Siblings Close Age.


Never would I have thought I'd be a mother of two at the age of 22. With my eldest being 5 years old and my youngest nearly 3 years old they are quite close age. I remember when I found out I was pregnant with my youngest it was a huge shock and if I'm honest I had no clue what it would be like looking after two children. I'd only had one child before so the main thing that really scared me was how was I supposed to share my love with my first born?! I would think to myself 'how was that possible'. I was really scared I wouldn't love my second child. I fell into depression when I was around 30 weeks pregnant and having Obstetric Cholestasis didn't help either. Mia had only just started sleeping the whole night and with my condition I was loosing so much sleep - so it made me feel much worse through the day.
When Elliw was born my love was instantly shared between both children. Having that first cuddle was amazing. The first two weeks I was over the moon and so happy, I didn't care waking up to her in the night for night feeds and I loved every single minute. After having Mia I was in so much pain I could hardly walk but having Elliw you wouldn't of thought id given birth, it was so different even the midwife was surprised how happy I was and how everything was.
With their ages being so close, Mia was only 2 years and 3 months old when Elliw was born. We had to buy double the nappies, double the wet wipes or triple the wet wipes and nappies actually since Elliw constantly pee'd and with Mia's Chronic Constipation. I'd bought a double pram which also turned into a single pram when Mia went to her dad's. I am so glad I decided to go for a double pram, I had a few people telling me not to and it was a silly idea but I proved them wrong! Mia in my eyes was still too young to be walking around by herself and I can't drive so I had to take bus trips so having a tandem double pram was a life saver! Eventually Mia did come out of the pram obviously and we decided to just put Elliw into a single pram.
I would hardly ever go out by myself with both girls because I would be so scared in case one of them decided to do a massive strop in front of everyone. Especially Mia since she was going through the phase of fist fighting me basically! Her temper was so bad at that time, thank god she has cooled down now.

As they were getting older, I can't say it was getting easier because it wasn't. They were both going through different milestones. When Mia was going through a phase of hitting, punching, bitting and pinching me Elliw was at that stage where she was copying everything and that is when Elliw had got the hitting from. When Mia was at that phase it was so hard and it was quite scary at times to leave them by themselves for a bit because Mia would lash out at Elliw sometimes. Luckily she did stop what she did, I still have it now and then but it's more of just answering back now.

It got a little easier when Mia started playgroup. She had started April time so she only had a couple of months then it was Summer holidays so it was having both of them at home again for an extra 6 weeks. It was nice too have that little break from one child.

Having two children of close age can be really hard work especially that they both go through different milestones but at the age they are now, it's not as hard since Mia is in full time school and Elliw is in playgroup 3 mornings a week. However it can get very stressfull when they both decide they want to play up and fight each other.

To keep myself SANE I HAVE to have my quiet evenings every single night. Putting the girls to bath and bed isn't really a problem here so i'm quite lucky. Mia went through a stage where she would not settle at all until about 10pm-11pm and Elliw had her full whole night sleep at 7 months but she still wakes up most nights atleast once or twice, sometimes more! It can get very tiring if you get a sleepless night but having that quiet evening to myself really does calm me down and I love the quit evenings where I can catch up on all the soaps.

How do you cope with having 2 or more children?

2 comments

  1. You should be so proud - you have done really well! I had my first son in 2004. Then when he was just 2 months old, I found out I was expecting triplets! When I was 7 months into the pregnancy I went into premature labour and delivered 3 boys. Sadly only one survived - so there is only 9 months between my oldest and second son. Then 12 months later I delivered my first daughter (so when she was born my sons were 21 months old and a 12s month old!) Then 18 months later I had my second daughter! So I had 4 children under 3 1/2! I carried my newborn daughter in a sling, pushed a double buggy with my first daughter and second son in and my eldest son walked beside me with reins!

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    1. Hard work, expensive buying nappies etc but I kept my clothes from my oldest son for my youngest son and did the same for my two daughters! I am glad I had my four close together, though, as they have always been really close and still play together very well! Luckily they all slept through the night from 8 weeks old! They are now 10, 10, 9 and 7!

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