Larger family Chat Thread

Rhyb - your a brave lady!

:nahnah: Methinks Dh doth protest too much about baby #4...............when I moved half our cot got lost. So they gave us $$$ to buy a new one and Ive been trying to decide whether to buy a cheap 2nd hand one to last him til he'sn 12mths then put him in a bed like the others; or if there was a chance of another bub buying a decent 2nd hand one. Or just buying him a toddler bed if we're 3 and done.
I asked Dh yesterday what I shouldn do because Stells needs his own bed now and cant sleep in a portacot forever. And he said "............I dont know, we should probably make a solid decision either way soon............." :dance: Which means he's on the fence instead of an emphatic no like he implies.

Good cause thats what the psychic said in my reading on saturday; there will be a #4 just that I should wait a bit and give me sometime to rest and recover. And that she'll be a funny little mini-me..........:pray: ;)

Wow girls, its been a while since I have stuck my nose in here but I have just finished wading thru the pages. You have all been busy!!!

My 2cents worth on the house/bedroom thing, I had a friend with 6 kids and he extended his house from a 3 to a 6 bedroom so the older kids could have their own rooms. He said in hindsight he wished he never bothered. He said his kids became more selfish, less willingto interact with the family, etc. I have always kept this comment in the back of my mind. Since April (we left our house to do hospital for son in another town) we have spent 3 months living in peoples basements and have now set ourselves up with a bus converted to a mobile home that we have lived in since August. Space in a premium but we love it and so do the kids. It is amazing how capable you are in living in confined spaces when you have to.

We have decided when we have finished with the hospital thing (Feb 2010 God willing) we are going to travel and see a bit of this country before setting up house again. So look out for a bus with 7 kids heading your way soon!!! Starting from Brisbane area and hoping to be in Victoria to have next bay in April and then promised DSon to go and see Uluru. :dance:

WOW Hall!!! OMG wishing you all the best for your road trip! Hope it means you'll be this way!

Wishing your DS is going to be ok -xx-

Hey Storm - wheres this way for you???? We would love to call in! Good to meet you in person.

My son will be OK if the Doctors leave him alone for a while, we have a rough year with him. Were supposed to go in for one op and ending up with five. His body ended up shuting down and rejecting everything from antibotics to the dressings! Next they want to compensate fot the stuff up they did with his hip and leg by shorteni ng the good side to match (there's 4in difference). I say if it aint broke leave it alone!!!!!

To finish off the year my dd8 opened a shed (metal) door onto my ds5 while his leg got caught under - a severed achilles tendon was the result! Yes surgery for another one and a cast on for the whole summer! Bummer!

But anyway the blessings far outway the bad and the year is nearly over and hoping for no hospital visits in 2010!!!:pray::pray::pray:

oh crickies R :( sounds like 2010 is going to be your year. We loved it when we all shared a room when we went to QLD. The only one who didnt was W as it was to much for him. But we will be giving our kids their own room's...having 2 with special need's doesnt blend in so easily with the other 2 kids as they cant get away when they need their own down time.

Jo - how you feeling lucky lady :) I am so jealous. Do the kids know already?

I am hanging for christmas this year. My brother and his gf are staying here and the boys are so excited about it. It will be the first christmas he has ever spent with them. He so doesntg know whats gonna hit him

Just crashing this thread for a moment!

Due to the fact I had a very flappy moment at the Kilsyth Pool in Hawthory Rd Victoria, I have been given 2 family passes. For 2 adults and 4 children or 1 adult and 5 children.

If anyone wants them I am happy to mail them to you. Keep in mind I think kids under 3 or 4 are free - if you will be in Melb or know someone that can use them please PM me.

xoxoxo

oh Lu you are a doll woman!!!!!!
first name that comes to mind...SAMMI! ;)

How sweet Lulu!!

Feeling ok Maz, no MS thanks god!! Just dizzy extra dumb, tired & hungry!! Had a scan last week & all is good. Kids know he he he Angel loves the idea the most she talks to my tummy all the time lol.

I'm out near cootamundra nsw Halls, so prob way out of the way! Ouchie on the severed tendon OMG that would cain poor little mite!!

Hey Jo - you never know, we have wanting to get off the usual roads and see some off the back country. We are looking to buy some land at some stage but not till we have had a good look around. The last 2 months we have had our bus on 20 acres and the kids have loved it!! We are not city people with both me and DH being brought up on large farms/stations in NZ. We want to bypass Sydney. The biggest place we have to stop is Coffs Harbour to see some friends then we'll be back inland Stopping in April in rural victoria to have baby at a friends house, does it still count as a homebirth if its someone elses home??????

HAHA Most definitely still a homebirth!!

Hope you do end up out this way.

Wow Hall, you are living our dream, we too want to back up everything and travel Australia , and we will one day ( soon I hope ) we have already see all of the easst coast both in land and coast, we cant wait to do WA nexted, and go to the tip of cape york too, we have seen Ulura and thought it was amazing, just keep in mind that if you go in winter the nights there are bloody freezing, we werent prepared for just how cold it got, we ended having to put on the oven and heater just to warm up before we went to sleep, so make sure you pack your winter wollies, but the days are lovely... ( we might have found it extra cold as we were living in Darwin at the time so were used to extream heat )...

we have lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, Darwin and we are now in Mackay, we drive up and down the coast every year so know loads of different places too, if you need any help with what to see let me know and I will try to stear you in the right dirction...

coming from 7 kids who all had our own room in the end, you do become selfish, I remember my sisters have huge fights about rooms and clothes, when they were older they even got locks on their doors and cupboards to keep the rest of us out ( 6 girls so some girls had way better clothes than others coz they were already in the work force while we were stuck in school still ) have to say I always asked the one sister who clothes were always taken, as we were the same size she didnt mind so much, but when the sisters who were 2 or 3 sizes bigger than her stole her clothes and streched them all hell broke lose lol poor poor sufering Dad, dont know how he cope so well...

AFM we are still TTC our 4th baby with out any luck at all, its getting me quite down, and sometimes think mis it worht all this heart ache, I know I would be over the moon to know that we were having another little baby, but it just feels sometimes that if it was meant to be then it would have been already... why couldnt I be one of those lucky people who dont even have to TTC, dont get me wrong I know I am better off than alot of people, but 12 mths and still no baby in sight is hard to take...

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We are currently tossing up the sleepng arrangments for the girls. One option is to have 2 girls share a room and create a toy room. So my questions are: Do your kids like sharing a room? Would you prefer each child had their own rooms? Which 2 should I put together - DD1 (4yo who likes her own space) and DD2 ( 2yo, light sleeper)/or DD2 and baby? We are also considering bunks, but I am not overally confident with putting my 4 yo up so high.

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We have our 10 and 8 in one room and we pretend to have the 3 and 1 year old boys in another. We want to get bunk beds for the boys and as long as the top bunk has rails I think you would be fine although I do remember being concerned about the bunk bed arrangement when we launched it for the girls. My oldest though was a less restless sleeper so I felt a little better about it.

My boys share a room but rarely at night time. My 3 year old really hates being away from us, he feels lonely. He usually starts off in our bed, transfers to his and then mid way through the night is back in with us. Right now its a little cute - he snuggles us, but I suspect the closer to 40 he gets the less "cute" it will seem. Plus, we don't want to share the bed with him and his wife :)

Just barging in - I'm not a LF mum but am from a LF.

Check out Bunkers in Blackburn- they have lowline bunks, I have them in an L shape for my two boys (6 and 4) and it works wonders. Google them. They're an Australian company using Australian timber, which I also like.

PMSL at you Rob! Imagine sharing a bed with your son and his wife.... eeek!

Hi ladies,
Bekz i just wanted to say i fell from a bunk bed when i was 5 and broke my arm quite bad. I think if you can get ones like divvy said do. hope all you ladies have a fantastic year xxx

Hi Girls,

Hope you don't mind me crashing your thread, but I need to advice and perspective on having 4 children.

As you can see I currently have 3 beautiful boys, my eldest is 4.5, 3 year old and Jack is coming up 1. Due to not wanting a huge gap DH and I have been in discussions about a 4th child.
Discussion tends to go, me, I really really feel that I need one more baby, him, I don't think I could cope with another one. So we go around and around in circles.

Couple of questions

One of his concerns is lack of support, we live 50kms from nearest town on a farm. My family are over 2 hours away. MIL is OK at helping and I'm sure once kids are at school she will help out their. I find I cope OK without support. How do others who are more isolated cope with 4 kids, especially once school etc kicks in.

Another question or concern is that, I would really love to try and sway for a girl, but am concerned that would she become spoilt, indulged etc being the only girl, would the boys ressent her thinking we only went back for a girl (I would have had 4 children iresspective of gender). I suppose I am really worried about this as DH's sister, who is middle of 2 boys, is one completely spoilt, *****y, self centred and shallow person and I would hate for my child to be like her. ( I know that partly SIL is like she is due to upbringing, I still see it today, Mummy buys her a $400 gift, just because she hasn't asked for anything for 2 months "sorry went off topic there") Not implying that for those that have 3 boys and then a girl that would be the case, just wondering how you avoid it, when you have say 3 boys who have hand me downs, share toys etc. Then if you have a girl, she has her own toys, barbies etc, doesn't have to share clothes.

Re logisitics, we live in an large old (needing work done) farm house, so bedrooms aren't an issues, older boys currently share and I could honestly see DS 3 ending up in their with them too. Don't think my eldest will ever won't to sleep on his own.

Car we are looking at updating in next year anyway. Only thing would be that I would prefer a 4wd, just with roads and needing diesel motor. (any suggestions).

Sorry for the long post, I am just really at a cross roads, I don't know whether to push DH for the 4th, or learn to live with only having 3, how will the family dynamics change if it is a girl. Will DH resent it if we have another boy. Ahhhh its just too hard.

Thanks for reading.

Hey Megs I dont have 4 children yet, but thought I would give you my thoughts on 4 ...

as for a car 4x4 would be best, BHL and I like landcrusers best, we have had an 80, sold it a while ago but if / when we get UTD with a 4th BHL is going to go a get himeself a 100, there is heaps of roon in them even when the back seats are up...

I dont think you should be worring yourself about what will happen if you have a girl or a boy as you would love them just as much, if you have a girl, she will properly become a tom boy with 3 brothers about :) and as you have seen what happen with you sil you will ja=ust have to make sure that doesnt happen...

Good luck TTC your next little one..

:hug: Megs.

I agree with GTF, I think if you are aware of the risks of spoiling your 'princess' you are more likely to avoid it. And from the sounds of your post, wanting to sway for a girl doesn't mean a boy would be any less welcome.
You sound like you would cope fine with 4, and you have the room etc.
Family dynamics change with any new arrival, boy or girl.

I think the real issue is between you & your DH...my DH didn't want a 4th either & I was desperate. I was trying to resign myself to not having another when she surprised us ;) and as it happened he was as thrilled as I was).

I really felt like there was another baby there for me... I was dreaming of her, and waking up crying... and I only told DH after I was PG, then he turned around & said 'why didn't you tell me this earlier'.

So my point is, I think it's really important that he at least understands what it means to you, if you know where you each are then you can talk about it IYKWIM?

Good luck hun :hug:

Thanks guys for your replys,

Green Tree, I am leaning towards a Toyata, at the stage have been looking at the Prado but not sure about the new ones haven't read that great a reviews.

And yes you are probably right re the spoiling, I am not the same type of parent as my MIL, and so my child wouldn't necessarily turn out the same as hers.

Thanks Fluer, DH and I have spoken, I have told him that I will seriuosly think about it but the more I do think no it would be easier with three I still go back to wanting a 4th.

And after reading this thread I can see that it is do-able, whilst I would be busy, really its just more washing in the mounds that I do already.