The Story of 6

Right now we are the story of 6...me, Patrick, Destin, Arwen, Daisy and Duke.

I am not sure when we will be ready to be the story of 7 or 8...but I do know that its not anytime soon. I love our family of 6. 6 is wonderful. Especially since we aren't outnumbered yet - Patrick takes one and I take the other.

Now that Arwen is old enough to sit up and does not want to be in her carseat - she likes to be in the stroller or shopping cart where she can see everything and not lay down propped up in her car seat. And Destin has to be held part of the time (due to her running away) and not wanting to stay with us. Also because of her nursemaids elbow - if she pulls too hard while we are holding her hand/arm - her elbow pops out of place (this is something we have to remind others about as well!).

The past two weeks or so (since Arwen is sitting up), every time we go anywhere I can't help but think about if we had one or two more. I am happy to say that we are not ready - nowhere close. We talked about trying again towards the end of this year...when Destin would be closer to 3 and Arwen would be 1 - but I am not so sure yet. By the time he/she (baby 3) would arrive the girls would be closer to 4 and 2..so maybe that would work?! I just don't know.

I am curious to find other moms out there with more than 2 children/babies - when did you know you were ready? Or were you not ready? How do you handle that many children at once?

My cousin who is a year older than I am has 3 boys (they are ages 4, 3 and 2) and 1 girl on the way in a few months - we don't talk as often as I would like (maybe once every two or three months - and we live less than 15 minutes away from each other). I just worry what life will be like then...

Right now - we don't go out that often...just to the grocery store (usually I go with Arwen or Pat goes by himself); the zoo (always together); the park (the one by our house since there is no traffic there and I don't have to worry about Destin running off)...Patrick and I have only had 1 date night in 2 years and that was before I was pregnant with Arwen (over a year ago). If we have more children - does that mean no date night ever? No movies? No going out to dinner? No going to the store as a family?

I know that our situation is different. I am extremely protective over my girls. I don't want to leave them anywhere or have them stay the night somewhere besides our house (in fact, they still haven't). The first time I was away from Destin was when Arwen was born (and I cried every day). I am a big baby and I worry way too much. Patrick on the other hand, I am not really sure. I think he would be okay with us leaving them somewhere, but maybe not. I know that he would like to have a date night - its a miracle we get any alone time now (would we have alone time in the future?).

Maybe we are rushing into it..we are both still pretty young. I will be 27 this year, and Patrick will be 30. We are not old - we are still for the most part healthy. I would love to meet my goal of losing weight, eating healthier, having a date night (just us), getting the girls pics taken, going on vacation (another post!) --- all before having another sweet baby to call our own. I know that's alot of goals - and we may or may not meet all of them, but at least I can throw it out there, and hope for the best or make a to-do list, as I always do.