@alex_t I know it seems scary and overwhelming, but this baby will bring so much added joy to your life! That 5 year age gap between the new baby and your youngest is not a big deal, in fact it will be nice to have older siblings to lend a hand! And as far as the fighting goes, sounds like your family is just as normal as everyone else’s!
I come from a big family, and even though it can be crazy sometimes, I couldn’t imagine my life without any one of them. Go forward with love and confidence! You’ve been an amazing parent so far, this baby is lucky to have you!
@julian23 Thank you so much for your support! Yes, having a big family is chaotic and overwhelming but of course I wouldn't have it without anyone in my current family. There's so much love here!
@alex_t I can’t speak for having six kids but I did have my final child at 40 (almost 41). I feel for you as the energy levels just aren’t there in the 40s but at the same time I found I just sort of kept plowing through and somehow we survive. I also took a good quality magnesium just to keep the sleep deprivation side effects at bay.
I think the only sanity break for me was that I had a lot of help with my own mom and my mother-in-law, they basically lived with us for a little bit to cope with the sleep situation (i co-slept and was up a lot).
I think the upside for me being older is that I understand I’m not going to be here forever in a really tangible way (aka aches and pains and all that keep reminding me) so I’m conscious of trying to be really connected with the kids, which is hard a lot of tiring days.
Good luck! I think youre probs doing great if you’ve got five already.
@profiletree Thank you so much for your input. It’s important to have support, as you say. I hope my mom and in laws will be able to help more now that the COVID thing is calming down... haven’t had help with the other ones for a year and a half.
