A third child?

[Chocolateandsweets]

My husband and I have two girls- nearly 1 and a just turned 2 year old.
My husband and I have always wanted three children. We don't have much family support so it has been challenging at times.
When did you know when to try for a third? We don't know if to start trying now so there is a small age gap between them all, or if to wait a bit longer so My girls are a bit longer.
Was it really hard going from 2 to 3?

I found going from 2 to 3 hard as my older 2 were 6 and 8, but 2 of my friends have 3/4 with much smaller gaps and seem to find it a bit easier :)

There are many third child threads you can google on MN over the years to help you think it through. We are probably about to ttc no 3, ours are 5.5 and nearly 3. For me I couldn’t consider any smaller gaps, it’s too full on for me, but you’ve already done a small gap so you know you are tough!! I think there’s so many factors - not just gaps, the temperaments of the kids, how much stress going on as parents etc. I am daunted and reading all the sahp threads currently as I think that’s how we are thinking we will cope with it.

Hi there, I'm 29 and have 3 children. Our eldest child was 4 in July, middle child was 2 in August and our youngest is 4 months old. I think I found it slightly harder going from 2 to 3 children. Don't get me wrong, there's still many days I find tough now (my OH works a lot) and days can be hectic and you have to learn to give attention to all 3 and that can be quite hard sometimes. But, having 3 children and all so young, there's so many more positives for me than negatives. I love the small gaps between the 3 of them and I can't wait to see them all growing up together x

We didn’t ever ‘know’ we just never stopped talking about it off and on, so eventually we concluded that was telling us something. If we were done with two at some point we’d have moved on from the idea but we didn’t. We ended up with a 4 yr gap between our second and third, so both my older two were in school when our third arrived. That has worked really well for me, even though I didn’t initially feel it was what I wanted. It’s so nice to enjoy the time with our third but have him close enough to his siblings that they are still a little gang.

1 to 2 was the biggest change, 3 onward just slot in to family life.
Ours are 15, 10, 9, 6 (twins) & almost 7wk. I found the small age gap with 2 & 3 tiring but nice, nothing compared to the exhaustion of having twins and older kids at school though. DH works away days to months at a time and I manage with very little support, I became a sahm when maternity finished after our 2nd which makes it more manageable.

I found going from 2 to 3 easy. You've already got a routine that works for the kids, so adding in another one seems pish posh.
I have a big gap between DS1 and DD (5 years) and a tiny gap between DD and DS2 (19 months)

They all get on amazingly well. There are some hiccups and arguments but mostly they entertain each other and love each other.

I found 1-2 was hard but number 3 slotted in. However, I found the hard work increased as they got older!

Anyone have an opinion on what it would be like having a third in your 40s when your older two are school age? I don't think I could cope with a third now but possibly when they're older... only I will also be older, and going back to the baby stage at that point in my life and theirs scares me a bit...