Anyone else expecting baby number 4 (or more)?

[MissMattyJenkins]

I am. And I'm wondering what it will be like. I'll have a four year gap since the last baby (the rest were close together). The newborn phase seems like a distant memory. Its hard to make time to think about getting things organised for this baby! Anyone else in a similar situation?

Hi all. I'm 39 and 10+4 with #5.
Other dc are 18, 16, 12 and just 3. All going well here. Not nearly as sick as I've been before but so much more tired!
It's not too hectic here atm as the older 2 dc are living away from home. #1 with his g/f and #2 is away at college.
Baby is due the week of my 40th. That will be fun

Baby #3here! DCs are 7 and 5. DSS is 13. (He's here 50% of the time) 4 overall but #3 for me. I'm 29. Due in February. I also have DNeph who's 6YO 30% of the time too (DSis at Uni)

We have no baby stuff left at all! Decided no more... Then changed our minds! Gahhhhhh.

I'm the eldest of 5 girls, NC with my mother though. I have a bunch of step siblings who I am close to as well. DH is the second of 4 (2 boys 2 girls) and my closest friend is the eldest of 5 - I'm also close to her Mum (DFriend is 28, then sibs are 18, 16, 16, 9) A few people at my Church have 4 or more. Everyone else I know has 1 or 2.

I'm 21 weeks with no.4 :) very excited but also nervous about the sleepless nights again. My others are 7, 4 and 2 but have always been good sleepers and are out of nappies.

Errr... does anyone else just have a 5 seater car?!

Baby #4 for us. I'm 32 with a DS13, DS5, and DD3 yr old. Although we wanted a 4th I am silently freaking. All the things we need to change to accommodate a 4th is starting to get to me. We are doing the dance of "Do we sell and get a 4th bedroom or do we extend and risk not getting our money back if we sell later?" "What 7 seater do we buy?" "Where the heck am I going to put this baby?!?!" Also the fatigue has killed me with this pregnancy and I'm already suffering from SPD- so the long school run walking is a pain.

However- we found out our DD#2 is due on Valentines Day- so I am happy we are evening things up in the house. I will no longer be outnumbered by boys who can't seem to not hit my toilet seat with pee. Poor DD1 and I have had enough!

I'm expecting number 5 too. DS1 (10) ds2 (8) dd1 (6) and dd2 (would have been nearly 8 months but was stillborn at 40+5 in March).
I'm due at the beginning of February but the consultant said they would induce me 2 weeks early.
I'm looking forward to this baby, but feeling quite anxious in case the same thing happens again and I have to drag the children through losing another sibling .
We have everything ready from our little angel, but I need to get baby clothes as this time round we are expecting a little boy and we went wild on the pink! The children are really excited about a little sibling which is lovely, I thought they would be frightened like me. I guess children are resilient.
Good luck everyone I hope this time next year we wil, all be snuggling up to happy healthy babies and all of our other children

Hello!

#4 here too! I'm 36 and have 3 DS's. 17, 15 and 9 months. I'm yo-yoing between being really excited and thinking I'm absolutely bonkers for even considering another!
Not sure how far along I am but am going for my dating scan next week. The latest I'll be due is mid May but I think I'm further along than that.

I've been feeling a little nauseous about an hour after eating (which I never had with the other 3 - a girl this time maybe?!?), but other than that am feeling fine. Long may it last!

for you 3littlebadgers. Looking forward to reading all about your beautiful new arrival in the New Year x

Dragon, there were 17 months between my two boys and it was lovely. By far the nicest of the age gaps. I think your 9 month old and your tiny baby will grow up to be the best of friends.

Agree badgers. There is 20 months between my DDs and it's a lovely gap. Will be 23 months this time so I'm hoping that will be equally as lovely and the younger bond share a similar bond to their older sisters

This is just baby number three for me (and definitely last!), but I can relate to the denial thing - this was massively unplanned and I still have moments of not believing it despite being nearly 36 weeks! I will also have a bit over 3.5 years from my youngest; however, I had a similar gap between the first two and I will say it has been a lovely gap, they get along great, and it did not seem like starting all over again with number two since I still had a preschooler - many parents around with similar gaps. I do worry this time with meeting the needs of my oldest (7 years) at the same time as dealing with a newborn! Just wanted to say I understand your feelings and I hope you're feeling well.

Hi Lou I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling to emerge from the denial phase at the end of the pregnancy! How are you feeling about it now? Have you got things organised for the baby?

Congratulations to all of you

smashley if you have 3 bedrooms now where will you put each child until you move/extend?

Arrowtotheknee we had disposed of a fair amount of baby stuff too but not all thankfully!

beautiful I'm worried about sleep too. The others were/are great sleepers but what if this one is different?!!!

3littlebadgers very very sorry to hear about that and I hope all goes smoothly this time

dragonboys good luck for your dating scan :) Do you think you'll find out if it's a boy or girl during the pregnancy?

Miss Right now my 2 youngest share a room and my oldest has the smaller double to himself. Newest one will probably be in our room for several months up to a year. During that time the plan is to finish the loft to a standard that my oldest could move up into there, put younger DS into the smaller double and have the girls share.

I think with the major age difference between the two boys means it's really important for oldest DS to have his own space. If we can't make the loft space work the 3 littlest will have to share a room until we decide to either move or extend.

We have DDs in the biggest room, (and it is big) they have a bunk bed but often sleep in the same bed, DNeph hops in with them. Theres a walk in wardrobe and a lot of storage in there. Baby will be in with DH & I for around 9-12 months before going in with DDs. DSS has the box room.

3littlebadgers Much sympathy here. DH lost his 4 week old son to SIDS a few years before we met, I can't imagine how he's going to be when this baby arrives.

That makes sense smashley. We may have to consider a loft conversion at some point down the line. I have no idea how much that would cost though?

Arrow that's dreadful, to your DH. I can see why he would want the baby in with you for 9-12 months after that awful experience.

Arrow and 3badgers, I'm so sorry, you're very brave to do it again. I had a missed mc before we had our first and I've always spent the first trimester expecting the worst but it's nothing like in your league.

Re bedrooms, we currently have dc3 in the smaller bedroom and the bigger two share. The plan is to put dc3 in with the others when dc4 needs a room somewhere around 6-9m after birth. But although the room they currently share is quite big and they have bunks, we are going to need a full size single bed in there plus another wardrobe or chest of drawers. We thought about a mid sleeper but their room is going to feel very intimidating!

thestyle what do you think of a 5 yr old sharing with the baby when it gets to maybe 5 or 6 months? My DC has actually asked to share with the baby from the start!! I'm not sure.

Oh Arrow for your DH, our little rainbow babies will have two tiny Angels looking after them and us.
MissMatty my dd (6) wants to share with the baby too. I'm happy to go with that, no doubt she'll change her mind when she is older

dc3 went in with the bigger two at 10 months, and they would have been nearly 3 and nearly 5 by then. They were desperate to have her in with them but I'd told them they had to behave at bed time and be really quiet or she couldn't come in. It took a few months before the middle one calmed down enough that we could put dc3 in but they all loved being together.

Oh I hope so 3littlebadgers
Lots of people seem to be saying it works well with a small age gap so fingers crossed. My middle son is profoundly disabled so there never was that close relationship (although they do have a lovely relationship, it's just not the same) between the older two which was, and is, something I feel terribly guilty about. My eldest was so lonely at times it was important to me that DS3 had a sibling close in age so that they can be there for each other.
Thank you missmatty
Yes, we did with DS2 and 3. I want to know if I need to keep my boy stuff or whether I can go on a pink buying spree at last!