Sorry to hear that @namergirl3, hereās hoping [name_u]October[/name_u] is your month instead. 
And congratulations @Zinnia_Bloom! Sounds like taking it easy this month did you the world of good. All the best for a healthy pregnancy. Hopefully a few of us will join you in expecting 2022 babies soon.
Iāve seen a lot of discussion on here recently about wanting children to be close in age. I was curious, what would you consider close in age in terms of siblings?
1-2 years
1-3 years?
Less?
Congratulations @Zinnia_Bloom all the best 
I think 1-2 years is āclose in ageā to me. Weāll be trying for this if weāre lucky enough to be in the position to be trying for a second. Mainly due to my age rather than a real desire to have children close in age.
Quick update on my TWWā¦ 9dpo here and AF is due in 4 days. Iām really stressed^ at the moment though, which is a worry on the conception front, but being busy has been a nice distraction from counting the days until I can test.
^ Weāre relocating to a new city tomorrow, Iām crazy busy at work, and Iām in the middle of the final stages of the recruitment process for a new job. 
@anon25197097 just popping over to this thread to answer the sibling question since Iāve been thinking about it a lot lately.
I think 1-2 years apart is close in age and thatās what Iām hoping for. I feel like by 3+ the oldest is (close to) out of diapers and starting preschool so youāre almost starting all over again. . .
The way I grew up probably influences this thinking ā I am 3 yrs older than my sister and I was often expected to look after her and āset a good exampleā. And we couldnāt do anything as a family that she wasnāt old enough for. Doesnāt have to be that way of course!
Congrats! Wishing you all the best in your pregnancy 
I would say 1-2 years I would consider close in age. [name_f]My[/name_f] first two are 18 months apart and I would say we honestly call them the twins most of the time. [name_f]My[/name_f] oldest and youngest are just under 4 years apart and the development issues at their current ages ages are always relevant
I think I would consider anything less than 3 years close in age 
[name_f]My[/name_f] views on this are skewed, since people here have lots of kids in quick succession. But for me, ācloseā is less than two years, āstandardā is like 2-3 years, and over four years is a ābiggerā gap or indicates fertility problems. [name_f]My[/name_f] kids are almost three years apart and thatās bigger than the age gaps 90% of our friends/familyās kids haveā¦ [name_f]My[/name_f] MIL actually said something along the lines of āwe werenāt sure if you were ever going to have another!ā haha. If we are successful TTC and have another baby weāre pushing 3 years at this point, which Iām ok with. I am wondering at what point that age gap will be ātoo bigā but hoping we donāt have to wait long enough to be thinking about that. .
For me, close is anything up to about 18 months. Most people I know have between 2 or 3 years between them and their next sibling, so while they are still pretty young at that age, I wouldnāt call it especially ācloseā, more average. After 4 or 5 years Iād say itās not at all close.
I have no idea whatās going to happen, in terms of how many or how far apart. Ideally for work and study reasons weād have the first two ācloseā, maybe with a year-ish between them, but I honestly donāt know if I can hack that 
. Plus thereās all the things like sibling jealously and one on one time to consider with a young child (I suppose that goes for any gap!). Not to mention potential TTC issues we may encounter again making it even harder. I always said I wanted more than one but Iām even starting to reconsider that, with the benefits of having only one child to give your love, attention and financial resources to etc.
Anybody have a answer key 
?
So I guess my answer is similar to everyone else, I think anything less than 2 years I would consider close in age.
[name_f]Pretty[/name_f] sure the average age gap in the UK is over 3 years, but it seems like everyone I know has had their kids 18 months - 2 years apart.
It really doesnāt matter in the grand scheme of things, as close in age doesnāt always mean close as siblings. [name_f]My[/name_f] brother is 6 years younger and we are so similar and get on really well.
Mine will be 4 years apart. I would have preferred 3 but I have a very sweet but challenging child and I wanted to recover from 3 years of no sleep. [name_f]My[/name_f] hope is that the theyāll be best friends and Iām fully prepared to foster that relationship as best I can. Hopefully my son will be more ready and can feel helpful and proud to be a big brother which Iām very excited to see. He definitely wasnāt ready at 2. I will say I had a much better relationship with my sibling that was 5 years younger, than I did with my sibling that was 18 months younger. Could have been their personalities but I was more excited to play with a baby and we fought a lot less.
I think each gap, small or large creates unique relationships and what works for every family is very different.
AF arrived today so Iām out for this cycle. 
Fingers crossed that [name_u]October[/name_u] is our month.
Sending baby dust to everyone in their fertile window or TWW at the moment.
Boy, itās hard to stay caught up in here these daysā¦lol. Definitely a bit behind.
With the close in age thing, I definitely feel the same as @shalexis about close, standard and a large gap. It seems like the majority of the people I know tend to have at least a 2 or so year age gap between kids. [name_f]My[/name_f] āpregnancy buddiesā from when I had my son are all already expecting their second babies. I do have a couple of friends who conceived when their babies were around 2 or 3 months old, so they are absolutely close in age. As nervous as I am about a potentially minimum age gap of a month shy of 2.5 years, that small of an age gap was one of my biggest concerns.
Anyhow, despite a lot of stressful moments going on right now, that bc withdrawal period is long gone and weāve officially started this TTC journey. I still have some leftover ovulation test strips from last time, so started using those today. It was negative, so not quite there yet!
On the topic of names, we are finding it sort of difficult to think of some! Nothing feels right even though there are some we like. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband liked [name_u]Leo[/name_u] and [name_m]Lachlan[/name_m] for boys, Iām liking [name_m]Franklin[/name_m], [name_m]Linus[/name_m] or [name_m]Calvin[/name_m] and we both like [name_f]Isla[/name_f], [name_f]Ada[/name_f], and now [name_u]Florence[/name_u]! Not worth stressing over at this point but it surprises me how difficult it is this time. Maybe because we have an existing child who is already named? It feels like we set the template and now have to work around it, in a sense.
All fairly similiar views in terms of the age difference between siblings then. There are definitely pros and cons to any age gap in my opinion.
[name_f]My[/name_f] boys have an age gap of 2 years 8 months. [name_f]My[/name_f] eldest was quite difficult so I honestly couldnāt imagine having an age gap any less than this between them both. So I guess it really depends on the personality of the older sibling too.
When a 3rd decides to come along, for me itās going to be a lot more āeasyā because both my boys are in school and Iād feel like I have all that bonding time at home with the baby and can give them my undivided attention.
When the boys were little, even though I coped with two children under 4 and I managed, some days I did feel like a real juggling act. I was lucky in a way because Z was very independent so he would happily play whilst I settled A in the next room. Some of my friends older kids were not like that though and I donāt think their youngest got much sleep .
Now they are 4 and 6 (7 at the end of the month) the age gap has definitely closed more between them and they have the same interests and can be a right pair of comedians.
At this rate, I think the age gap between my boys and a potential baby is going to be quite significant. It will be something like 8 years between Z and a baby and A itāll be 5ā¦ So yes I definitely would hope to be pregnant soon 
In hindsight I probably would have preferred a 6 and 4 year age gap between my eldest two and a baby, but these things are not in our control.
Florence! I havenāt seen that on anyoneās list lately, what a lovely addition! If youāre going for that unexpected-yet-familiar quality, that definitely hits the mark! Ada does too, and I quite like the sound of Isla.
Itās interesting that you have more overlap with each other on the girlās side than boyās. Does your husband love boy names with the letter L or is it just a coincidence? Weāve found that my husband favors girl names that start with an N 
Thatās definitely the vibe I like about [name_u]Florence[/name_u]! Iām surprised my husband even likes that one at all though. And I never noticed the L thing before but he does! His all time favorite boy name is [name_u]Liam[/name_u], so thereās that. Funnily enough, he came home and told me he loves the name [name_f]Ellie[/name_f] for a girl. Maybe he just likes the L sound in general LOL.
@anon25197097 I love my older kidsā age gap, but it really is a game changer to have older kids when you have a new baby. I really wanted all of my kids to have a 2 year gap but my oldest 2 ended up being 6.5 and 4.5 when [name_m]Oskar[/name_m] was born.
Speaking of [name_m]Oskar[/name_m] - today is his 1st birthday!! 
I was actually hoping to be pregnant again by the time he turned 1, but weāve really only had 3 cycles to ātryā so Iām feeling ok about it. Iāll just be over here basking in all the 1 year old sweetness and feeling all nostalgic.
@namergirl3 love all of your allās names and totally get your husband being attracted to certain sounds - Iām the same way!
Iām on CD11 so ovulation is right around the corner. Hoping to catch the egg this month - good luck to everyone!!
[name_u]Happy[/name_u] birthday [name_m]Oskar[/name_m]. When you say game changer would you mind elaborating? In a good way? Bad way?
In a great way! [name_f]My[/name_f] kids are a huge help. They actually WANT to help and I use them for practical things that I wouldnāt have been able to do when they were younger (please let the dog out, bring me a diaper, watch the baby while I switch the laundry, etc).
thank goodness. I was worried for a minute there.
Oh I definitely think my eldest would be great in that respect.
[name_f]My[/name_f] youngest absolutely adores babies. A couple of my friends have had babies, they are now under 1. And A is always wanting to stroke their heads and feet theyād make lovely big brothers.