Pregnant with no. 3 / 4 / 5...?!

[LimeLeafLizard]

Just wondering if anyone else is pg with their 3rd, 4th, 5th, or more?!

I am newly pg with baby number 4 and finding it a bit different this time.

Yesterday I flicked through a couple of magazines but the content didn't seem that relevant to me. I am quietly happy but not nearly as excited or nervous as I was before, especially the first time.

I know what kind of birth I want (same as the last two times) and I don't need to buy any stuff, so there doesn't seem so much to think about, at least until the scan.

I am also a bit worried about how other people are going to react when we tell them. There seems to be a general view that wanting 4 children must make us mad.

Hope I am not alone?!

Hello Conanchensee and congratulations! Glad the thread has cheered you up. We weren't trying for DC3 either, so it was a shock for us too (tho' we always wanted 4). I think it is quite normal not to be ecstatic, sometimes it just takes time to adjust.

Hey 4kids, nice to hear from you. 36 weeks already! Other peoples' pregnancies always seem to go quickly! Sorry I don't know about staying in hospital as I had home births the last two times. Would your MW know?

Moon you sound really organised! Not too long to go now, hopefully! Your post made me remember all the many things I need to do. Well in theory I have plenty of time, but with Christmas to come before my due date, I expect I should start sooner rather than later.

Lime I totally agree other peoples pregnancies seem to fly by whilst mine is dragging so slowly! One of the mums at school who is 10 weeks ahead of me asked how far I was and when I told her she said that mine was flying by! This one in particular seems to be going slow but I think that's because I hate being pregnant and am still in shock that I'm doing it again!

Tbh not that worried about having an extra child to take care of but being pregnant and caring for 3 seems reduculously hard!

Hey Conanchensee I can totally empathise with you. This baby was a sort of planned surprise, we knew we wanted 3 but we hadn't decided to 'try' yet. Was a bit when got bfp back at the end of Feb. I had been won dering why I felt so ill.........! DD2 turned one year old a week after bfp and DD1 was 4 in Aug, so v similar age gaps to you.

What I found was that it took me 3/4 weeks to adjust to the idea but since then I've kind of forgotten that it was ever a bit of a shock. This pregnancy has flown by and now I'm feeling so excited to welcome the new baby into the family and blessed that we'll have the three children we dreamed of but without any of the heartache of 'shall we, shan't we' and potentially taking a while to conceive.

4kids I'm in awe of you. I'm worrying about whether I'll cope with just 3, not so much the getting things done and kids organised but dealing with the general frustrations, I'm worried I won't have the patience required! I totally agree with your ethos though - who wants a quiet life??!! We love a bit of chaos.

Glad I come across as organised Lime not completely feeling it - but there's only so much preparation that's possible, right?

Pleased to report no twinges over the last few days, still intending to get to that hair appointment!!!

Should be making the dinner right now but......soooo tired........might just lurk around MN just a little longer.

Best wishes everyone.

4 Kids I stayed in overnight with my 3rd for exactly the same reason, I just told them I was staying and they were fine with that, I shouldn't think you will have any problems at all.

Can I join too. I'm 4w+6 with no.3. Been trying on and off since ds2 was 19 months (he's now 4.5 and just started school ) and was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen. Still in shock and 'Whoops what have we done' mode even though it was planned.

Also apprehensive about telling people, especially family as mum is a worrier and I don't do straightforward ends to pregnancies.

Congrats dontsweat

Think I may try that approach Shelly. I just know it will be mental once I get home, and could really do with a break - sorting out one tiny baby has got to be easier than the 4 I have at home

Moonhare things will be fine - my friends all think that I have lots of patience! Sometimes I laugh to myself when they say that, and wonder what they would say if they turned up at tea time when all the kids and tired/ hungry and moaning...I think you definately need a good sense of humour with so many kids, otherwise there would definately be times when I could cry!

Congratulations dontsweat. We also took quite a while to conceive DC3. I was also starting to think we may only have 2 kids at that point. DC4 and soon to be DC5 followed along pretty soon afterwards though, tis surprising how these things work sometimes!

Congrats Conanchensee and dontsweat!

It seems there are a few of us with surprise DC3s!

moonhare good luck making that appointment. I've just made the slightly crazy decision to do my own colour because hairdressers are so expensive here. $170 for a half head of highlights?! No thanks! Anyway it will probably be a complete disaster, I seem to do something mad to my hair towards the end of every pregnancy I've had.

I had a horrible bout of gastroenteritis this week (caught from DS) and was up all Monday night vomiting. It got to the point where I couldn't even keep water down and was throwing up bile. Thankfully DH was able to "work" from home the day after because I was really wiped out.

I keep having dreams about being in labour and the baby popping out in one painless push. Hopefully I'm psychic!

Welcome conanchensee and dontsweat and congratulations on your Dc 3's!

Thanks for the welcome

4 kids 3 is most definately the limit (age not on my side) unless it's twins

Congratulations and welcome Conanchensee and Dontsweat

Seymore hope you are feeling better, there is a bug doing the rounds at school at the moment and with 3dc there I am preparing myself for it.

Conanchensee When I had ds2 I had a 4yr ,2yr and new born and it was ok he seemed to just fit in. The only thing I struggled with was the school run in the morning.

I seem to be having lots of problems sleeping wake up at about 4am and can not get back to sleep would not mind but there is no reason I don't need the toilet no heartburn or anything just can not sleep anyone any tips.

Hi dontsweat congrats!

Thanks for the confidence 4kids I know you're right really. As I recall our local hospital was happy to have women stay in, a friend of mine was in 5 nights after her first she hadn't had CS or anything. I'm sure they will see how beneficial it would be for you to get a couple of extra nights peace with the new baby.

Seymore how wretched, hope you're feeling better very soon. I was ill at the beginning of Sept my DH was out of the country with work but luckily MIL was here. I lay in bed and crunched ice cubes - could keep them down but not sips of water. Sounds like Oz is a very expensive place to get your hair done, fingers crossed you get the look you want and here's hoping you truly do have 'the gift'.

Must be awful cherry not to be able to sleep, have no tips I'm afraid but someone else surely will.

Only 17 hours to my hair appt!

Hi all,
I found out last night that I'm pg wDC3. DD is nearly 4 and DS was 1 this week. I feel bad that I'm not ecstatic. We weren't trying and had just had one slip.... I had PND with both DC and am just coming off ADs. I feel like I'm just back to being myself and it might all go pear shaped again. On top of that, I've just started to retrain (an open learning 12 month diploma) and was so excited by a career change after years of being unhappy at work. I am worried that DC3 will throw that all off and that I'll never manage to find my new career.

And that's all without even thinking about my marriage- It's been tough on us both w pnd but I felt like things were starting to be fun again for the first time in ages.

That said, I always said I wanted 3, so I feel really mean to be thinking like this....

Congrats apparently , PND can be monitored, medication reintroduced if needed. It shouldn't get as bad this time if you are aware of what to look for. When are you due? Will you manage to finish the course?

Thanks The Angel

I thinks it's really early days-about 3 weeks pg I think, due early July (but going to buy fancy dan test later. Though I know you can't get a false positive, I'm not trusting the cheapie Boots own test I used!). Am seeing GP this week anyhow re ads, so will speak to her about DC3 and pnd and support etc.

I think I cd probably get a fair bit of my course done (if not all of it) if I get a move on. Maybe a deadline will be good for me....

Hi chilled.

Don't feel bad. I wasn't ecstatic when i got my bfp even though dc3 is planned. I suddenly thought oh shit what have we done. We have a nice settled family life at the moment. DS2 just started school. 2.5 yr gap between ds1 and 2 so they play together and get on really well (most of the time), lovely family outings with no baby, nappy, buggy etc etc to cart around, you get the idea. I'm slowly coming round to the idea. Dh OTOH is over the moon and all excited. And, the ds's would love a sibling, ds1 especially loves babies and has been nagging for years for us to have another one!.

I had PND with my first two as well. With ds1 it took over a year for me to recognise/admit it was PND and not just being tired. With ds2as soon as I felt myself going the same way I was straight down to the gp and they were very supportive. So was the HV (but we are lucky enough to have a lovely hv around here). With dc3 I will be ready for it if it reappears.

Thanks, Dont.

My experience of pnd was v similar to yours - was diagnosed much faster 2nd time, as I knew i didn't feel like myself iykwim. And I've had a great GP both times, so I'm sure we can come up w a plan.

I have really bad implantation pain today- thought I was going to throw up in TK Maxx with it! Am trying to take it easy and gain solace in chocolate (as wine is now off the menu. Boo!).

This is my first pregnancy in the winter, other three are autumn babies. Wondered if anyone had noticed differences in pregnancies/advantages/disadvantages

I have 1 summer baby it was too hot and I was so uncomfy, 1 autumn same prob as was hottest summer plus indian summer and 1 Xmas which was best as I didn't end up sweating to death and could still get comfy. Am v glad this 1 is due jan!

Both my DC were winter (well, Oct and Nov). Nov was good as never got hot when I was big. Oct baby meant I was the only person in the country who was praying for Indian summer to pass ASAP!

Our four were late winter/early spring (Feb.-April) so I avoided being big in the summer but delt with morning sickness in the heat instead...

Db#5 is also due late March early April but will either be born here (Thailand) at the start of the hottest month or in Australia in the Autumn.

Being pregnant in the tropics ought to be uncomfortably hot interesting...

cadmum v close birthdays there!

All ours are Sept-Dec so autumn ish mainly. Dd2 was Septenber after a hot summer but luckily I worked term time o ly then. Dc4 is due march and it's my first being pg over Xmas

Good morning all.

Well we have had a relatively quiet weekend here. My youngest 2 have gone to stay the night at their grandparents, leaving us with just a 6 and 5 year old. It seems so different having only those 2! Spent nearly the whole day out yesterday, and is so nice being able to leave the house without pushchairs, nappy bags and all the baby clutter!

Well I must look like things make happen soon as when we went swimming yesterday the receptionist told me there were no water births allowed in the pool

On the seasonality of the babies, mine have all been summer babies (May,June, July and Aug in fact!) so this will be our first autumn baby. I must admit it is nice for it not to be really hot when I am this pregnant for a change! I'm just not looking forward to it being more chilly for the night feeds though!

Welcome Chilled . Our DC5 was not planned at all either - in fact we found out a couple of weeks before DH was due to go for the snip . Have had lots of time to get used to the idea now though. I was also studying for accounting exams when I had my first couple of DC's but that has had to go on hold, so don't feel bad if you can't do everything. Now I just think I can always go back and do other things once the kids are a bit older.

Cherrypie I am also having bad times waking at night - don't really have any tips though, I usually just get up and have cereal/ drinks ect, look on the net for a bit. I sometimes find it worse to stay in bed and think about the fact that I can't sleep....

Think I am going to repack my hospital bag in the hope that something may happen soon

Sorry... I don't think I have even think I introduced myself...

I am a Canadian mother of 4 who discovered MN while living in London for 4 1/2 years. Ds2 was born there and dd2 was born in New York city. We now live in Thailand but have been in Austria, Switzerland and Cambodia since NYC...

I have told only my closest friends about this pregnancy because I have a dire Ob history full of late miscarriages... I will have to tell my dcs this week as I now have a bump. I see the consultant on Tuesday andassuming that all is still wellI will break the news after that.

Hello Cadmum, your life sounds interesting! Through work I knew a few people who, like you, have lived in several different places. Is it your DH's work that prompts this? How is Thailand? NY and the European places I could cope with, but can't imagine being pg in the tropics. Sorry to hear about your pg history... hope this one continues to go well. How many weeks along are you?

4kids your weekend sounds nice and relaxing - I know what you mean about feeling free when you go out without all the baby 'stuff' with you.

Hi Apparently, and conratulations! I hope this pg goes well for you and you avoid the depression this time. I have had ante-natal depression in my last 3 pregnancies, but this time (so far, FX) I seem to be ok... hope it will be the same for you. DN was also born Oct last year, so SIL was with you praying for that indian summer to end!

I've had two summer babies and one early autumn, so it is a nice novelty to have a Feb baby. One advantage is that when you're wearing a coat, people don't notice your bump and feel the need to make rude comments as much as in summer when you have it all 'on show'.

There is a good thread going about clothes for a winter baby.