Third baby

cazj80

Hi,

I wondered if I could ask for people's experiences/opinions on having a third child.

We currently have 2 DDs, DD1 is 3 and a half and DD2 is 2 and 2 months.

I'm currently waiting for my period to start, as am a little worried that we may have been a little careless at the worst (or best, depending on how you look at it) time of the month.

We have talked about a third child before but in a few years. We have a 2 bed room house, luckily with big double bedrooms, and DDs share, with bunk beds being bought later this year, we can't afford to move to a bigger house for about 5 years, realistically. I'm currently a SAHM.

As much as I want my period to start, I also wouldn't be too upset if I were pg.

Am I completely mad? Does anyone else have 3 children in a two bedroom house?

Thanks

SunshineButterfly

I only have 2 children, but I have many friends who have 3 and they all seem to live in a 3 bedroomed house.

The baby went into parents room until 6-12 months old. And then the 2 eldest shared and baby went into their own room. They seem to be enjoying family life and the older 2 started to play with the youngest as baby number 3 got old enough so they all play nicely together (well and fight together of course lol).

Spendless

There was a thread started about this a few weeks back on here and I thought a very good piece of advice was from someone who I know has a 2 bed house, but later had a downstairs bedroom added and currently has 3 'children' (2 are older teens) living there was about the downstairs space that a 2 bed house has compared to a 3 bed.

Most people concentrate on where the 3rd bed and will go and where to store the clothes. This mentioned having a table big enough to seat 5, and how big your living space is. Maybe you have a larger 2 bed place though? What are your long term plans when the children grow if you go ahead with a third?

pigpen

It wasn't much of an issue for us. I had 2 boys and a girl in ours.. we did move when the youngest was 18 months though.. at that point DD1 was just 3 and DS1 was nearly 6. We actually moved 5 days before DD2 arrived so it was pretty good timing.

We had a tiny 2 up 2 down and fit in.. it meant a LOT of decluttering and very little stuff and excellent storage but you manage!.

ciderwithrosie_2

Yes. We had 3 boys with 4 years 10 months between oldest and youngest. We were made homeless just before DS2 was born so were in temporary accomodation for 3 months before they offered us the 2 bed house we're in now. That was 21 years ago. Originally, we were in the biggest bedroom but swapped when DS3 was old enough to go in with his brothers.

They're all still here so it can't have been that bad! Well, DS1 went away to Uni for 3 years but came back a year ago. Our house isn't a bad size. Garden isn't massive but coped with that as there is a park across the road and a green area just up the alley for them to play on with their friends.

They've got 2 lots of bunk beds but the one DS1 sleeps in has a futon/sofa underneath so they can sit on that and play X box or if mates ever stayed over, there was a spare bed. they've got a built in cupboard they kept games, guitars/amps, sports stuff in. A unit that has 6 cupboards in it for their school books and personal stuff. A heavy duty shelving unit and a hanging rail for all their clothes and stacking bins for pants, socks, hats etc. Plastic boxes that slide under the bunk beds for anything else.

Keeping it tidy was the main bug bear but you can just shut the door on it! They've never known anything different to sharing so they're not precious about their own space or privacy.

Pippapotomus

Hello, I have found out I am expecting baby number 3 this week.
We live in a 2 bed, and realistically won't be able to move for a number of years.

At some point we will need a new dinner table, as we have a round glass one that fits only 4 chairs. I'm worried my car is going to be too small to fit 3 kids including car seats and boosters in the back. To fit a cot into our bedroom is going to take some tetris style rejiggling.

Two years ago we bought a touring caravan for our holidays. We bought brand new from the manufacturer, so was quite an investment. It's only a 4 berth, and I doubt my eldest will want to camp out, that might need changing in a few years to a larger model.

I was also thinking about cooking meals, most things are sold in packs of 4s, not 5s.

cazj80

Thank you for your replies!

We are planning to move to a three bed house in about 5 years, we've been in our house for 7 years and have been overpaying the mortgage, we've just fixed for 5 years at a much lower rate but are going to continue to pay the same, overpaying by £150 each month, as we are already used to paying this, so hopefully in 5 years we would only owe about £47000, so should be in a better position to buy a bigger house, plus Ill be back working by then.

If we can't get a bigger house, 3 beds (1 set of bunks) would fit in their bedroom and we would need to be clever about storage, make more of our now mostly empty airing cupboard and get storage in their room. They have a large built in wardrobe that was made out of an alcove so they wouldn't need a large wardrobe taking up room.

Some of the houses in our row have been made into 3 beds, by turning part of the L shape living room into a bedroom as well, though it would leave us with a much smaller living space, which to be honest is where we spend most of our time when we are at home.

We already have a 6 seater dining table (wedding present from my parents) so would all be able to sit together which would be ideal, as we like to have our meals together.

pigpen

Most holiday offers, family tickets, cars etc are made for 4 though which are things which might make a difference to you as a family.. buying a single ticket can add half the price onto a family ticket.

These are other things which have a large financial impact

Threebabes

Ive got 3, and you just manage. I have a 3 bed house.The girls have bunk beds. My friend has 3 girls in one room and her son in the box room, and she manages.

I find with boxed food, it does usually come in 2's or 4's I rarely buy it now because its too expensive. I find the 3 chickens etc for £10 in supermarkets better value. We get two meals out of a chicken.

The joy at having our 3rd child, she is 9 1/2, outweighs any negatives to do with cars, holidays, ticket prices.

Enjoy :-)

Kynthia

I know people are talking about how a third child can be more expensive due to lots of things being geared for families of four. However as one of three children I loved having two siblings. If one of you didn't fancy playing a game or going out somewhere there was another to ask. If one didn't share an interest you had the other might. I had a different relationship with my younger sister to my younger brother, I would socialise with my sister by going shopping and cinema, and take care of my brother by teaching him bowling and buying him sweets. Whereas my sister, being the middle child and therefore within three years of both other siblings could socialise with both of us and our friends. Even now as adults who've all moved out, met partners and started our own lives, it's lovely to all meet up and also split responsibilities when it comes to visiting grandparents or organising a family event.

Wyre

Not quite the same situation but we have 4 kids (3 girls 11, 14 and 20 and a boy of 16). Hubby works unsocial hours as lorry driver and we own our 3 bed house.

Hubby and I are in the middle bedroom, the three girls are in the master (one set of bunkbeds and a captains bed/high sleeper) and my lad has his own teeny room. The eldest is now at uni but still shares with her sisters when she is home.

We had to get a car big enough to take us all - we went for a peugeot 406 with seats in the boot that we can put down or up as we need. It was interesting when we had 2 booster seats in the back but we coped.

Food - well alot of packs come in 6's so with 3 children that's not too bad. Not so easy with 4 - you tend to need to buy 2 packs. We buy a lot in bulk and buy the larger packs. That being said we went to buy eggs yesterday and the 30 pack was more expensive than 2 15 packs - guess which ones we bought hehe. Always check out that 'deals' really are deals and not the supermarket's attempts to get you to part with your money!

Another huge thing to look at is computers. Kids get homework right? Well all four of ours have to/have had to pick up their homework online, some needs to be done and submitted online and some needs research and printing off. We had all four needing the pc at the same time. Fortunately, the eldest bought herself a laptop and hubby is brilliant at putting machines together so salvaged bits of old ones to make a new one, which helps a bit. Still hard when all three of the youngest need to do work but we are getting there.

There are also timing issues when they all need to be at different clubs/choirs/school events at the same time (all of ours go to different schools despite repeated attempts to move one) and the clashes with parents evenings. I really wish I could drive some times, but then we would need another car!

Despite all the difficulties, I wouldn't be without my mad, noisy bunch - they're amazing!