I must be the most selfish person on earth then My first two are 12 months apart, my 2nd and 3rd are 15 months apart and my 3rd and this baby will be 16 months apart. I think my kids love having each other and they play so well. It has it's more difficult moments but I don't know what it would be like otherwise. There are some great advantages to having them so close - I don't have a school run in the mornings and afternoons, they all get on really really well, I've done some toilet training with them all together and they seem to benefit from doing it together. The only disadvantage that I can think of is that it has taken a slight toll on my body - I have done back to back pregnancy and breastfeeding for 4 years now (sometimes even overlapping) and I do have to have an iron supplement because I just don't make enough and somedays I do clean up an awful lot of poo but apart from that, I really enjoy having them so close together.

It's really about what you want and what you think you can handle. I know people who have much bigger age gaps and love that too. DH and I just decided what would be better for us and mother nature agreed so I was able to get pregnant quite quickly each time (part of the reason we didn't wait with DS - my 2nd - is because it took me 15 months of TTC for DD1 and we wanted to start sooner rather than later in case it took a while again).

Sometimes the hardest thing to do in parenting is decide what is best for you, your family and your kids and tune out to everyone else's opinions especially if they are the opinions of people that you really respect. I didn't think that having DS took anything away from my relationship with DD1 though I did worry about whether I was doing the right thing while I was pregnant a lot. I think that is normal no matter what age gap you have.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and I hope that everyone will be happy for you and respect your choice