Reply to 5 year age gap - the good, bad & ugly

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]YAY, congrats!  My kids are that age gap.  Honestly, it's been wonderful.  Wasn't how we had planned it but God had other plans for us I guess.

Early on, this was my experience:

Good: 
Older child is a lot more independent and can even help with some things (throwing away dirty diapers, finding the paci that bounced on the floor, go get a swaddle/burp cloth, etc).

Older child is so excited to be a big sister/brother and takes their role very seriously. Bringing the baby home was one of the most exciting/special moments with a 5 yearold around.

5 yearold was able to entertain baby for 5-10 min stints while I used the bathroom.

Little-to-no jealousy in my house - not sure if this will change as my younger child gets older and wants everything their older sibling is getting.

Bad:
Daycare/preschool/ES drop off logistics.  They were in two different schools and it made commutes/morning routine a little chaotic.

I had to "relearn" some things that I had forgotten.  Little things, like how to use the breast pump, how to swaddle, how warm to heat the milk, etc.

The baby gear we saved wasn't in the best shape.  Just sitting in our attic for 5 years wasn't kind to all the plastic.

Ugly - 
I feel like my body had aged a lot in the 5 years between my first and second.  I got tired a lot more, didn't exercise, kept the baby weight on longer.

Congrats!

[/quote]

This was very close to my experience, except with my two DDs, now 9 and 4, the worst jealousy was DD1 being jealous of the attention/lower expectations on DD2.  DD2 is jealous of DD1 but it can be managed more easily than DD1's resentment.  I also had relatively similar pregnancies and recoveries after two births at 28 and 33.  (And again at 35 when I had DS1, but that's not for this post...)[/quote]

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