baby (due in a few weeks) - 17 months

I have never struggled with a smaller age gap except through pregnancy. It is hard work having babies that need to be picked up and dealing with dirty nappies when I am physically exhausted. Because they are so little, I don't have a choice, I have to lift them and I have noticed with this pregnancy the most. Also having kids closer together has taken a toll on my body and my iron levels have been pretty low without supplements since I was pregnant with DS. Back to back breastfeeding and pregnancy (and sometimes both at the same time) does have an impact.

As far as dealing with a newborn and a toddler, I just work my whole day around the older kids having a nap when the newborn does. My kids all still sleep during the day for at least an hour - DD1 sometimes doesn't but will read by herself in her room for an hour and a half so I can still usually have a sleep, which I have needed through this pregnancy.

I think with all obstacles, I have found fairly good solutions and because my kids are close together, the older ones have helped to show the younger one how we do things (like road safety, eating at the table etc) so it is not just my voice all the time. When they are newborns, I have always had a capsule, which has been a life saver. If we are going out, i put the baby to sleep in that so I don't have to wake them to put them in the car or to get them out again. It cuts down on needing to take rockers and other things when we go out somewhere (and fits in the top of my pram). It means that when we go to get in the car, I can put the baby in the capsule down while I make sure the others are safe. When I get home, I can dump the capsule inside the door while I get the other kids out rather than trying to find a safe place to put the baby down. It gets a bit easier when they move by themselves but especially in the early days, the capsule is a life saver.

Having them closer together and being a full time SAHM also means that we don't have a school run. DD1 starts kindy this week so that will be something new, but not having to go out 5 mornings a week and get older kids off to school has been very settling for our routine.

My kids entertain each other a lot too so that frees up my time to look after the baby a bit more. I make morning tea and lunch every morning and put it in the fridge. The kids know morning tea time is after playschool is over and lunch time is when the hands on the clock are on the 12. They can get it out themselves so if I am feeding a baby or rocking a baby to sleep, they can sort it out themselves. They love doing it. They also know that straight after lunch, they go to the toilet (or wait for a nappy change), grab their milk off the bench and head to bed. I get their beds ready during the morning for their naps. I think because they do it altogether, the routine works really well and really easily.

They are some of my day to day management strategies. I was quite worried about how I would go with small toddlers and babies but developmentally, they are quite close together so in many ways it is quite easy. As I said though every age gap would have its challenges but there are good things too. I think whatever happens in your family, you make it work. I started out not leaving much of a gap because it took me 15 months to get pregnant with DD1 and wasn't sure how long my 2nd baby would take so we started straight away. The gap worked for us so we just kept going with not using any sort of contraception between babies and it happened when it happened.

Good luck with your decision and TTC. I hope you get a sticky bubba quickly.