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I'm pregnant with my 3rd right now. I guess I don't think of it as significantly more because 3 was always the plan so I knew I'd have 3 daycare/tuition payments, etc. Once all 3 are in catholic school, it will cost the same as 2 in daycare. We got a new car with three car seats in mind, but honestly we may have done that anyway.

I already planned to get bunk beds/new furniture for my older two even if #3 wasn't coming. If it's another boy, I am totally set. If it's a girl, then she needs clothes but gear wise I have everything.

Eta: I guess my point is depends on how you look at it. Yes it's more but some things would have happened anyway.

No, I haven't been finding it expensive (so far) for our 3rd.

Now going from 3 to 4 will be a stretch, but we're planning a decent age gap (3 years?) between 3 & 4.

@mrswin: We do mostly VRBO now because it's just too tight for all of us in a room. Even if we were technically allowed, if a room only has 2 beds and 1 bathroom it's uncomfortable for all of us.

@Truth Bombs: we thought about nanny but DH is extremely anti nanny. Too many horror stories of bad nannies.

@mrswin: Thats interesting. I know our family of 5 growing up got told once or twice it was against fire code.

So far the only expense we've had is new car seats. I love my car (Honda crv) and was not ready to get a new one, so we figured new car seats that would fit 3 in a row was cheaper than a new car. So we got 3 of the slimmest car seats which cost $800.

Later on down the road we will need a bunk bed or trundle bed (around $400) so the two older girls can share a room, but as of now the baby is in our room with us. When we do move her into a nursery, we won't need to buy anything. We already have cribs, a glider, changing table, etc. No need to decorate a brand new nursery for her!

Obviously traveling will cost more money, like plane tickets, but I'll still put all 5 of us in one hotel room! (A double queen. Me and DH in one bed, two girls in the other, and one on a rollaway bed or on the floor.) I remember when I was growing up and we were vacationing on a budget, we fit all 7 of us in one hotel room! We loved it and thought it was an adventure--some of my greatest memories! I'm sure my parents didn't say there'd be 7 of us in the room though....

We only have two but have always planned for 3-4. I don't think we'll feel a dramatic burden up front because we've spread out the costs. We bought a house that has room to grow. We added a minivan after LO2. We kept all of our baby gear. I think we'd need a bunk bed if we had a 4th, but we bought DD1 a bed that comes with a loft component in case we wanted/needed kids to share down the road. With three, one would just move into the guest room and use that bedroom set.

Obviously we would want to save for another education account, but I think that's where we'd feel it most dramatically.

FWIW, my family of seven stayed in one hotel room growing up until the older kids were teens/tweens, and then we split to a boys and a girls room.