Spacing Kiddos

We have this perfect little addition to our family, but we definitely don't want her to be an only child, God-willing of course. So, obviously the next question is when. If we look to our families, there are about three year gaps between ourselves and next closest siblings. (I know, I would think in a family of nine they'd be closer together too, but only the first four were close.) We enjoyed our childhoods and our bonds with our siblings. Of course our childhoods were quite different with different family dynamics -- JJ the youngest, me the oldest, JJ with a stay-at-home mom, me with a workin' woman, JJ being an uncle at age three months, me with being even the oldest grandchild on my Dad's side, not to mention any of the other stuff like location, finances, religious denominations, etc!!

Anyways, I read an article... now I wish I could find it... it was in one of the many, many free magazines I got when I signed up for EVERY offer when I was pregnant... anyways, it's on spacing of children and the pros and cons of having children two years or less apart, three years apart or four years and more apart.

Basically, what I took away from the article is having kids two years apart or less means you'll go absolutely nuts for a couple of years and then you have kids that are old enough to do stuff earlier (like take a fam. vacation or all be in school, etc.), generally they'll be close and involved in eachother's lives, but then they'll all most likely be in college at the same time (if you're planning on supporting your children in college).

Then, having kiddos four year or more apart means you'll have kids in diapers for-ev-er, kids who aren't as interested in hanging out with their siblings, major changes with a kiddo who's used to being the only child, but you might have a kiddo who can be a good helper for a new baby, and you have lots of time to enjoy your first child before having a second.

And, having a kiddos spaced right around three years gives you a little bit of both worlds.

Of course what works best, spacing-wise, for one child's personality won't be best for the next one. So how do you know?

I guess we're leaning towards three year spacing, but of course, we don't even know where we'll be in the 2-ish years we have to decide we're ready for numba two.