-When they started to TTC their second child?
We started thinking about it when Lindsay was 6mths old and decided to wait another few months. On Christmas day of 01 I stopped taking the BCP when AF arrived (great christmas present that was LOL) and then we fell pg that cycle in january and I was 8wks pg by his first birthday.
-How far apart the children were?
There are 20mths between our first three
-Were you happy with their age gap?
We are extremely happy with the gap we have. They are such good mates and in regards to school it is perfect - Lindsay will be in yr2 next year and Erin will be starting kindergarten.
-How did you cope with the pregnancy with a child already?
it was no problem at all. I had no morning sickness with my 2nd pg and Lindsay was such an easy going baby so it wasn't difficult at all. Although by the time he was 18mths he started teething pretty bad so there were a few sleepless nights which was hard, but he still slept during the day so I could catch up if I needed to. It was also great at the end of my pg when I was really tired I could sleep then too in the afternoons.
-and what was it like with the two children?
No problems at all. Erin was a pretty high maintenance baby in that even though she ate and slept well, when she was awake she needed to be entertained all the time and got quite grizzly if she was left in her rocker chair for too long. Luckily that didn't last for long once she started crawling at 4.5mths (yes you read that right ) and she was much happier then. Sleep wise for both of them was good as being only 20mths meant that Lindsay still had a big afternoon sleep, so I could get them into the habit of having their afternoon sleeps at the same time, which I could then either have a snooze too or get stuff done without distractions. Also I found it easier to adjust to two kids because Lindsay was still a baby kwim? so I was still in the habit of looking after a baby (it was a bit harder this time round having a larger gap between 3 & 4 and going back to all the 'baby' stuff etc)
ETA - AND what was your second birth like in comparison to the first?
Erin's birth was by far my easiest and my best birth. She was born in 8hrs, drug free and very nearly on the toilet LOL. The second stage was only about 15 minutes. I still had a 2nd deg tear, but I loved every minute of Erin's birth. By comparison to my first, it was 4hrs shorter and I was pushing for 1.5hrs.