This week’s guest blogger is Kim McDonald, a wanna be blogger who spends her free time searching the interwebs for all things baby and celebrity. She started a blog when she realized her husband wasn’t very good at pretending to listen. A self-confessed wanna-be celebrity stalker, Kim is also a Google addict (Google knows everything) and wine aficionado. You can read about Kim’s days of sitting at home watching soap operas and eating Bon Bons at Two Bugs and a Blog.
When we found out we were pregnant with our first child, there was a subdued elation. We couldn’t wait to tell our friends that finally, after many years of trying, we were finally going to complete our family. Our son came a little early, but he was perfect. We were perfect, just the three of us. So perfect in fact that Hubs and I decided that we should treat ourselves with a trip to Vegas to celebrate that—in the six awesome months our child was with us—he and we had survived.
So off we went. My mom had the pleasure of getting her gorgeous grandbaby all to herself for four whole days, and we would finally get to sleep in for four days.
Yet something in the back of my mind was telling me that something may not be as perfect as we thought. Our trip was wonderful, but I didn’t get to enjoy it quite as much as I should have. We got off the plane, and I knew we had to make a stop before we got home.
Yup, I was pregnant again. How the heck could this happen?! I was actually afraid of telling Hubs this time, with our first child only six months old. We weren’t going to have any more kids.
So after cuddling my baby to bed, I came downstairs. One look at my face and Hubs knew something was wrong. We had had a great time; everything went well with my mom babysitting. I sputtered the words out, not sure what to expect. There was silence, some mumbling about us having to move, and just general disbelief.
I went upstairs to bed to try and deal with my own feelings on the entire situation. When he finally came upstairs to join me, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “I googled it.”
“Googled what?” I asked.
“You’re still nursing. You’re not supposed to get pregnant.”
I laughed out loud and said to Hubs:
And now we’re a perfect family of four.
What’s the spacing between your children, or between you and your siblings? How has that worked out?
Oh My Gosh! We had almost the same experience! Our kids were 10 and I was finally starting to get “a life”. I was working for a radio station, the hubbs and I were getting date nights and we even got to sleep in on the weekends. Financially, we weren’t stretched out anymore and were taking mini vacations almost monthly.
Then we decided to take a REAL vacation with the kids. 10 days of travel and being tourists to various landmarks around the southwest. When we got home I just couldn’t shake my exhaustion. I just felt…Weird. On a whim I took a pregnancy test.
Sure enough! We’d created a souvenir on that fun little family trip! The kids and hubby were thrilled. I on the other hand was slapped in the face with the reality that when this little creation turned 10, our oldest would be 21! I cried. I cried A LOT.
Baby #3, (aka our souvenir) just turned 1 last month. She’s amazing and worth every tear 🙂
Nice! Happy accidents happen all the time~
My kids are spaced a fair way apart at almost 3 years between each (so 6 total between oldest and youngest). For me that was pretty much ideal – but different strokes for different folks and all that!
Our children number 1 and 2 are less than two years apart – and after that experience I did everything not to get pregnant again, until number 1 AND 2 wouldn’t need diapers anymore and would sleep all night… (Twin moms, I know I’m a whining sissy) … so baby number three came nearly 4 years after number 2, which seemed to me a reasonable gap. But now they’re grown up, and it turns out, that number 1 (19 years old) and 2 (18) felt like growing up TOGETHER, making similar experiences at the same time and had the same friends, whereas number 3 (now 14) hated to be “the little one” all the time.
Spacing between my kids, let see… When my B/G twins were born, my middle son was 22 months and my oldest son was 5. Lets just say, i’m one of those woman that can miss 2 pills and get preggers easily.. with TWINS! I honestly could have my own blog with the all the crazy things that have come up with my crew. I had a triple stroller, was breast feeding twins, potty training a two year old, and introducing my oldest to big boy school for the first time.. I do not wish this on anyone, but now that the twins are 6 things are running smoother.. I’m just dreading HS and College. Things are going to get expensive, because the twins are only 1 year behind my middle son in school, due to where their birthdays are on the calendar.
Our spacing is such that we have 4 teenage girls at once, until July when the oldest turns 20. Not a well-thought plan.
We have four boys all about 2 years apart, but #2 did arrive a little earlier than we would have “planned” but you get what you get, right? It’s busy, but I’m glad they are growing up together. Love your husband’s response.
Well so far I have one and I don’t plan on having another one anytime soon. I asked my nurse practitioner how long did she wait. She said she had her two boys back to back and life, “Was like a BLUR” from then on.
My boys are 14 months apart. The first year was, well, awful. Now my boys share the same interests, and the fist fights are fair.
Our 2nd and 3rd are 15 months apart. Yep, we learned the hard way that the whole “you can’t get pregnant while you’re nursing” thing is a myth. Oops!
I think whatever spacing you have is all you know. There are pros and cons of closer together and farther apart. Mine are just over three years apart. I wouldn’t want the space longer than that. But less than two or two and a half years would have been tough for us.
I would have cried too! We planned 3 years between our kids and I’m happy we did. Although, it would have been nice to get the ‘not sleeping’ part over with two kids together!
There is 11 years between my older brother and I. He was jealous of me since I took away his only child status. That is what my parents were aiming for, they didn’t want an only child. They just lost track of all that time that passed while they were trying and trying to have another baby. When I was born my parents were older and didn’t feel like parenting. So pretty much, they didn’t. Usually I got taken care of only when neighbors or authorities got involved. I think I came out alright, but obviously it isn’t ideal.
This made me laugh so loud my boyfriend came from the other room to see what I was reading (he didn’t laugh quite as much as I did). A friend of mine got into a very similar situation — she was breastfeeding and got pregnant when her first was 3 months old. Now her two oldest are 12 and a half months apart.