Going on 4 or more

[100%mom]

How many of us are pg with our 4th or more? Are you going to have any more? I just thought it would be cool to start a thread with a place to discuss larger families. We are letting God plan our family so we may end up with a very large family some day.

[umsami]

This will be, God-willing, our fourth child. As I'm almost 42, I don't see us having any more after this... but who knows.

I'm on a Big Family Minimilism (?) thread in the decluttering forum...and somebody wrote about being a family of six, and then I realized... we're going to be a family of six! I guess I just hadn't realized it, although on some level I knew we would have four kids.

Right now, I'm searching for a large dining room table. Currently, we have a round one which seats four comfortably... but we have five chairs there. No room for a sixth. DH says we can wait... but I can't help but look/organize. I'm already in major decluttering/nesting mode!

[bethanta]

Well, I'm only on one right now, but I would love to have a big family some day. I think DH is now comfortable with the idea of 5 kids. We both have big extended families, but only one sibling. We are used to having lots of cousins around / grew up with. My brother isn't likely to have children anytime soon (and he's 12 years older than me) and his sister will probably wait 5-7 years before she starts having kids. So I guess if we want our kids to have "family friends" we will just have to have lots of kids

[RedOakMomma]

This will be our fifth child, though fourth living, and this will also be our last. I know four is my personal limit. Poor dh...I think 3 is his personal limit, but he's being a sweetheart and letting us go for mine.

[Galatea]

This will be our 4th and our last. We didn't really mean to have this one, though I think I generally planned on four. Our dining room table is big enough (though we have an extra leaf so I guess we could have more) and our van is big enough (no more than 4 kids fitting in there) and our house is not big enough, but oh well. I just hope that this baby is a girl to balance it out (ds, ds, dd.)

[RedOakMomma]

I think we're living with the same space issues, Galatea. We're also ds, ds, dd, with not enough room in this house. And yeah...the minivan is maxed out at 4, and the dining room table is maxed out at 6!



The difference for me is that I'm hoping for a ds anyway...in my experience, they've been soooo much easier!

[AnneCordelia]

This will be our 4th too! I always wanted a reasonably big group of kids. I think it will be our last too, though. I came from a family of 5 kids and loved it.

[wryknowlicious]

This will be our 4th - and our last!

I have a Mazda5 and refuse to buy a bigger car.

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by RedOakMomma

I think we're living with the same space issues, Galatea. We're also ds, ds, dd, with not enough room in this house. And yeah...the minivan is maxed out at 4, and the dining room table is maxed out at 6!



The difference for me is that I'm hoping for a ds anyway...in my experience, they've been soooo much easier!

I'd be fine either way, actually. My mind just likes balance and order. That, and all my girly stuff is a lot newer than my boyish stuff!!!

[umsami]

OK, this is very funny... we're DS, DS, DD too.

DH's Mom had a dream and told him that it's a girl. I've been thinking it might be a boy. So who knows... ? His Mom is usually right on those things, though.

I just wish I knew which sex it was so I could get rid of all of the other baby/toddler clothes I'm holding on. My goal is to reduce our possessions by 50% before #4 shows up. We combined two households about 1-1/2 years ago, and it's been a disaster.

[elus0814]

This is my fifth. It's starting to sink in that we're going to be a large family but at least we still all fit in the minivan!

[Just1More]

We're going on #4. We'd like 12 or so, but we'll be content with whatever we are given. We lost 2 before our first, and it was really, really hard at that point to accept that "whatever we are given" might be none. Now that we are past that, we are SO thankful for each one that we could be complete anytime. Does that make sense? I want a BUNCH, and so does dh, but...we're able to be content.

For us, a ds would balance us out. We're dd, ds, dd.

[Just1More]

Oh, and if we buy new dining chairs, our table is okay. And our Durango can easily hold one more. It can't hold dogs AND kids, though, and that's kind of a problem. Ah well, we'll work it out.

A few more years and another baby and dh has his eye on a 15 passenger van, diesel engine, with a center aisle. I just keep pleading to paint it ANYTHING but white. I was thinking rainbow colored handprints all over it with the words "_________ Family Daycare" might be fun...

[mbhf]

I am pregnant with our fifth. I am reasonably sure this will be our last. But a few months ago I was *quite* sure that #4 was going to be our last. This pregnancy was quite a surprise for me, we were actively preventing for the first time in our marriage because I didn't want to have a baby while dh is deployed. Seems someone knew better than us though!

[happyblessedmama]

We are expecting baby #6 (oldest kiddo just turned 9). I don't know if we will have any more, but if we did, it would require major modifications of our lifestyle in that we would no longer all be able to fit in the van we own (this baby will take the last open seat). We were/are providentialist-ish; I'm not sure how that will work after this baby. Others seem to do it. Never know what's in store and such.

As far as not enough space... we are in a 1600SF house and I'd really love more - if we lived anywhere else our house would easily double in size. :P but for now this is where the job is.

[mommamisty]

#5 for me, hoping for a ds to even things out...dd10, ds8, dd6, and dd3

First w my SO and a #6 is not out of the question...not sure yet, we need a bigger car for sure!

[100%mom]

Just1more - we also lost 2 before my oldest and that was very hard wondering if we'd ever be able to carry a baby to term.

I have 11 siblings so I'm expecting to have a large family, but only God knows. I'm hoping for a girl to even my kids out. My DD has been begging for a sister since my last baby was born. My DD is the oldest. Also, we have to upgrade to a minivan know.

[randallquiver]

This baby is our fourth also. We've got 3 boys (ages 6 and under), so everyone is hoping this is a girl. I would be shocked though if she was a girl, I just think that God just enjoys seeing me running around trying to keep up with my herd of boys.

I think that this one is biologically going to be our last. Although my pregnancies have always gone well, my body does not do well during the postpartum period (up to a year). But we have talked about adopting at some point maybe.

We have a long Ikea table, so we've got room to grow there. And we've still got two more seats in our minivan. But we've already got one child sleeping in our formal dining room, so our house is starting to feel a little bit smallish. But we are in the process of trying to buy a small farm with a 110 year old farm house with 4 bedrooms, so that would help some.

I don't actually think that we'll have to make a lot of family changes to add in one more, but maybe some of you more experienced moms could offer feedback on that.

[McMandy]

Great post idea!

We are in our 8th pregnancy. We have three children and miscarried four in 2009. This little bean is due Sept 6th (but I have a tendency to go over with homebirthed babies).

We too have chosen to leave our fertility in God's hands. Of course, when family first realized this, they thought we'd have five or six kids by now!

We have come to expect rude and disrespectful comments with each pregnancy and child, but, as I said on another thread, we understand that not everyone values life and children as much as we do. Not everyone sees children as a blessing!

-Mandy

[rosehillworks]

This is number 7 for us and God is definitely planning this family. Helen