5 under 5?!?

D

daniel1986

New member
Are we crazy?!? We very well might be!

My husband and I found out that we’re pregnant with baby #5 last weekend! Still waiting for my doctor to come back from vacation so I don’t have anymore details besides that lol. We’ve always wanted a big family, and it think it’s pretty neat to have them close in age. Our oldest (a boy), turned 4 last month, we have g/g twins turning 3 at the end of this month, and newly-turned 1 year old (also a girl). I tried searching this sub to see if anyone has every walked in the shoes I’m about to, but it doesn’t seem to be the case (or at least documented here).

Tell me everything! The transition from 4-5, how to manage having a baby during cold & flu season…the works. All of our babies were born in spring/summer so haven’t had to worry about newborns during flu season.

Not sure if this is relevant, but quick facts about us:

-we live in a HCOL city

-space is somewhat limited, though we’re not on top of each other

-husband works remote 3 days a weeks. I stay at home with the kids

-my parents are 15 mins away and SUPER involved. They help a ton despite not being retired yet. In laws, not so much.

TIA!
 
@daniel1986 I just had #4 so I've got 4u4 with all singleton pregnancies. Not sure we'll do 5u5, but if I get pregnant in the next 9-10 months we'd have 5u5.

All but my most recent have been Fall/winter babies. I'd just say to be aware that you'll probably have some kind of visitor restrictions at the hospital if you do a hospital birth.
 
@getonyourfeetmusic We actually had self-imposed visitor restrictions lol. Our first three were born during lockdown, so there were absolutely no visitors. My husband couldn’t even go to the NICU with our first (April 2020). When we had our fourth in March last year, we realized how much we enjoyed the quiet and told everyone to wait. My parents were at home with our kids so they met baby first, then my in laws came over a few days later. I loved it.
 
@daniel1986 Seems like you are writing a memoir for me. We had 5 under 5. And tbh, going to #5 was significantly easier than 3 under 3. Your oldest ones are going to be excited to try help out. Sometimes the help is annoying, but try and show them how much you appreciate it, and you'll find that they're remarkably capable. My 5 and 4 year Olds can empty the dishwasher, set the table, change themselves, fold/hang clothes, and mostly its because we just let them help when they wanted to.

The van routine has wife dealing with the baby in the middle row, me buckling #4 in the other side of the middle row, and then the 3 oldest going to the back. #2 buckles himself, #1 buckles number 3 before doing his own.

The diono 3r carseat is a very nice 3 across seat with easy buckles and a nice tightening method the kids get used to easily. We have 3 of them in the back forward fsceing, and #4 is in a cheaper rear facing one.

Learn about sous vide cooking. You can prep meat dishes at a time when you have your hands free, and then they're very easy to eat, easy to deal with, and not time sensitive at supper time so 5 minutes earlier or later doesn't screw up your own meal too bad. We do this almost every day. We talk about it daily how it's a cheat code for easy good food. R/sousvide

My wife manages this while homeschooling, as well as spending 3-4 hours a day "playing" in her flower gardens. You got this. Good time management and solid routines are your friend.
 
@alexanderjt At one point we had 3 under 2! That so far was the hardest. They already run to me whenever the baby needs something. They’re very help despite me never imposing baby help on them.

We’re HUGE sous vide fans! I bought my husband one for Christmas years ago and it gets tons of use in our house.

Thank you for all you tips/words of encouragement 😍
 
@daniel1986 Regarding sick season - do you breastfeed? I've found EBF seems to help protect my winter babies the most from getting what everyone else gets. My fifth was born after Christmas. The toddler was snotty nose and fever sick the same day I went into labor, and the sickness continued through to the other kids those first few weeks of post partum and while I attempted to keep the sick kids from holding the baby it was impossible to keep the baby from being exposed, but she never got sick. I don't know all the science behind it but breast milk has some wonderful benefits!
 
@cinderedsoul I do breastfeed but not exclusively. My supply tend to come in hot for the first couple months and tank pretty quickly after that. So I still breastfeed in conjuction with pumping/formula. Either way, they’re getting breastmilk for at least 6 months.
 
@daniel1986 I have 5 under 7.

Honestly, home school. I sent my kid to kinder, and he never lasted a week before catching something else. Last year, at 5 months pregnant, my kids gave me pneumonia and gastro at the same time.

For grade 1 this year, we spend maybe 30 minutes a day "learning" at the table with work sheets/experiments. The rest of the time, we just teach on the go- however the topic comes up naturally. His reading and math skills are already a grade above his public school peers. We go to home school meet-ups and sports for friends. We are also home schooling our autistic 5 year old for kindergarten this year. He went from barely holding a pencil in September to knowing his full alphabet and can print all of his letters and numbers!

As for the transition from 4 to 5, I found it easy. Baby #3 was a really hard transition for me, but 4 and 5 were a breeze!
 
@gutierrezangela67 We homeschool as well (pre school, so mainly play based learning), but I’m wondering if it would make sense just doing that at least for JK. He’s registered, so if we change our mind we could send him to school, but the amount of illness that runs through schools is crazy.
 
@daniel1986 With respect to a fall baby, is your oldest in school yet? Or going to preschool? I had my third last November and both her older siblings (4 and in kindergarten, 2 and in full time daycare) had a cold at the time. I ended up going to the ER 3 days pp with a fever and then baby ended up in hospital at 7 days old with a fever and eventual viral meningitis. Definitely all due to my snotty germ-laden older kids. 🙈 But if all the kids are home with you, you can limit their exposure to other germs until baby is 3 months old and better equipped to handle a minor cold.
 
@daniel1986 Are you a mask wearing family? If your daughter is good about wearing one, you could probably reduce your risk. Or keep them home until the new year? JK is just glorified daycare and getting them used to a school environment. Missing a few months to protect a new baby wouldn’t be the end of the world.
 
@daniel1986 I’ve seen some kids in my daughter’s JK successfully wear masks but clearly they’ve been doing it consistently since the beginning. Starting out fresh trying to get your kids to wear it now probably wouldn’t work.

But keeping them home makes sense to me. Heck, I see that all the time for lesser reasons. When grandparents come to visit or a big trip is planned, I see lots of kids stay home the week before to make sure they’re not sick for the visit/trip.
 
@daniel1986 5 under 5!! I had 4 in 7 years, all singleton pregnancies. Now ages 9(will be 10 in a week)F, 12F, 15M, 17M

Honestly I enjoyed the close ages. You will be done with diapers and baby stuff before you know it.

We now have 6, as we have permanent custody of 2 of my daughters’ friends. They fit right in within that 7 years still. They are 14F and 10 (almost 11)F.

We had about a decade of always having one in diapers. Much of which we had 2 in diapers at the same time.

Honestly I love that they are close in age. My boys are 23 months apart and my girls are a little over 2 years apart. I love that my kids almost always get along. There are rarely any problems and they protect each other fiercely.
 
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