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Well, I'm not totally there yet because I only have two right now, but we are planning on 3. I had DS1 about a month before I turned 34 and I had DS2 at 35 - They are 20 months apart. We are planning for baby #3 - hope to be pregnant when DS2 turns 2.

#1 - It hasn't impacted my career at all. I'm at a good company doing a job I enjoy. I had this job before I had kids, and I don't really have ambitions to move up and get into a management position. I'm happy where I am.

#2 - With the 1st child, I had to get used to the idea that moms do more of the work. I'm sure it's not like that for everyone, but for me and most people I know that is the case. Dads help, but you have to tell them to help and what to do. They don't just "get it" like moms do. Once I realized that he wasn't doing it on purpose and that men are just programmed that way, it became easier. When we had the 2nd, more work did shift to him naturally. He tends to our older son more who is a daddy's boy. We got married and had our 1st son within the year, so we didn't have a lot of alone time together. I was already in my 30s so we knew that we couldn't wait long to have kids. But we don't mind. We don't feel like we've missed out on anything. I think we've become happier since having kids and even more so with having the 2nd.

#3 - Nothing. We didn't want to wait long because I was already in my mid 30s when we got married. We also wanted our kids close in age. So far it has all worked out.

I know #3 will be added stress and work, but the love and joy my kids bring me will completely outweigh it!

PS your title makes me think of "True Stories" from MTV years ago, remember that? This episode would be called "True Stories: A mom of Three"

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: just wanted to chime in that 45 minutes away isn't that helpful on the day to day. My inlaws live about an hour away and we're planning to move closer. My DH also travels a lot so that makes evenings more difficult as well. Even with just 1 the additional help day-to-day is amazing. Honestly if my job wasn't flexible (I come and go as I please) and if I hadnt cut back to 4 day weeks I don't know how we'd do it. Kids get sick a lot and all the grandparents still work and so it was either myself or my husband who had to take off, and as mamasig said moms just do more and my company is okay with being flexible because I have young kids. I'm not saying you can't swing it because I'm sure you can but help from family is huge and is more important than I ever realized before kids.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: lol, my MIL watches DS on Mondays and has been wanting to take him at least every other week on Sunday's and I had to put a stop to that. Every once in a while is fine but not all the time.

So I did an informal "survey" of the women in my immediate area, and not one of them has three kids! Two yes, but not three. As you would expect, all of them were in their 30's when they began having children. There are several in our group that are younger, and they are single. Now of the men in the group, it's mostly two children each, a lot of them have wives that stay at home.

I think you should aim for twins, lol. No seriously, all joking aside, I think three and a full time job are a tall order.

@looch: @Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Funny you guys bring this up because one thing DH and I have noticed amongst our group of friends is that of all the families we know with 3 or more children, at least one is a SAHP or they have a really really flexible schedule. I hear stories from them about how long it takes them to do drop offs and pick ups alone for 3 kids, esp if they go to diff schools! It's practically a full-time job. 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon... maybe an hour for lunch... day is practically over!

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: maybe when you have number 1 and the baby is 6 weeks old and fussing over everything so DH can't sleep you can get him to sign a contract agreeing to two