People with three dc under 4........ am I mad to have another baby when oldest dc will be 3.3??

[MinkyBorage]

Hello all, I've got two dc, 2.6 and 15 months (14 month gap) and I'm broody! Am I mad? I'm mid to late 30's and am worried that if I wait for life to get easier, I will not want to disrupt things with a new baby, but I desperately want to have 3 dc. Am I mad to even consider having another when the ages of my other two dc when the baby would be born would be 2.1 and 3.3. Also I really don't fancy being pg again, I didn't really fceel sick before, just sooooooooooooooo tired.
TAles of coping and woe please.
Shall go and have a look at the 2 or more under 3 thread now.......

Hi I did that.

I had a dc from my previous marriage then a 5.5 year gap and then dc2 a 14 month gap dc 3 and then dc4 was born 6 weeks after dc2 was 3.

It wasn't too bad as the toddlers had each other to play with and the baby just slotted in and sat around watching them! I found the 2 year gap really big after the 14 month gap though.

Ooh thanks, ws it harder because it was bigger though? I think ddc2 would struggle more with jealousy than dd1 ever did.

i have been there....

in fact I had 5 under 9 at one point.

DD1 was 8.3yrs
DD2 5.5yrs
DD3 3.6yrs
DS1 2.2yrs
DS2 newborn

It was hard, no denying that, but also in some ways very lovely. they were all very close in age so no real chance of jealousy as they none bar DD1 had ever had me to themselves.....altho I never had any jealousy anyway with DD1.

If I could go back and change one thing tho about it all, I would have had MN to moan to/ask advice from when it got tough.....otherwise I would have those age gaps again as for me they have worked really well

omg hatrick, that's amazing!! Your three dc on the sofa has just made me extra broody. I just feel like I'm getting back a bit of life now, and the disruption will be hard, but .............oh this sounds really soppy, but the greatest most wonderful thing my parents gave me was my brothers, we're close in age which is great. I think I know wht to do, but a bit stressed about how hard it will be. I'm not the most organised person in the world as it is!

ah no, sorry....DD2 was 6.5yo.

psychomum! Wow!

I had 4 under 5, yes it was tough, but not as tough as going from 1 to 2!

The only real pain was the school runs and feeding the new baby, I am very good at breast feeding at standing at the school gates , amazing what a large coat can hide.

I am really enjoying it now, two years down the line, but it is still tiring, I did not have the luxury of waiting, time was not on my side and in hindsight I am very glad

oh god, agree with butterfly......going from 1 to 2 was hell!!!!

third + was a breeze in comparison.

mine are all in school now, and I can enjoy my time a little more again....DD1 is now 14 and DS2 is 5 (6 in July)..

Personally, at this point I just think you are lucky. My ds is 3.3 and we have been trying for well over a year to have number 2. I am only in my early 30s and I am seriously demoralised that it is not happening and we are seeking medical help at this point. Best wishes to you, children are a blessing.

With psycho 100%, I hated having 2 so much, it is amazing I had another , but I did and it was brilliant , enjoy it

bluebutterfly....I found 1-2 hell because my expectations were totally different from the reality!

I do agree tho with them being a blessing......truely they are.

I hope so much for you that things work out for you and you get your deserved wish

bumping for possible horror stories???

It's a big change once you have one at pre-school and then again having one at school and one at pre-school your day just disappears around schedules very different to have 2 little ones IYSWIM

Hmmmmmm, good point. It won't be easy, will it?!

No but then you get all the various stages over and done with more quickly, it's easier to find things to do that they all enjoy etc. There is 8.5 years between my eldest and youngest (as I have 4) and the eldest is getting too old for the park etc whilst the youngest 3 all still love it and will do for another 5 or so years. Room sharing and toy sharing is easier, get the nappies, broken nights, taking 10 minutes to strap them into the car all over and done with.

Well I can only comment on the pregnancy part so far as DC3 is due in a few weeks but tbh (although this pregnancy was harder than the other two for other reasons) it's not much harder to be pregnant with two already than with one already IYSWIM.

The really irritating bit is the stupid comments you get while pregnant (which I suspect increase with the number of children you have after 2). People seem genuinely shocked we have not stuck to the 'standard two' children so we get all sorts of comments from friends, and complete strangers about

what is wrong with the two you already have?
Are you trying for a boy (two DDs already)
Don't you think two is enough?
How will you cope?
Are you stupid?
I don't envy you!
Was it planned?

Plus all the usual comments from total strangers about how big / small you are etc.

You might find you need a bigger car to fit three car seats in but other than that we have found this one to be the cheapest as DD1 has outgrown her cotbed so she can donate her cot to the new baby. We have everything else we need (inc nappies - cloth) and have discovered the joys of freecycle for the clohtes (DC3 = DS1).

3 just seems right, 2 seems a little too 'standard' for me...surely if you are washing two faces / brushing two sets of teeth another one isn't going to be any harder..

Oh yes, and I am still used to getting up all night every night.

hiya i have 3 ds's and am expecting #4 they are 3.6,1.6 and 8months its really hard but worth it totaly can only tell you what you already know with 3 but just thought id say hi and i dont think your mad because im there

oh just noticed you have 2dcs. but yeah you have to be ready for all the comments you get and then ignore them

well.....you can ignore the comments, but it is sometimes quite fun to think up a few 'choice' responses and use those (then blame the rudeness on your pregnancy hormones )...not that I ever did that of course - I just read it on here somewhere

lol badmouse tell us a few comebacks