@Rachel – yep, life can throw curve balls! You aim for three and wind up with four (or five, or other such crazy things that can happen…). Good luck on the promotion — that is awesome and yes, better to be really excited about work than feeling meh about it when your home life is going to be so busy.

We always thought we would have three children – my first two are 22 months apart and we were aiming for a 3 year gap for our third. The timings worked out really well and I’m due in October, but we found out at 12 weeks that we are having twins… so this will be #3 and #4 at once.

I know it’s not super likely for everyone but probably a good thing to think about if you are over 35 and looking for a third.. make sure you’re OK with the potential for a 3rd and 4th!

We will have a newly 3 and newly 5 year old when the twins are born (hopefully… there is always the chance we will have a 3 and 4 year old or even a 2 and 4 year old) and I’m hoping that after these tough baby years it will get easier and I’ll be glad we had a (somewhat short gap)

Oh, and I’m trying to get a pretty big promotion before these babies come too – I love working now and I want to be super interested in what I do when I get back. The courage to interview at 5 months pregnant (with no “hiding”… because twins) is definitely something I’ve picked up for BOBW!

@KGC – we would love to cover this topic if we have a guest who will speak candidly about it. So if someone is reading this and that describes you, let me know!

Third this! Would love to hear from someone who considered and decided against.

Yes, agree completely about the physical toll and effects on health that sometimes are triggered by multiple pregnancies and childbirths.

And, in general, parents’ health can play a huge role when thinking about family size and how many kids we can hope to have.

Second this!

That being said – and I understand if this is outside the scope of BOBW – I’d love to hear from a guest who decided not to have a third (or second or fourth or whatever) child. I would have loved a third, but my spouse was adamantly opposed so we are done at two. I’m mostly okay with this now (aging helps) but I had one pretty sad year a while back. The thing is, though, I do think I’d really struggle with three and the decision to stick with two was somewhat based around jobs and logistics. I know that OMDG has previously discussed a very deliberate decision to stick with one child and I think maybe her job was at least part of that?

Clearly, a big job and multiple kids CAN be done (quite successfully!). But it’d be interesting (to me anyway) to hear the flip side of the people who made the opposite decision. And I’m not talking about people who always felt complete at number whatever, but people who debated another child and then didn’t have one.