Calling mothers and fathers of four (or more!) Advice!

shellsuit

OMG Jo, Congratulations!!!

I couldn't even entertain the thought of another yet...hang on...ever!! lol

We're going to have probs soon too even though we only have 3 children.

Son will be 14 in May
Daughter was 12 on New Years Day
Baby will be 1 the day after his big bro's bday!

We just moved house at the weekend but it is virtually identical as the house we left.

We have the big bedroom and when I say big, it's BIG. Baby is in his cot with us.

Son has the box room.

Daughter has the middle room which is a big size.

We have a lounge and a dining room, so if things come push to shove, we could always turn the dining room into a bedroom for eldest son ~ the age difference between the 2 lads is just too big for them to share. Eldest would be leaving school when baby is just starting school!

I doubt we, or you will have a major problem, try 14 people in a 2 up 2 down! (My Dad and his family when he was a kid lol)

niklepic

I'm one of four. 2 sisters and a brother. We're now 31, 30, 28 and 24. My sisters and I used to share a room when we were younger and my brother had his own room. It was a bit of a squeeze and dad had to split the biggest bedroom when we were teenagers so that we could have our own space - surprisingly the youngest got the room on her own as me and the other sister got on better. me and the middle sis had bunk beds and we all squeezed in nicely.

[Deleted User]

Congratulations to you, i haven't got much words of advice about room layouts, but to the buggy problem we had the Jane Powertwin, which you can put first stage car seats on. We have two 15m apart and bought off ebay, from a lady with twins, so came with two car seats. Had it about a year, then resold on ebay for only £50 less.

Good luck with your pregnancy, hope everything goes ok. If you don't mind me asking are you coping with your PND ok and have thought about managing that with No.4 (or am I confusing you with someone else..........sorry if I am).

pigpen

I am having number 9.. so you are positively an amateur by comparison.

Double pushchairs.. I've had the bertini bidwell with toddler seat which was amazingly fantastic.. second choce would be emmaljunga with a toddler seat (not the husky they are rubbish) and I've had their side by side option which was great too.. I'd recommend a well sprung chassis to handle the extra uneven weight though and the Bill and Teds (joke pram) are digusting.. like having a baby in a shopping basket.. I'd not have one given!!

sleeping arrangements.. baby can be with you until 2, it isn't unheard of.. and as DS is so young you can easily put baby in with him regardless of gender they would both be so little it wouldn't matter and think about movin in a year or 2 when you are more settled with baby.

Cars, are just expensive.. How often do you use the car for everyone? Are there journeys you drive now that you could easily walk but are just lazy? I'd suggest holding off.. we have a focus.. it fits in 3 car seats and we manage.. school runs we walk so it is only trips to OH's mums or tesco we would be driving so would most likely only have the baby with us. Hold off while you think about this a while. Converting a transit can be extortionate.. the cost may just not be worth it!

freebiequennie

Hello Congratualtions I am one of 7 children and we lived in a 4 bed house for a while me and my sister in one room, 2 boys in small room and 3 boys in another, my parents in another.

Unfortunately due to circumstances we had to move to a 3 bed house which was a shock for us all my sister and I had the box room with bunk beds (huge shock after a big bedroom), the boys all were to share the biggest room with 2 sets bunks and one single but one of my brothers chose to have a sofa bed in the dining room!!! and my parents the final bedroom

luckily bathroom and toilet were seperate but you can imagine the chasos in mornings for bathroom. downstairs had a small lounge, dining room and small kitchen.

I am the eldest and only lived in the small house a yr but after a couple years living their my dad and brother did build a large conservatory on back that was used as lounge and then the dining room was made into a proper bedroom

guess what I am saying is that you make do with what space you have.

with regards to a car we had a minibus!!!

delain

No.4 is due here in September, our box room really is a box room (6ft by 7ft) so I don't know whether i will be bunk beds in the box room or the baby with my twins :rotfl:

carefullycautious

Loft conversion?

Congratulations by the way

bex2010

Congratulations. Agree with carfullycautious - we had a loft conversion done last year as needed another bedroom and couldn't sell our house to move. Its the best thing we've ever done, cheaper than moving and really has made a huge difference. Its the largest bedroom and easily fits 2 single beds. We found this loft conversion website really useful for some information and ideas.

As for double buggy I've got the Out n About 360. Its the lightest (or was when I bought it) double on the market and really easy to push with one hand while your holding your other child's hand. Again really pleased with that, although you can't fit car seat to it.

Car wise, we bought an S-Max which is a 7 seater. Am sounding like a broken record but thats been brilliant too. Fairly good on fuel for that size car and the tax is not the top band like most of the people carriers. There's plenty of room all round. Its a 2-3-2 configuration but to fit double buggy in you can only have one of the back row seats up.

Good luck with it all.

littlemissmoney

Jo_R wrote: »

I really don't want to move because DD1 has been pulled around three primary/infant schools now and it's just not fair to do that to her again - of course if we could move within catchment that would work but there's pretty much nothing coming up so that's off the cards.

The catchment area only matters when you are applying for a school. Once you are in, if you move out of the catchment area they don't kick your child out of the school! And your younger children would still get into the same school due to the sibling rules. So you could move within a commutable distance of the school.

Spendless

Is it a 3 bed semi you are in Jo? If so I wonder if your small room is like mine where the room is above the front door with 2 outside walls and the 3rd wall where the door is above the stairs. I have my DD along the 4th wall where the window so to Is it create more space but if I was to put 2 children in there, here are some of the things I could do.
when baby was small have a cot-bed/toddler bed behind door to end of wall plus single bed under window that would leave space in the middle for a wardrobe/drawers for clothes but would only last until youngest had to come out of cot-bed/toddler bed.
Bunk beds (look at shorty ones) alongside longest outside wall plus wardrobe/chest of drawers on opposite side- could just do this but would be no floor-space to play.

Something we have considered and I realise you would need your LL's permission is to make a 'cupboard' from the small bedroom over the stairs to be a sort of wardrobe without taking floorspace from the bedroom.

Re- storage space
I am a fan of putting things on walls if you can (again to free up floor space) or of 'double duty' furniture items, eg a wardrobe with drawers in it so it takes up no more footprint than just a single item of furniture.

The other thing you could do is put the eldest in the biggest room and have the 3 little uns in the bigger 2nd room -gender won't matter till they are older.