I agree that spacing more than two years apart is a good idea. My first two were 15 months apart and the third was 2.5 years after the second--a world of difference. I wore myself out with the pregnancies (there was a fourth/miscarriage in there too). And I breastfed each for a year or more (to be honest though, I was really healthy while breastfeeding and only got sick as the kids took more solid food - around ten months). Strange.
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<br />I spaced them close somewhat by accident (I was nursing the largest, hungriest six-month old every 1.5 hours STILL when I got pregnant with #2). I had no idea that I was going to go from coughing up mucus all the time to being sick all the time. After the second, I started being sick, but even then, I thought it was a fluke. I had this vision of three kids close in age, me going back to school in my mid-thirties when they were elementary age--blah blah blah.
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<br />I am VERY grateful that I have them and that they are healthy, and I am thankful that I am not sicker than I am.
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<br />I went from an FEV1 of 135 to 119 after the three kids. Now I am 112 about three years later. My youngest is 3.5 yrs.
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<br />Last year and the one before, I woke up every morning unsure how I would get through the day, not doing as much with/for the kids as I wanted to, not doing anything for myself but CPT and breathing treatments. My priorities were safety, moderately clean kids and house, very healthy food and love. They got preschool and one outside activity each. I even had trouble reading to them because of being sick.
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<br />We are so much better this year. I go to the gym almost every day and have a sitter once a week so that I can work from home. My 5 and 7 year old can now do two outside of school activities, plus a third, a home-visiting piano teacher gives them lessons. It probably seems weird to focus on how many activities they can do, but it is hard to stand at a soccer field when you are sick, especially when you have to supervise two other small kids. It is hard to pack three kids into a car when it is freezing and dark outside and you have pleurisy and a fever.
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<br />Obviously, part of my issue was that I was surprised by being ill. It was not part of the plan. You know?
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<br />I would say that I sleep better as they have gotten older, and I am getting chunks of time to myself here and there with preschool, but they still require a lot of physical activity and emotional manipulation...I hear that the latter only gets more intense too
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<br />Sorry for the endless rambling. I hope this helps.
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<br />Melissa, 34, bronchiectasis (no CF)
