When we are out in public, we tend to draw attention first with the size of our family, and then with the close ages of the children. Some people like to try to guess the kids' ages. Some get that puzzled look where I know they are trying to calculate the age gap between the kids after I have rattled off their ages. There was one woman, shopping at Walmart, who approached me and asked me if I would please tell her the ages of my kids. She took great delight in the answer, and complimented the kids from head to toe. I am sure there was a story there, but she did not share it.
I still laugh at the way we achieved the spacing of our children. My husband and I sat down and had an "intellectual" discussion about the "best" spacing of children. We were college educated, so of course we assumed there was some proven ideal. We are scientists by nature, so of course we assumed we could collect all the data, and form a hypothesis on the ideal spacing! Ha! We talked about the pros and cons of our own sibling situations. We are each the oldest of 3 children. I am 4 years older than my next sister. I said 4 years was too far a gap, as we practically grew up independent of each other, went to different schools, and had different interests and friends. My sisters are only 19 months apart from each other. That was too close. They fought constantly while growing up. They were only 1 grade apart in school. They knew each others' friends, and did not share friends well. My husband is 3 years older than his brothers, who are twins to each other. Clearly we were not going to have a say about twins, so that was a non-issue. Many of our friends in high school had a younger sibling who was a freshman our senior year. Apparently 3 years apart was common, but it still seemed a little too far to me. We wanted our kids to have enough distance to be unique individuals, but a close enough age range to grow up as friends. We settled on 2.5 years apart as the "ideal" spacing of children. That was going to be our goal....
Ha! Too late! It turned out that I was already pregnant with Jersey #2, and just didn't realize it or expect it at the time. God had a completely different plan for the spacing of our children. 19 months apart. It turned out that I LOVED having the girls that close together. It was a great combination. And, it turned out that they have very unique personalities, and they are growing up as friends. Many people comment that it must be terrible to have 2 in diapers, but that part didn't bother me at all. I found it to be easier, as we were already into the diaper routine!
I liked that age range so much, that I aimed to have Jersey #3 arrive 20 months later. My only criteria at the time was a Spring delivery, as Jersey #2 was born in the heat of summer!
We conducted an experiment to see how far apart our children would space "naturally." So, following Jersey #4, we did nothing to plan or prevent another baby. [Breastfeeding certainly halted my cycles for a while, and coming down with Whooping Cough was its own form of abstinence birth control!] Our natural fertility turned out to be 18 months. So, it is a good thing I enjoyed that spacing!
I still laugh at the way we achieved the spacing of our children. My husband and I sat down and had an "intellectual" discussion about the "best" spacing of children. We were college educated, so of course we assumed there was some proven ideal. We are scientists by nature, so of course we assumed we could collect all the data, and form a hypothesis on the ideal spacing! Ha! We talked about the pros and cons of our own sibling situations. We are each the oldest of 3 children. I am 4 years older than my next sister. I said 4 years was too far a gap, as we practically grew up independent of each other, went to different schools, and had different interests and friends. My sisters are only 19 months apart from each other. That was too close. They fought constantly while growing up. They were only 1 grade apart in school. They knew each others' friends, and did not share friends well. My husband is 3 years older than his brothers, who are twins to each other. Clearly we were not going to have a say about twins, so that was a non-issue. Many of our friends in high school had a younger sibling who was a freshman our senior year. Apparently 3 years apart was common, but it still seemed a little too far to me. We wanted our kids to have enough distance to be unique individuals, but a close enough age range to grow up as friends. We settled on 2.5 years apart as the "ideal" spacing of children. That was going to be our goal....
Ha! Too late! It turned out that I was already pregnant with Jersey #2, and just didn't realize it or expect it at the time. God had a completely different plan for the spacing of our children. 19 months apart. It turned out that I LOVED having the girls that close together. It was a great combination. And, it turned out that they have very unique personalities, and they are growing up as friends. Many people comment that it must be terrible to have 2 in diapers, but that part didn't bother me at all. I found it to be easier, as we were already into the diaper routine!
I liked that age range so much, that I aimed to have Jersey #3 arrive 20 months later. My only criteria at the time was a Spring delivery, as Jersey #2 was born in the heat of summer!
We conducted an experiment to see how far apart our children would space "naturally." So, following Jersey #4, we did nothing to plan or prevent another baby. [Breastfeeding certainly halted my cycles for a while, and coming down with Whooping Cough was its own form of abstinence birth control!] Our natural fertility turned out to be 18 months. So, it is a good thing I enjoyed that spacing!
love it!
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