How many kids...

Mahonri · Senior Bucketkeeper

How many kids...

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

I have four cute daughters and adorable baby son... and we're done. Each child was born C-section and it has been a real challenge keeping up with the baby this last go-round.

Growing up, My wife has three sisters and one brother, just like in our family.

(I'm the oldest of seven kids, and only one's a girl... so I'm experiencing something of the opposite of my childhood, which I'm elated about... :) )

--Ray

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

We have 3 boys and 2 girls and are trying for a couple more.

My family had 3 girls and 1 boy.
MrCoco's family had 3 boys and 2 girls.

palmon · Senior Member

7 sons. What are you averaging?

crazymom5 · Senior Member

3 girls, 2 boys here. Wanted more, but with the last miscarriage when youngest was 2 yrs old, we decided to quit. Especially after all the PPD with the last 3 kids and the 3 miscarriages. Oldest dd is 28, ds 26, dd 24, dd 21 and ds almost 17. Now we just wish we lived closer to our grandkids: 3 boys with the 4th boy arriving late June.

glumirk · Senior Member

hmm...none yet. I have 3 older brothers and one younger sister. My brother told my mom that we needed one more girl so that there could be 3 boys and 3 girls, but with how hard her pregnancies were with my sister and I, it was better not to.

I don't know how many kids I want. At least 3, most likely more, but we'll see where kids fit in. I've got to get through the marriage first, and probably a little further in school. Is it bad to want to graduate before we have kids? It's just 2 years down the road...

Mahonri · Senior Bucketkeeper

graduate... absolutely if that's what you and your hubby and the Lord decide to do.

We don 't just multiply... we also replenish. Getting a degree is replenishing so that you can eventually multiply... at least that's one way of looking at it.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Crazy: We had to go through three miscarriages to finally get our son. It was extremely hard--more especially on my wife. We probably would've quit had the Lord (and our Son's premortal spirit) not intervened and made it clear there was one more still wanting to come to our family.

--Ray

PollyAnna · Senior Bucketkeeper

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-- Edited by PollyAnna at 00:12, 2008-01-05

trooperswife · Member

We have 7 children. Four boys, 3 girls.

Hubby comes from a family with 1 boy, two girls. One of his sisters has no children, the other sister has 3, 2 living. With our 7, we are the freaky Mormons.

I grew up in a family with just me and 1 brother, and now belong to a family with 4 brothers (3 living) and 5 sisters (6 if you include me). There are currently 28 grandchildren, with #29 due in August. We have more than everyone else, with our 7, but it won't be long before some of the younger siblings catch up. I have one sister that isn't even married yet.

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

ray- How did your son's premortal spirit intervene? (I just love stories like this!)

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Well, after a couple miscarriages, I'd been praying and hoping we could keep trying, I'd blessed Sondra in a priesthood blessing that if she were willing to try X (I forget the exact number, I think it was three, could've been seven) more times we would eventually be successful, but I decided that Sondra needed to come to terms with trying again. So I willingly accepted her decision as to whether we would try again. Then one day she was studying her scriptures all alone, she turned or she looked up and there was a boy or young man standing there in the empty room with her, who said, "Don't forget me." Then he was gone.

We'd had four daughters, but we knew that we needed to keep trying and when we did have him, we all knew it was so right. All the girls prayed for him to come. I went to the temple the equivalent of once a week to put Sondra and "Baby's" name on the temple roll. Even now even our five year old is excited and blessed by having a chance to care for a baby. I am hoping that his arrival will be a positive reminder of how God hears and answers our prayers and how our family is "meant-to-be".

And when Lionel starts to be a pain, we have a great story to share with him to remind him that he chose to come here and that he'd best find a way to deal with the challenges of life... :)

--Ray

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

What a great story, ray. I've had 4 miscarriages myself and I know what it means to come to terms with trying again. My first one was during my first marriage at 10 weeks along. I had a headache which is extremely rare for me, so I knew something was wrong. Within a couple days I knew I was losing the baby. TMI ALERT! NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! YOU MAY SKIP TO FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH. When I passed the pregnancy, I looked to see what was going on, being a person not squeamish about dogs or cows or horses giving birth. There was a little sac there with a perfect little baby, about 1/2" long with an umbilical cord like a hair... everything perfectly intact- just like a textbook photo. It was an amazing spiritual experience. The thought came to me- "You hold the universe in your hand." I was overcome. It's hard to describe.

Anyway, some months later we were having severe marital problems and as I was thinking one day, a "daydream" came to me where a young man was pleading before the Father saying, "Please don't make me go there. Please don't make me go to them." I thought to myself, "I don't blame him one bit. Our marriage is a living nightmare. It's full of vulgar language, yelling, disrespect, lying, deceit, morality issues, hypocrisy, little if any 'love'... but at the time I was planning on sticking it out. Good for you, whoever you are. I wouldn't want to come to this family if I had a choice, either." It helped me come to terms with the miscarriage quite quickly.

Fast forward several years. New marriage and home where "charity abounds" as my PB says. A whole new world, as the Disney song goes... I have two young boys now, age 2 and 8 months. I think one of them may just be that young man from before... At least that would make me feel good in the sense that I was still "worthy" to be his mother and he got a wonderful father as well. :)

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Wow Coco, really interesting story. I think many sisters in the church are given visions of their families and their children before they come to them. I'm so happy that things are so much better for you now. It's such an intensely personal thing, I never know when it's appropriate to share stories like the above.

--Ray

mirkwood · Senior Bucketkeeper

Two boys.

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

2 male mini-beserkers and 3 female mini beserkers, 14+ year spread from oldest to youngest. The Mrs. and I will be at 19 years in a few months since kneeling at the alter together.

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

Did you spell it "alter" on purpose? Cuz that's kinda' funny.

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

If 'tweren't so darned politically incorrect, I'd be 'bout to smack you good upside the head fer making fun of my spellificationing.

But, yes, when we kneel at the altar, it is indeed an altering event...

I really need to stop reviewing threads when I'm tired... I'm finding all kinds of spelling errors and unintelligable grammar and stuff... and it ain't just all you folks!

PollyAnna · Senior Bucketkeeper

Smack her anyway... I am in a mood! biggrin

palmon · Senior Member

I find that very un-Pollyanna of you. Perhaps you should be known as anti-pollyanna.

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

Three in the hand and one in the oven. Two girls, one boy, and one boy on the way. This is our last. My wife has had difficult deliveries and the multiple C-sections have taken their toll. We both come from families with four kids so this is nice number for us.

TitusTodd · Senior Member

We have two boys and a girl. We feel pretty lucky to have three after long waits before the first and between the first and second. The wait for a fourth has been four years with a miscarriage almost 2 years ago. We never determined a number of children we would have. My wife comes from a family of seven and I come from a family of three.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Five kids from a woman who would've died in the "olden-days" on the very first attempt to give birth, not only is a huge blessing, but a nice kick in the face to Evolution and Natural Selection... :)

--Ray

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

rayb wrote:

Five kids from a woman who would've died in the "olden-days" on the very first attempt to give birth, not only is a huge blessing, but a nice kick in the face to Evolution and Natural Selection... :)

--Ray

Good point. If not for modern medicine, how many of us would be widowers because of child birth complications. I don't want to think about it but after the C sections and emergency surgery, I'd probably be one myself if I lived in the old days.

PollyAnna · Senior Bucketkeeper

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-- Edited by PollyAnna at 00:15, 2008-01-05

historian · Senior Member

I was a lonely only myself, but joined the church, and my marriage was blessed with five wonderful sons. Unfortunately, their dad wasn't willing to live his covenants, so I got to raise them by myself.

For me, having children was the easy part. Raising them is a lot of work.

Mahonri · Senior Bucketkeeper

Wow, five sons on your own. God bless you!

How many of the five made it on missions and have married in the Temple. I know one did :o).

You must be grateful to the Lord for the blessing of righteous sons. (Not dimminishing all of your hard work) You can be righteously "proud" of that.

historian · Senior Member

Thank you, Mahonri, He did bless me - and us - and I will be eternally grateful for that.

Five sons - one died shortly after his 7th birthday - four served missions. Two married in the temple, one still isn't married, and my oldest had serious disagreements with his dad after he served his mission and then changed his last name and left the church. His children are largely unaware of things religious, let alone the Church's teachings, which is the great grief of my life.

Yes, wonderful sons are a tremendous blessing. Sometimes I marvel at just being acquainted with such great guys -- let alone being related to them.

May I again give thanks to our Lord for blessing us with ways to deal with difficulties, and say that the best thing I did while they were growing up was to try to have daily scripture reading. I - we - were far from perfect about this, but when we did it, this invites the Spirit into your home in a powerful way and gives necessary spiritual nourishment. Convert them young, and the Spirit helps you to raise them.

PollyAnna · Senior Bucketkeeper

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-- Edited by PollyAnna at 00:15, 2008-01-05