4 under 4 no twins

[CandyFloss9988]

Basically the title. 4 under 4 no twins. Anyone had something similar ? Any advice? Thank you

I had 2 under two and I thought that was a lot :)
That's awesome, it's going to be so much fun in your house!

I knew a lady who did this.. she went a bit mad (OCD). Ended up with an extra child few yrs later, too.

She seemed sane again last time we had a chat, when child4 was about 14.

I'm going to have 3 under 4, that's quite enough

Hahaha thank you I’m quite excited but also nervous but I found 1- 2 harder than 2-3 so hopefully all will be okay haha!

My dsis has 11 months between dc1&2 and 13 months between dc 2&3 so she had 3 under 3. She has dc4 now but waited 5 years for him. I think she’s terribly brave (and a bit mad). I say that as a mum with 2 minutes between mine!

First thought - just why would you???
Second thought - at least they’ll all be at the same/similar stage moving up as they get older. Can be hard doing days out etc to suit everyone when you have 3 or 4 with spread age gaps

Hard for the first few years but is going to be amazing fun once they're all between 4-12 xx

Start batch cooking now!

My best friend had 3 under 3 and I had 3 under 3.5 but not 4. I was 35 when I started and was to exhausted after number 3. I think your perspective on life changes and surviving the day is all you can hope for for a while but for me, each year that went by got considerably easier. As soon as oldest was at school and next one at pre school it got better. I am sure everyone else just saw chaos but to me it was getting more manageable. We are now entering the stage where they will all over lap at university so hoping to persuade at least one to do an apprenticeship!!!!

I don’t have 4u4 I have 2u2 but I’m assuming you’re already well versed in absolute noise and chaos I really don’t think one more would add a lot more to that.

What a full life you’re going to have 🥰

I will have 3 under 2.5 later this year….if we had a 4th I would probably wait a bit longer..

3u3: I just got super organised, accepted all offers of help no matter how small and let the house be untidy although clean generally of course. The thing I would do differently is that, although it worked to attend to whoever needed the attention/help most at any given time, I wished I had set aside more one on one time with my eldest, even though the 'eldest', he was still so very little. I was afraid of not having enough time with the youngest but in fact once the elder 2 were at nursery then school, I had more time to focus on the youngest so as I mentioned earlier, the elder ones need you as well. It was so intense and I barely remember the first year when everyone was in nappies but once you pass that critical point, things do get easier and later they will actually play together and do the same or similar activities.

I had 3 under 3 and there's only 7 years 4 months between dc1 & dc5.

You learn a routine that's best for you & everyone fits in. Even now they're older (almost) 12>4 we have a strong routine, particularly for things like homework, so everyone gets individual time & help. My Dh works away a lot to so, again, the routine helps immensely. That being said, we're not rigid with it, if that makes sense, it's just sort of there in background day-day. They all help, keeping things tidy, putting their washing away, loading/unloading the dishwasher & so on.

I used to babysit for 4 under 4. The eldest turned 4 a week or two after the baby was born.

They all went to bed at the same time, the washing machine was always on, and their mum was generally pretty chilled out and didn't attempt to be supermum from what I remember!

A pp is right about everyone helping though, as soon as they could walk the kids tidied up their own toys so that I could hoover while they put pyjamas on.

I met someone who had 5 under 4 - two sets of twins.

I nannied once for a 4 year old, 3 year old, 22 month old and 9 month old.
I ran things like a military operation.
A play pen (two actually) was a lifesaver and a downstairs loo. 3 highchairs also helped.
The worst bit was going out, there was a massive Silver cross pram with a pram seat that’s all, ended up with 3 in/on the pram sometimes.

I'm trying to work out the timelines without multiples...sounds like a nightmare sorry op

3 under 3. Tough but we all survived. Lack of funds was the hardest part, constantly skint!!

@CandyFloss9988

Basically the title. 4 under 4 no twins. Anyone had something similar ? Any advice? Thank you

Yes; we had 4 under five. No twins, and all planned. We took the view that having children close together means they all have similar activities, tastes in food, play, stories, songs TV, bedtime, outings etc. The household ran at a very nursery level in the early years which was easier in many ways. Nothing dangerous /wreckable within child reach, mass cots highchairs potties and bath and bed time. The upside was the "big boys" quickly became very capable at dressing and feeding themselves (and the babies) and entertaining each other. The littles eagerly copied everything the big boys could do, to acquire all those thrilling big boy skills ( dressing self and feeding, dry pants, poo in toilet, stand up to pee, sit on real chair at meal times, swim, ride 2-wheeler) and go to nursery then school. The downside was that 3 and 4 weren't babies for long.

When we had our twins our others were 2, 4 & 9 and dh works away for days to months at a time. I was so tired at one point I was dozing off having a root canal 🤣. Routines are your friend is pretty much all I have for you. You muddle through it, much easier when you get some/all of them in nursery/school. I did that and had our 6th last year (twins were 6) so a glutton for punishment.