I thought I would but it turns out I never felt ready for #2! But give your body time to heal.

I didn't realize the newborn phase was so easy (for me) until my first born reached 14 months. It was so great until that point. Not that it's not great past that point, but OMG I find newborns to be so much easier than toddlers. Now I have a 2 month old and a 23 month old. 2 month old is a dream...23 month old, not so much.

When the firstborn turned 3 and was fully potty trained.

We waited a little while, but #2 will be here when #1 is 4.5 years old.

I started to feel like it wouldn't be the end of the world about 12 months in and we decided to NTNP since conceiving baby #1 took over a year and a half. Well, my kids are 22 months apart and I recommend waiting a little longer! They are adorable but I'm exhausted.

It's very personal, but I wouldn't recommend having a second one before the first one is at least 2, 2.5 is even better. Before that you have a child who is still babyish in many ways, but also wants to assert independence and test boundaries. By 2 they begin to be a little more reasonable and can start to understand rewards are received for good behavior. My second is a few months shy of two right now and I would hate to have to deal with him and a newborn at the same time.

Anonymous wrote:I felt ready for another right away even though I hated the baby phase (clearly hormones or something). I got pregnant when baby was 13 months and felt like we had 1 down and were prepared to take on more. I'm 5 weeks into baby 2 and its awful and it turns out we weren't ready at all. I also with 1 it gets easier quickly but with 2 it won't get easier for at least a year b/c they're just both in such high needs phases for the next year and its really relentless needs

I also got pregnant with a 13 month old (#2 in my case). #3 is due any day now, and while I'm really excited, I might have waited longer if I had realized how much stubborn personality was going to emerge between 13 and 22 months.

Never

I wasn't ready to start trying again until my first was 3 years old. Everyone's different. At eight weeks with a newborn, I was BARELY hanging on with breastfeeding, PPD, etc. I seriously thought I'd be an only-child parent for a very, very long time.

Older child is almost 4 and I think I could be ready... but most likely will just stick with 1!

18 mos, but we knew that #2 would require fertility treatment, which takes at least several months' lead time. Glad we didn't try earlier, as our toddler became a hellion at 2, and then more reasonable at 2.5.

I always adored newborns. I didn’t mind any of it. I had great milk supply and was okaywaking up. Fast forward to 3 months and I couldn’t wake up anymore. The sleep deprivation wasn’t letting me work and I had trouble driving. Babies definitely get harder.

It wasn't on my radar until #1 was about 18 months old, then took a bit longer to get pg with #2. They are exactly 3 years apart

+ 1 for hormones. Wait until baby is 1.5 to think about it, or preferably 2. In the first months and even year of my second baby, I really wanted a third. Mellow baby turned into non-stop perpetual motion machine, with a loud assertive voice and lots of different complicated needs, and now I'm not so sure.

My first became much more independent around 3 and 5 is also a step up in that regard.

Newborn phase with 1 is a hell of a lot different than with 2. There’s no hours long luxury of sitting around or sleeping when the baby sleeps. Just enjoy your one kid right now.

I really loved the newborn phase too but the more my dd grew the more I loved HER and started to freak out about ever loving another child. She’s 23 months and I’m newly pregnant with #2 and sort of indifferent about it right now. I get excited when I see pics of other people’s newborns and can’t wait to have a tiny little thing to snuggle but then I see my dd and tear up at the thought of not being able to give her the same amount of attention. (So far mobility and speaking skills have been added challenges but I’m still loving parenting as much as I did with a newborn.)