pregnancy moneysaving

Spendless

keatergreyhound wrote:

I am certainly broody again. So dare I ask everyone what age gap they have between their children? I love being a Mum and my hustbands a fantastic Dad. We have enough baby bits to start a shop. We really would only need to buy clothes for a boy and that would be it. Gosh I better go to bed! I shall be dreaming of having a bump again, and sore boobs, and not being able to sleepzzz
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I had my daughter when my son was 3 years old. I had a couple of health problems after having first and had to have treatment before becoming pregnant again, we also needed to move to a larger house before having another. This all meant that going in for our second was delayed.

It did mean that our son had his own routine of going to private nursery and playgroups without me prior to daughter being born.

I could work part-time when I only had one and family members helped me out, old age/ill-health and the arrival of more babies in the family ,meant that they were unable to do this when I had 2, and so I've been at home full-time since I had daughter.

Currently looking into some sort of course I can do this autumn when daughter will be 2 and half and can attend playgroups without me, otherwise I'd have to wait over another 2 years before she'll be in full-time school, and I would be able to study/go back to work etc.

jellyhead

my son will probably be 9 when this baby arrives, hopefully he won't arrive on his birthday. we talked about having a second child when young spud was 5 but it took 3 years of trying before i got pregnant this time. i finished uni while spud was small and have been working part time school hours while he's in school, all that will probably go out of the window and i'll be a stay at home mum for this baby. luckily i cleared some debts while i was working so we can afford a loan to build a room for baby. it all sounds very unromantic, taking finances and practicalities into account lol! although we're stopping at 2 (can't afford a 3rd child) i must admit if i won the lottery and could move into a larger house and had enough money for me to never have to consider part time work i'd have a 3rd child like a shot, so it does all depend on circumstances.

plus, i see people with all kinds of age gaps between their children, for some it works well, for others it's a nightmare. hubby and myself both only have a year between us and sibling, and both of us grew up in a war zone absolutely hating our sibling. hubby didn't even have to share a bedroom with his, they just hated each other anyway. my brothers were born when i was 4 and 9, i loved them both to bits. my sister has a 2.5 year gap between hers and they don't get on. there's a girl in the playground with 4 children under 10 and they all get on well and adore the baby. so every situation is different.

Spendless

jellyhead wrote:

we're stopping at 2 (can't afford a 3rd child) i must admit if i won the lottery and could move into a larger house and had enough money for me to never have to consider part time work i'd have a 3rd child like a shot, so it does all depend on circumstances.

plus, i see people with all kinds of age gaps between their children, for some it works well, for others it's a nightmare. hubby and myself both only have a year between us and sibling, and both of us grew up in a war zone absolutely hating our sibling. hubby didn't even have to share a bedroom with his, they just hated each other anyway. my brothers were born when i was 4 and 9, i loved them both to bits. my sister has a 2.5 year gap between hers and they don't get on. there's a girl in the playground with 4 children under 10 and they all get on well and adore the baby. so every situation is different.

That's a good point. There are 7 years between me and my sister and I disliked it as I felt there was no common interest between us due to the age gap. That has changed now as she has twins only a year younger than my son.

The circumstances I described above meant that I had my 3 year gap but what I forgot to say is that I conceive easily (first time on all 3 occasions-we lost the first), if I didn't I would have either had to take that into consideration when deciding to have another or had a bigger gap.

Whilst we could afford for me to have a third and not return to work. One day I do want to go back to employment, childcare for 2 during the school holidays will eat up my wages, for 3 it wouldn't be worth me returning.

Also due to the ill health/old age in family members we do have to split my 2 up to go to different people if we need help looking after them, this would be harder with 3.

Having said that at the beginning of the year 3 people with both a boy and a girl and also a similar age gap to mine all told me they were pregnant with their (planned) 3rd and this made me broody for a few weeks, but in the end I decided I was happy with what I've already got. My age I'm 38 also came into consideration, but more to do with how old I'd be before the youngest went to school rather than health related reasons.

s@sha

Spendless wrote:

That's a good point. There are 7 years between me and my sister and I disliked it as I felt there was no common interest between us due to the age gap. That has changed now as she has twins only a year younger than my son.

I felt the same with my brother & sister....my sister is 6 years older & my brother 11 years older. Sis & I fought like anything as children, though we got closer as we both became adults. But I always feel I don't really know my brother like a brother...I can't even remember him living at home even though I was 7 when he went to uni. Then he married at 19 & didn't come back to our part of the country so he always seemed like this very grown up, sensible person I saw occasonally...more like an uncle. Even now I'm in my 30's he feels more like an uncle than a brother!

I always thought that if & when I had my children I wouldn't want such big gaps. Unfortunately with my fertility problem it's taken us 10 years to conceive this baby so he may well be an only child...if I decide I'd like another one it would mean IVF again & 37 I couldn't leave it too long.

I don't really like the thought of this one being an only child, as because of the age of my brother & sister & the fact I'm having this baby relatively late, it means he also does not have any young cousins. The youngest cousin is already 12, the oldest 23. And my parents are elderly & they are not able to help much with a baby, whereas when the 12-year-old was born they were both in better health.

Still, my husband was an only child with no cousins at all & he says he was quite happy, so maybe what you don't have you don't miss.

s@sha

Back on moneysaving, Blooming Marvellous have some baby/toddler/maternity clothes for sale at up to 40% off...this is extra stuff added as they've had some things reduced for a while. P&P is £3.95 (I think) though, but maybe there are some money-off codes around on the online voucher thread.

It's in the 'summer highlights' section.

http://www.bloomingmarvellous.co.uk/default.aspx?language=en-GB

s@sha

Just been in mothercare (yet again!) and noticed they are giving a free pack of 40 Avent disposable breast pads with every purchase of the Avent breast pump. Breast pump costs £25 , but the breast pads are worth £4. Not a brilliant offer, but better than nothing if anyone was thinking of getting the breast pump anyway.

Also their twin packs of maternity/breastfeeding nightshirts are reduced by a fiver...£17 instead of £22.

jellyhead

i got the nightshirts :-)

s@sha

Me too,though wasn't sure whether to buy size 16-18...big enough to cover the bump until baby is born or whether to assume (perhaps in vain) that I will be smaller after the birth & get the size 12-14. Why do things like this never come in a 14-16? That would be ideal for me, but 16-18 is usually too big.

jellyhead

hmmmm ... i bought the 20, not sure if they will still fit when i'm 40 weeks

Jay-Jay_4

I bought the size 12-14 Mothercare nighties with a few buttons down the front. They absolutely DROWNED me I'm normally a 12 but only 5ft 2 and found these to be enormous.....and very unsexy! I packed them in my labour bag in case I needed to go into hospital during labour but as I didn't, I gave them to my Nan