Or did you just kind of luck/happenstance/ grow into it?
If someone had told before your first child was born that one day you'd have the number you have now, would you have been surprised?

Dh is the youngest of four so we have always said we wanted four. I really thought we were finished after number three but four was a nice suprise.

Dh is the youngest of four so we have always said we wanted four. I really thought we were finished after number three but four was a nice suprise.

My dh is the oldest of 4, and he only wanted 2....MAYBE 3. After this past pregnancy I thought I'd be fine with being done...but it's only 6 months later and I'm discovering that I really don't think I'm ready to be done with babies, I just love them too much. :) (yep already forgot the misery I was in for 9 months) He's fine with keeping our options open, but doesn't want any more right now--most of the time he will say ever, but recently he's been a little more open to waiting to see how we feel in the future.

There was a point when I was a kid that I wanted a dozen kids. Then I didn't want any. When I starting having kids I don't think I really thought about how many we'd have, probably would not have thought as many as we do have.

We are very happy with having 4. It would not surprise me if we ended up with more but we are both ready to move onto the next stage of parenting.

So we don't really have a big family, but when we started I didn't think our family would be this big.

There was a point when I was a kid that I wanted a dozen kids. Then I didn't want any. When I starting having kids I don't think I really thought about how many we'd have, probably would not have thought as many as we do have.

We are very happy with having 4. It would not surprise me if we ended up with more but we are both ready to move onto the next stage of parenting.

So we don't really have a big family, but when we started I didn't think our family would be this big.

Anything over 3 kids is big these days I think. Our Bradley class is doing pretty well, started with 1 kid, now up to 13.

DH wanted *maybe* 2. He's tickled that we have 5 though!

I didn't know how many kids I wanted but I never thought I'd have 5! Honestly, I didn't think God thought enough of me to give me children, isn't that sad? Anyway, I remember meeting my friend for the first time...I asked how many sibs he had and he said four-I was blown away! He was like, "yeah, we're Catholic." Now I don't think 5 is so big. Six kids or more is a big family. :lol:

When I had my ds1, I thought a girl would be nice. So, I had a second boy. When we were still trying to make up our mind about trying for a girl, we had the biggest surprises of our lives! So, we ended up with boy/girl twins!:lol: We are definitely done, with a 3BR 1600sq ft house and me being in the 40's. Now I just have to try my hardest to get dh to get the big 'V'!:help:

When I had my ds1, I thought a girl would be nice. So, I had a second boy. When we were still trying to make up our mind about trying for a girl, we had the biggest surprises of our lives! So, we ended up with boy/girl twins!:lol: We are definitely done, with a 3BR 1600sq ft house and me being in the 40's. Now I just have to try my hardest to get dh to get the big 'V'!:help:

With all the health reasons not to get a V, and being in your 40's, I think you're better off just waiting it out!

My husband's cousin's husband only wanted 2...they got twins the second time.

With all the health reasons not to get a V, and being in your 40's, I think you're better off just waiting it out!

My husband's cousin's husband only wanted 2...they got twins the second time.

My dh would be happy to hear this!:) I just turned 40 this year, I hope I don't have to wait too long!:) I guess we were lucky ?:) My dad has twins sisters and I have a total 4 uncles and 6 aunts including the twin aunts. So, I have many cousins with every uncle or aunt with at least 6 kids except my youngest uncle and my dad with 4 kids each. I think I have more than 40 cousins and none of them have twins. I'm the only one with b/g twins!:help:

I knew I loved children. When we married I was aetheist and dh was a non church going Christian. We were blessed w/ twins then a third. When I was expecting our third dh told his parents, when they asked how many we planned to have, he said 6. I felt a call to return to the Catholic Church when I was expecting our fourth. I did w/o dh, he didn't want to come. By the time I was almost due he started coming and converted 7 years later. Meanwhile we had discussion on allowing God to plan our family size. As time passed dh was totally ready for that. So there we are now, LOL. W/ a bunch of kids and so very blessed it came about. If someone had told me when we married we would have 9 children I would have been amazed, mostly b/c that isn't what people do, regardless of their love for children or desire to have more.

I remember when I was in college and the guys I dated who were getting serious would ask how many children I wanted, I'd always answer, "12", wait for their look of shock/horror, then say, "I guess I'd settle for 6".

I don't know where that came from - I'm from a family of 3 children and the biggest family I knew growing up had 5 children, and I remember my Mom making many, many snide comments about that family's size.

But I guess, ending up with 8 children, having had 10 pregnancies and losing 2, I've pretty much split the difference on that original intention :-). Now, if only dh and I hadn't been in our 30's when we married, I might've made it to 12 :lol:

Growing up, I wanted two. When our first was born, I wanted her to be an only. Then, we added our second and that birth was traumatizing. I couldn't have that be my last - I needed to get through it again in a healthy way. But, mentally I wasn't prepared. I got pregnant unexpectedly during that time and when we lost the baby, we were all devastated. So, we planned a third a couple months later. The third was a fairly easy uneventful birth and quick recovery. I thought, yeah, I could do this again. Every time we hoped for a boy. We looked at all our options - there's a process where they spin out the female sperm and it costs a fortune. Then, we decided that the risks were too high and we didn't want to mess with nature in that way for a low chance of success and high chance of miscarriage. We decided to adopt and battled our way through agencies and social organizations that said no due to the number of children we had, and said we could only adopt special needs children. We selected a country, started saving and working toward our homestudy. During that time there was a huge uproar about adoption in the country we selected (and our country was pretty much our last option) and we were overwhelmed with the thought of needing a larger home to have the homestudy come through okay (not enough bedrooms - no more room for additional beds).

Devastated and discouraged, we decided we just wanted one more baby - no matter what gender. Then we got Jack. The irony in all of this is, we didn't choose so many countries because they limited us to a special needs child and we didn't think it was fair to our family or to that child to bring them into a situation where they wouldn't have 100% of our time and attention. And, then there was Jack. So, I imagine somehow, in some way, God had a plan for us and we were meant to have a special needs child.

Sandi, love your siggy pic!

I have one sister and 2 way older step bro & sis. I knew I always wanted a big family and grew up saying I wanted 5 kids. Well our little "surprise" dd gave me my 4th child and then having a step dd, my total is now 5! Dh comes from a large family and never said he wanted a house ful of kids, but is thrilled with the kids and our family and is an awesome Dad. I am pretty sure dd is our last baby, dh didn't want me to sell my maternity clothes, just in case?!? I was really surprised when he said that, lol.

Thanks, Amy :heart:

I love YOURS :cloud9: Aw, so sweet and smooshy.

I always wanted 5. I was one of 4 and I loved it, but for some reason I didn't want an even number of children-- so I went with 5 :D Dh wanted 3 (he's an only child, ftr). We would playfully argue back and forth about it until one day said the arguing was pointless because we hadn't even prayed about it to see what God wanted for us. That led us to where we are now-- 6 and open to however many more God gives us.

when i was a little girl, i never wanted to be a mom. never even dreamt of it. it wasn't until i fell in love that i started thinking about becoming a mom.

a mom to 5? um, no. never in my wildest dreams would i have thought i'd have this many children. being that i was an only child growing up, is probably why i have surrounded myself with so many little (and big) people.

just a hunch.

Like kas I was an only child ( I do have 2 brothers and a sister from dad's first marriage , who are 10 & 12 years my senior) SO I always said I wanted at least 2 . When I met my husband he wanted as many as God gave us ( he was raised Catholic, but he/we are not practicing). I thought he was nuts. Well we got pregnant by accident and lost the baby. Devestated after the miscarriage we started trying and got our Sully through NFP. I wasn't 100% confident in NFP and opted for an IUd and well you all know that brought me a very hard, confusing , emotional,scary pregnancy and in the end,my beautiful Sebastian:heart smirk:

So no I never thought I'd have 4 children... I am so very glad I did though, they bring me so much joy that even on our worst day, it is still very joyous.

No! When I was a teenager I said I wanted to wait until I was 40 to have any and at one point in mt early 20's I actually thought it was gross that someone had 4 kids. I think I had those feelings though since my mom didn't like kids, big families, or stay at home moms.

The more I had the more I wanted and 4 didn't even seem big anymore. I realize 6 is a lot to everyone but doesn't seem like *that* many to me. I'm definitely glad I had 6, but that's probably it, even though I have a little desire to have a second set of twins.

Yup, people still tease me about wanting "ten kids" as a teenager. Well, we have three more to go! DH says we may have a "few" more. LOL

--NB

I always knew I wanted a large family :)

Yes.. we sure did. I used to dream of having 6 kids when I was a child... four girls and two boys for some reason... and God gave me that plus two more sons!! Dh loves babies and didn't have a number in mind, but wanted "lots."
We weren't the typical dating college kids, we'd head over to the hospital to see the newborns and dream of ours.
Now there have been some bumps in our journey. Two csections and I was ready to call it quits and had a sterilization scheduled. Thankfully God changed my heart and called us to follow our Church teachings and be open to life.

Growing up, I was always drawn towards babies and kids.... I prayed practically every night that God would give me a baby sister. (I only had one brother and he was 2years younger) I told my parents all the time how I wanted another sibling... even though now they say they don't remember that. when I met dh and realized he had 7 siblings I was like :drop: -- and thinking wow that's crazy... yadda yadda yadda... (same thing most people think LOL). But then I saw how much I *loved* his crazy household. It was always a blast with so many people around. When we got married we both agreed we wanted alot of kids... but at the time we went with the societal "norm" of what a big family was... at thinking 4 would be it for us. Well, getting pg with #5 really surprised us, because I didn't think I was fertile yet. Sometime during/after that pg dh and I both felt really led to allow God to choose the size of our family... though many times that faith has been challenged - somehow we've made it to where we are today - with a firm and total belief that this is what's right for us. :)

Sometimes I forget just how many 9 is. :lol: I know that sounds crazy but even when we are all around the table I don't really even think about it. When I am looking at them all it does NOT seem like that many to me. But when I say the number out loud, ... *then* it's like... wow.... WE HAVE NINE KIDS!

And no... I never would have believed it if someone would have told me 17years ago that I would have 9 kids... or that I would be open to having more. I would have thought they were crazy. :)

Sometimes I forget just how many 9 is. :lol: I know that sounds crazy but even when we are all around the table I don't really even think about it. When I am looking at them all it does NOT seem like that many to me. But when I say the number out loud, ... *then* it's like... wow.... WE HAVE NINE KIDS!

And no... I never would have believed it if someone would have told me 17years ago that I would have 9 kids... or that I would be open to having more. I would have thought they were crazy. :)

Ditto all of it, LOL!

I never wanted any, till I had dd #1 (shes 14 now). After her, I wanted more, but not sure of how many.
Then I had #2..shes 8 now, #3 is 4 and #4 is 4 months.
Now I wish we had planned them closer together so I could have had more by now...by now as the doc says I shouldnt have more because of my bp and that Im not getting any younger (35 in March).
But I planned them farther apart.
Funny, #1 and #2 werent planned, but 3 and 4 were. Guess we are the opposite of most ppl that get surprises later.

"When I am looking at them all it does NOT seem like that many to me. But when I say the number out loud, ... *then* it's like... wow.... WE HAVE NINE KIDS!"

Yup. Except for me, it's when I say, "We have 2 girls and FIVE BOYS." Five. Boys. It just sounds so much worse than it is, lol.

Oh, and I always knew I wanted a big family. I always said I wanted 6 kids. I got my 6 and a spare, but I'd have another one in a heartbeat. In fact, we're hoping to adopt a couple more. :D