How To Make This Work With This

Louisa Pritchard, heavily pregnant and already looking after a lively toddler, wonders if Kate Middleton also spent most of her second pregnancy worrying about how she’s going to cope with two…

- Louisa Pritchard

Standing in the supermarket queue, I watched as the woman in front of me started crying. Her toddler had begun a meltdown after he wasn’t allowed the massive bar of Dairy Milk he’d grabbed off the shelf, while her baby— no more than a few weeks old—screamed in her pram. And as other shoppers looked on, some shaking their heads in disapproval, tears pricked my eyes.

I felt sympathy... and fear. Because I’m 30 weeks pregnant and have a 21-month-old son, so I’ll have roughly the same gap between babies as Kate Middleton. Which means in just a matter of weeks that harassed mum is going to be me.

MIND THE GAP

No wonder the age gap between siblings has grown since 2009, with parents now leaving an average of three years and eight months according to a Bounty study published in May, while mums like me will roughly have a two-year-gap. And researchers say this is the most difficult gap as at this age a toddler is at his most egocentric... and the arrival of a new baby can be deeply frustrating.

Which is probably why I’m waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night wondering how on earth I’m going to manage bathtime, feeding time, playtime... any time with a young toddler and a newborn.