Adding one more

**m+w=peanut** · December 30th, 2013, 07:10 PM

Hi Ladies,
I was just curious about life with a third child as opposed to 2? Is there a huge difference? Do any of you regret your decision either way?

**MrsFabuloso** · December 30th, 2013, 07:18 PM

I loved having our #3. He was by far the easiest addition to the family. And he is such a blessing and pleasure! I didn't find the jump from 2 to 3 all that difficult. It was by far the easiest out of my other two!

**OceanPrincess** · December 30th, 2013, 07:42 PM

Having 3 was different... After #2 I knew I wanted a third but we waited a while... We had 1 & 2 close together, 16mths, and I would have loved having #3 a bit closer but it wasn't to be. Anyway, it has worked out really well, 1 & 2 can amuse each other while I look after 3 and there hasn't been any jealousy of me spending time with the baby. He has fitted in quite well but now that he's older, he's getting a real personality on him - he's the most rat-baggiest of my three rat-bags, so very very cheeky. And I reckon that's the influence of the older 2 - they lead him astray!

One of the most pleasantly unexpected side affects of having him around has been my DD taking on a caring "big sister" role - she is buddies with DS1 and bosses him around but never really did the whole mothering thing with him, whereas with DS2 she gets upset when he's hurt, she tells me when he needs something and she helps me look after him. Most of the time anyway

He is our little bundle of joy. Most of the time he's happy, cheerful and is already playing on his own (or with the big kids) more than the other two did at the same age.

But I won't lie. It's hard work. My big kids are hard work, and he's now adding to the mix - he's walking and getting into all sort of things. He wants so much to be part of all the big kids games but he doesn't understand yet so lots of my day is directing him to other things, keeping him away from their Lego or dolls house or octonauts game, or general refereeing of fights. It's chaos most of the time - but we wouldn't have it any other way.

We don't regret it, not for a second. Sometimes I look at my sister, my neighbour, my friend, who all only have 2 kids, who are the same ages roughly as my older two and they are done with nappies, night waking and toddler-hood. They are onto school, kinder, movies, trips away where kids can go on rides and stay out a bit later etc. And I think to myself "That was almost us"... But I'm rather glad it's not. I'm so glad we got our monkey.

**Jellyfish** · December 30th, 2013, 08:04 PM

We have been on and off and all around the fence about number 3... still doing laps between yes and no and taking long breaks in maybe... so interested to read others experiences!

**Bloom** · December 31st, 2013, 03:41 AM

Our number 3 arrived closer to our first than we had planned but she is just a delight in every way. She really adds to our family and the joy she brings not only to us as parents but also her brothers is lovely.

Practically speaking it is a bit more of a juggle: more clothes, more washing, more hands to hold onto, more nappies to change etc. But that doesn't out way the emotional side of it: we are delighted to have 3 and are probably heading onto 4 in the future.

As so many people say: the jump from one to two is harder than the jump from two to three.

**jellybean88** · December 31st, 2013, 04:31 AM

Were a bit up and down on this topic we both said definitely no but now the maybes are starting to come out , I look in the back of the car and see that one empty seat and think I wouldn't mind filing that but we have other things to take into account as well like the fact that I have had bad PND after both kids and do we both want to go through that again I have been thinkin about adoption instead but it seems pretty hard in Australia and very expensive or maybe surrogacy but I would hate to miss giving birth to my baby either way were gonna wait at least another 4 or more years before we think about another I wanna go back to Uni and my body needs a rest from baby growing and we both need to recover from this constant night waking and save up some money too

My brother said lots of people said that the jump form 2 to 3 isn't that hard but he said it's very hard they have a 5yo, 3yo and 1yo though so all quite young

**~Kim~** · December 31st, 2013, 07:58 AM

I totally agree with everything OP said. Since we're currently tossing up #4 this is quite on topic for me.
Mine are all spaced 3years apart, so I found a lot of benefit in that. DD2 was easier than the first two, but I think that's because I was more experienced at 'just going with it' and more confident in my knowledge and ability.
1 to two was definitely harder for me. However, now that #3 is very very mobile it is more of a challenge to lug them all everywhere. Shopping with 3 is a total PITA, but my DS is a bit of a handful lol.

**Jellyfish** · December 31st, 2013, 10:07 AM

Had a dream I found out I was pregnant last night, 8 weeks, I was so excited... talk about babies on the brain. I think I'm almost into yes. One of my concerns is having to get a different car and having to most likely say goodbye to the one we have which is my first car ever in the process but I guess you can't really keep the one car forever...