Did anyone have a surprise third pregnancy?

How did you feel? How has life been with three and the transition from life as a 4 to 5?

Asking for a friend 🙄

We have three, difficult to say how planned or surprising it was at the time (7years back) but it's brilliant!

The transition from 4 to 5 is a big one as the little ones suddenly outnumber the parental units. It kind of means that their world carries more weight at home, which is really good as they experience agency in their world. It's almost more like growing up in bygone decades where they'd band together and cruise around on bikes, finding their own strategies for dealing with being small and not always equal.

Another thing is the question of space. Most families of 5 have less space than they might like meaning that there is a lot of sharing bedrooms, having to keep their stuff limited and out of each other's way. But these are great lessons in keeping your house in order before you start to take issue with the world beyond. Living a bit on top of one another also means they we all have to put the effort in to be both tolerable and tolerant. Group dynamics chop and change all the time. Naturally the wheels come off that trike regularly enough, but there's another great set of lessons for life going forward. On reflection, the intimacy it creates is just the most precious thing in my life so far. They'll be off on their own personal missions soon enough.

In short; congratulations! Take courage. It is new territory and will shake things up unavoidably but as the dust settles you'll start to see many many more benefits to the larger family than cons. Speaking from some pretty hectic experience that is. Good luck!

Thank you!

I would echo all of the above - Good Luck!

Posting for the first time in a while, feel like I shouldn’t be here (I live in nz now).

We had a 3rd, planned, but I don’t think it really makes a difference.

Personally I found my 3rd a whole lot easier than the previous 2. When she arrived I had one in reception and one in nursery (there’s 5 years between #1 and #3, 16 months between #1 and #2). It felt like she was an only child in a way, we had the days to ourselves while her siblings were at school.

Definitely echo what was said above. Space, both in cars and in homes, becomes an issue. Third children just have to fit in, from day 1. I’ll never forget doing the school run on a cold January morning with an 11 hour old baby (hubby had gone to Heathrow to pick up my Mum). That was just the start of her life as a baby sitting in the wings of ballet, school, football, music lessons etc.

My baby is 7 now. She’s infinitely more pleasant than mr 12 and miss 10 (going on 16). Sometimes it’s nice to have 3 to choose from

It changed our family dynamic for the better - My two youngest play well together (both girls), as do the two oldest. Wouldn’t change it, but would never have considered having any more!

Thanks for the post from NZ - much appreciated!!