Sister in law just found out she is pregnant with no. 10,11 and 12!

[KateEllis]

I have just received a panicked phone call off my sister-in-law, she is pregnant with triplets and already has 9 DC aged,14,12,10,8,7,4,3,15 mths and 4 mths! She is distraught at the prospect of having three more especially given how close in age the youngest 2 children are. To add to this her husband is delighted! He loves children and wanted more even though they agreed to stop at 9. Does anyone know of or have such a large family (I have a big family but not nearly as big as this) or know of anyone, I just would like to reassure her that it can work.

having 12 children under 15 years (and 6 under 5) will be so hard for her...

the amount of work involved (washing/ ironing/ cooking / homework etc) requires an army of workers, without actually caring & playing with them all..
I hope she has lots of help to ease the situation for her.

but she is very blessed :)

if i could afford cleaners/cooks/ironing ladies/helpers...i think i may carry on having more

my mum grew up in the 50s in ireland, next door to a family of 21 kids!!!!!

I should move to ireland

maybe there people wouldnt look at me in such shock with my brood :)

I come from a large family and our neighbours had 12 and all singletons too.

She will manage because you have to. If she didn't want any more then she shouldn't have let DH anywhere near her until he had had the snip imo.

Triplets are commen the older you get hence why i am not having anymore

the older ones will be put off babies for life!

Given that the average gestation of triplets is 34 weeks the age gaps will be even smaller.

If it is very early in her pg there is quite a high chance that one of the heartbeats will 'disappear' .

omg! i am afraid i cna't give reassurance that it'll work as i don't have first hand experience!
but i am sure it'll be fine. i guess the older ones can help out now too....

hard work, but am sure they will get through it

its unreasonable that op is getting hard time.what's that about?and why dig her up on profession,she is posting socially.plenty on mn give name forename and age of dc

petty to make something of nothing

A frined of mine when i was younger was one of 14 and his parents fostered 'troubled' teens as well.

In Dublin a family in the terrace behind ours had 22 children

The largest family i know of now though is only 6 kids but 4 of them are 5 and under, three pre schoolers and the mother copes just fine... i'd be very surprised if she's not pregnant again withing the year as she seems to have an addiction to babies

As for the gap, my cousin's wife has an 11 month gap. And i had a scan at 9 weeks which showwed dd in perfect detail, little bud arms and legs and all, so if there had been more at that stage they would certainly have shown up on a scan. I'd imagine with a pregnancy so soon after a birth the doctors probably did an early scan to check everything was ok.

Sorry, that's not practical advice really, just wanted to comment to counteract all those daft biscuits up top...

I am very - not that I'd like triplets

triplets are usually born between 30-33 weeks gest.
which will give her a gap of 9/10 months approx between her youngest and the newbies !! (assuming her scan showing the triplets was done at 8-9 weeks...as per usual)

but given that she only had a gap of 11 months between her youngest & second youngest !! shes packing a few in there quite tightly !!
she'll have 5 babies under 2 years old !!! thats some work
but if Octomum can do it

ps crazybabs....your dc's look adorable :)

was thinking of calling my next little girl (due in 8 weeks) Evie.....lovely name
& My boys insist after watching WallE !!

that is a lot of children

I think you could focus on the practical side of things. I believe that problems like PND and that old chestnut of mothers who 'can't cope' (horrible phrase) all boil down to a lack of practical help.
I was blown away at how much practical help mothers need (and don't get). Logistically, financially, children are a challenge. Perhaps you could offer to stay with her for the weekend shortly after the babies are born? Or offer to do the school-runs and kids lunches. That type of thing would be the best sort of help.

I am done at 4 and I have help.I guess you need to lower your standerds for a while.I have a friend who runs a boarding house at a school she is in charge of 50 boys.I think of her often

I wish her well.

I am new to mumsnet although I don't know why I havn't heard of it before!

This thread has made me smile as I am really surprised that there isn't anybody on here with a family as large as mine.
I have 12 children!!! I am also 5 months pregnant with twins!!

My children are 15,13,12,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and 8 months. So quite similar to your sister-in-law.

Most people think we are either crazy or irresponsible.
But like your sister we are in a financial position where we can afford many children, and I don't feel ready to stop yet. I certainly don't think this will be my last pregnancy!

Unlike your sister this pregnancy is very much wanted, and I wouldn't like to feel the turmoil she must be in.
If your sister in law needs someone to talk to feel free to email me and I will give you my email address.

I just still cannot believe I have the largest family... even in cyberspace!

Wow Zippy, that is quite a family you're making there & with twins on the way too!! I'm impressed, a teeny bit envious but mostly exhausted at the thought of it! :)

I'm expecting number 3, hoping to get to 4, but stopping there!

How do you manage the pgs, i mean don't you suffer from extreme tiredness just from being pg & then having to look after so many children? That's what's putting me off number 4 already.

OMG Zippy - how the hell do you manage

Please tell me about your day to day life?

How do you even leave the house

congratulations though

JustKeepSparkling- I have been very lucky with pgs and never had any complications. I do get tired, and the worst was between DD2 and DD3 as there was only a ten month age gap. But all in all we have managed fine. My mother lives with us, which for some people I imagine would be there absolute nightmare but she would have lived with us even is we only had one child as it's just as circumstances have worked out She is an amazing help an I am so lucky to have her. My MIL and sister and SIL are also a great help.

racmac- lol, tbh its not as tricky as it sounds We live on a farm and so both mu husband are at home working (he runs the farm) and I run the farm shop. 9 of my children are school age now, we DO NOT homeschool and my children go to the village primary and older children go to a good secondary. Mornings can be a bit hectic, but every child I have the more organised I become! The older children have school dinners and the youngest one takes packed lunch so this is easy. The children in secondary school are picked up at 8.00 by a mini bus that the school runs for children in surrounding villages. I leave the house with my 4 primary aged children and sometimes the younger 3 and its only 5 mins drive to school sometimes we walk but this takes more effort because of pushchairs etc and keeping an eye on everyone.

I think you just fall into a sort of way of life, I love it. I also have to add that my children all lead normal lives, they all have different hobbies, have parties, have friends over often and get on well with each other but not freakily well just like normal brothers and sisters.

Also I'm not sure if the Dugger family are the best example, they seem a bit odd to me all the children look the same! I think you can have a v large family and still raise children in a normalish way!

I should imagine you keep the school going!!

Do you have a minibus? or a coach

do you think you give all of them attention or do some get left out?

sorry Im full of questions

Im thinking about going from 3 to 4 and that seems crazy let alone to 13

Wow zippy, I would love a big family like you.. Dp on the other hand would quite happily call it a day with the 3 we have now.
Christmas must be great fun at your house :o

wow zippy! "Mornings can be a bit hectic" !!! Its choas here some mornings with 2!

I know a family of 26 children in Ireland - so do I win that one!?

Jeezus... trust all the crazily big families to be in Ireland

You'd think birth control never reached our shores to read this thread!

zippy... i'm in awe of you, i really am. I'd love a huge falily but the reality is that three is about the limit of our coping ability. I have told dp that if we win the euromillions i'm going to have another 5 or so though

racmac- yes I think they are relying on us! Cars have been a nightmare, my dh is sooooo fussy when it comes to cars but at the moment we have a mercedes vian which seat 8 so thats used most as my its not too often (only weekends really) we are all in the car. For these occasions we have a ford transit minibus which my dh hates! Then we also have a jeep and a land rover but these are my husbands and mainly for farm use.
I hate to say it but they obviously don't get as much attention from me as if it were only two of them, BUT they do have constant company and attention from each other the older ones adore the little ones and vice versa. I don't think anyone gets left out I make sure every week I have had 'alone' time with every single one, I read the younger ones a bedtime story each every night, and me and my oldest 3 which are all girls often have a girls night with a romcom or something. (the next girl is 7 so a bit young for this yet and she is a tom-boy too!)

I have to dash now, hobby run about time!