How many kids do you have and would you do it again?

[FreckledOne]

We have been able to do things for our son that we might not have been able to do if we had more kids

Same, except we have a daughter. We wanted to keep our lifestyle and wouldn’t be able to do it with more than one child. She loves being an only child. She gets all the love and resources. If she was shy and had trouble making friends, I probably would’ve wished I had another, but thankfully, she is social and has lots of friends. She likes coming home to a calm house to relax after hanging out with her friends.

 

[Donalddidwhat…?!]

#3 is 22 months older than #4 and #5.

Yea, that’s really close.
What added more to the fun for us was the special needs son in between.
That boy was a pistol, curious about everything he saw, and there was a lot of “Run away from the danger, not towards it…!!!!!!!” involved…!!!!!
At age 31, he’s much calmer now, and has been for many years.
But, once he learned to walk and through most of his early childhood, WOOF…!!!!!

 

[Giraffe_Zen]

0 and yes I would do it again lol

 

[The Mayor]

We have a son (42) and a daughter (40) and I couldn't imagine my life without them. I would do it over again in a heart beat!!! They have given us 4 amazing grandchildren that we adore.

 

[dreamer17555]

I adore my two, DD22 and my DS17. That being said I had my daughter very young and my son has special needs (and I was only 23 when he was born). I also did not have the best parental role models (some very traumatic raising actually) so what I wish is that I had been in my healing journey when I had them. I spent SO much of their lives anxious and constantly fearful that I would mess up that I know it impacted them negatively. I am so much calmer now and they deserved that earlier than they both received it. I would never give up having them in my life but I wish I had more maturity when I had them so they would have had an easier childhood.

 

[TippyThomas]

Add me to the zero and yes, I would do it again club.

 

[ralphie]

We have five and I think we should have had another, but I would have been close to 40 - but doesn't make any difference now- a- days.

 

[kymom99]

This was us. We have one 25 year old that we were very lucky to have. It took us five years and every dollar we had. We weren’t lucky enough to have a second one but I’m okay with that. I love being a mom and would do it all again.

Fortunately for us, it only took one round of IVF, but that was after several tries with just injections. It’s a good thing because my ovaries were barely functioning and the odds of success on a second try were not very good.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I have one child, a daughter who is 19. I woke up one morning, getting ready for work and noticed that my eyes were really swollen. At work, took my blood pressure and it was 170/90. Went to the doctor, the nurse said he was going to put my on bedrest but no, sent me to hospital. I had pre-eclampsia and before I knew it I was being prepped for an emergency C-section. My daughter was born 3 months early, a micro premie weighing 1.7 pounds. She wasn't breathing, was intubated and flown to NICU. I wanted more children but it wasn't safe for me or any more babies.

 

[Donalddidwhat…?!]

I had 4 - 3 boys within 3 1/2 years... 10 yrs after the first I had a daughter. I would do it all again, but I would have waited until I was a bit older to have them. I was 18, 19, 21, & 28 when I had them. Going to college while working full time with 3 babies at home was difficult but not impossible. When my daughter was a senior in high school, my niece was placed with me for 6 years. She was only 6 weeks old when she joined our family and was returned to her mom at 6 1/2. If I could go back in time and change things, I would have had 2 more. My ideal spacing would have been 18 months-ish apart for the first three, then at least a 7 year gap and then added the last 3. I liked having the "big kids" and the "littles".

Having 3 boys under 4 was VERY hard, but we had lots of laughs and honestly my kids and I "grew up" together. Having 3 boys getting their driver's license in consecutive years was stressful and expensive. Since my daughter is so much younger than her brothers they were very protective of her, but the gap made her grow up almost as an only child.

Also having my kids so young I was an empty nester very young. I miss the chaos, noise, laughter, and love. Like another poster said, "The days were long, but the years were short". Now I have 10 grandchildren - 7 grandsons (10,9,9,6,1 & newborn) 3 granddaughters (17, 13, 3). I do enjoy being a young grandmother (I was 36 when the first one was born) and am able to keep up with them on our adventures.

The first sentence of your post is similar to the family I come from.
I was born in Oct. of 1962, right smack in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
My next youngest bro was born in June of ‘64, youngest bro in July of ‘67, and lil’ sis in March of ‘75…she started kindergarten the year after I graduated from HS…!!!!!
After she was born, all us bros slept in the same room, with a bunk and twin bed, a la the Brady boys, ‘til I moved out shortly after HS graduation…!!!!!
We all get along well, but have never been particularly close.
We all have different lives, different priorities, different interests, etc.
Funny thing is, I’m closer to my lil’ sis now, than I am my bros.
As far as our kiddos go, they’re all 3 very close, which is a great thing to see…!!!

 

[klmall]

One, a son 37 now but it took us 9 years to get pregnant and I had complications that kept us from getting pregnant again though we kept trying until I was 40. I had no regrets about our son being an only until the past few years. As we age and our health problems magnify it hurts to think of him dealing with what's to come. I grew up as the oldest of five and we shared the illnesses and passing of our parents together. DS won't have that option. My DH was an only child of older parents and I watched him as he experienced what our DS will go through. I know, sounds morbid but it's reality.

 

[Donalddidwhat…?!]

I have one child, a daughter who is 19. I woke up one morning, getting ready for work and noticed that my eyes were really swollen. At work, took my blood pressure and it was 170/90. Went to the doctor, the nurse said he was going to put my on bedrest but no, sent me to hospital. I had pre-eclampsia and before I knew it I was being prepped for an emergency C-section. My daughter was born 3 months early, a micro premie weighing 1.7 pounds. She wasn't breathing, was intubated and flown to NICU. I wanted more children but it wasn't safe for me or any more babies.

Oh my…!
Can definitely relate to the preemie situation.
Our middle child (of 3 - son between 2 daughters) was born via c-section in Oct. of ‘92 at 1lb. 4oz., and dipped to as low as 1lb. 2oz., before he finally started gaining weight back.
He spent 4.5 months in the NICU, and came home with a heart/apnea monitor and a portable oxygen tank.
Among the many potentially major issues DS had was the beginnings of premature retinopathy. A specialist from Houston was flown in, and he stopped it dead in its tracks, but not without some minor peripheral vision loss that had already occurred.
Also, 2 weeks after we brought him home, he had to go back to the NICU because of an RSV infection for about 10 days. That sucked.
He’s now 31 years old, perfectly physically healthy, and has been gainfully employed for many years now…!!!!!

If you don’t mind me asking, how is your daughter doing…?
No worries, of course, if you don’t care to share any info.

A pic below of DS in the NICU, shortly after he was born…notice the nurses Bic pen…

 

[TinkAgainU]

Just one. Wish I'd had two but my pregnancy was so difficult I was always terrified to be "down" for months and months again as a working Mom. But with just one, now she's grown, she is always too busy with her family for me at all. Of course, I'm thrilled she's busy and happy, but sometimes think if I'd had two I'd have more family life as a solo senior. Who knows.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

I got my Cain and I got my Ables. I've raised 2 girls 2 boys. Girls are Doctors, one boy entered USC at 14 in Neuroscience, one boy works in a warehouse and plays video games.

I prefer daughters. They bring that social energy and enthusiasm to everything we do, and they do everything even boy stuff. Ya buy them a 50 cents admission ticket and they get $50 worth of fun out of it.

The boys are crash test dummies.

Wifie didn't want to squeeze out any more babies so now I hope for more grandkids.

Our youngest after a day of riding motorcycles in Death Valley Ca:

https://imgur.com/IaaKlao

He was so charming mothers would introduce their daughter to him. Never ever experienced that with the other kids. True story.

Yeah, I'd do it again.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I have two, a little over 14 mos apart. I loved having two and I probably would have liked three if they were all that close together. They are 36 and 35 now.

 

[Sleepy425]

We have 5...original plan was one bio, one adopted (from a young age I always wanted to adopt). By the time we finished getting licensed for foster care we had decided to have another bio, so we figured we would adopt two. When our bios were 18 months and 3.5 we were placed with 3 week old twins that we eventually adopted. So we had 4 under 3 (plus the occasional extra foster child or 3 at a time over the years). Life was CHAOS. Now they're finally manageable ages (10,10,12, 14), and we decided to close our foster license. But before we closed last summer we said yes to one more short term placement. HAHAHAHA yeh we should have known better...#5 will be adopted soon, just in time because he turns 18 in Sept. And as soon as we have his adoption date we really are closing our license!!!
Honestly had we stuck with one our lives would be so much easier. He was an easy kid, you could take him anywhere. #2 was (still is) a wild child. The next 3 have delays due to the trauma they experienced prior to coming to live with us (yes, even 3 week olds can have permanent issues). We thought life was expensive with 4...adding another who is a full grown adult pretty much makes it so much worse! We have had to add an extra room to accommodate him on cruises and hotel vacations that we booked before getting him.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Oh my…!
Can definitely relate to the preemie situation.
Our middle child (of 3 - son between 2 daughters) was born via c-section in Oct. of ‘92 at 1lb. 4oz., and dipped to as low as 1lb. 2oz., before he finally started gaining weight back.
He spent 4.5 months in the NICU, and came home with a heart/apnea monitor and a portable oxygen tank.
Among the many potentially major issues DS had was the beginnings of premature retinopathy. A specialist from Houston was flown in, and he stopped it dead in its tracks, but not without some minor peripheral vision loss that had already occurred.
Also, 2 weeks after we brought him home, he had to go back to the NICU because of an RSV infection for about 10 days. That sucked.
He’s now 31 years old, perfectly physically healthy, and has been gainfully employed for many years now…!!!!!

If you don’t mind me asking, how is your daughter doing…?
No worries, of course, if you don’t care to share any info.

A pic below of DS in the NICU, shortly after he was born…notice the nurses Bic pen…

View attachment 863599

My daughter was in the NICU at UCSF for 2 months. I stayed nearby at a Ronald McDonald House. After NICU she was transfered to our local hospital, she just needed to gain weight. When she went back to our local hospital where she was born, and on the day she was discharged, the nurse that was there when she was born discharged her. She told me that she didn't think my daughter was going to make it, that when they were "bagging" her she just wasn't responding but then all of the sudden took a breath. She came home mid July weighing 4 pounds. All her milestones were delayed, especially speech. Had speech therapy for many years. Her eyes have been checked during hospitalization and every year since. She does wear glasses for far-sightedness but that's it. She just turned 19 and graduated HS with honors and is off to college this summer to become an engineer. Very smart girl! I'm so happy to hear how well your son has done.

 

[BrianL]

Zero. And yes, I would do it again.

Also zero, and, yes, would recommned.

 

[mrs. magoo]

We have 4 children - 26 (DS), 25 (DD), 23(DD), 21(DS). Are they expensive? - Yes. Would I trade it for anything? - No. I would have had 1 more but my husband was good with 4. We were extremely lucky to have an incredible sitter for the 4 of them and I worked the entire time. They are all still on the payroll in some way - easy pass, 3 live with me, the youngest is going to be a senior in college and the 2 girls both work close to our house so it makes sense that they live at home, cell phones but I would change a thing.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

,,, takes suitcases full of money to have and raise a child today.
When an elder in the family passes away we hold on their home knowing the up-and-coming generations will have a hard time paying for a place to live.

At least that's the case here in the Southwest.