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W/out bc, how many kids have you had on AVERAGE?  

  1. 1. W/out bc, how many kids have you had on AVERAGE?

    • 1 child/yr
      13
    • 1 child/2 yrs
      38
    • 1 child/3 yrs
      21
    • other
      29


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We used no birth control (aside from breastfeeding on demand) between babies 2 - 5.

 

Spacing 1 (between babies 2 & 3): 30 months

Spacing 2 (between babies 3 & 4): 23 months

Spacing 3 (between babies 4 & 5): 21.5 months

 

Average: a little over 24 months.

 

ETA: Number five was born when number one was 8 years old. We used BC for six months before our first and for nine months after. We've used BC after number 5.

 

I don't get my period for a year+ after giving birth due to nursing.

Edited by Veritaserum
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If you use NO bc--not even NFP--but you don't *try* to conceive, either (anybody still w/ me???), how many kids have you had on avg per yr of marriage?

 

Well, we stopped using BC in 1999, and I've been pg (but had a m/c) once in that time.

 

I guess *somebody* has to be the end of the bell curve that balances the Duggars. :(

 

Lisa

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I'm probably not the best person to answer this because I did not nurse any of my kids (I tried w/my first and it lasted 3 weeks) and I know that plays a role in this.

 

That said, we did not use birth control when we first got married. I got pregant within 3 months. Didn't use birth control after our first and I got pregnant again within 3 months and those 2 children are 11 months apart. After that, we started to use condoms/natural family planning methods and each time that we decided to have another, I got pregnant within 3 months.

 

I was thrilled to get my tubal ligation after number 6. My uterus hurts to think of what my poor body would have endured for the past 18 years without NFP. LOL!!!

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We conceived once every 2-3 years while actively trying NOT to get pregnant. Had we gone the route you described, we probably would have been pregnant every time the last baby was weened.

 

Well, we weren't trying "not to" but were not actively trying, either and had 5 pregnancies in 8 years.

Edited by StinkyFace
Obviously I can not count. :)
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If I had allowed it, I would have been pregnant every year. Fertility always returned around 5 months postpartum despite breastfeeding around the clock.
I think I would've been pregnant every year too. Mine returned at 3 months each time, despite breastfeeding! :001_huh::glare:
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I don't qualify in your poll, but my mom had 5 babies in 6 years. She then left the father, and went on bcp before relations with my father.

 

In the 18mth gap between the last two with her first husband, she had separated from the father, and had a weekend reconciliation that resulted in the last child.

 

Had they not had that separation, it is foreseeable that she would have continued the pattern of a child a year.

 

I have 3 sisters and one thing that we can all do well, is have easy preganancies. I am the only one who has lost a pregnancy and it was due to a chromosome anomaly.

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I'm not answering the poll, but I know that I'd get pregnant every year. I can't seem to stop the freight train.

 

me too!

 

I get my period 3-6mo after my babies are born & then keep up w/my cycle until the baby is 1 (HATE formula - want to nurse all at least till they're 1). I get pg IMMEDIATELY after I stop paying attn to my cycle. All of mine are 18mo apart but if I didn't try to prevent, they would be 1yr apart, no doubt. I've always been regular since my 1st period - all my kids' bdays are in the 20s or the 1s of the month - that's how regular I am (if that makes sense).

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We stopped using bc 12 years ago. I've been pregnant 4 times in that period. Our youngest is 3 and I haven't gotten pregnant again and I'm only 34. I have breastfed all my kids and get AF back around 18 mo but the cycles are long and anovulatory. I did conceive 5 mo after #5 but that is the only one I got pregnant so quickly.

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If I had allowed it, I would have been pregnant every year. Fertility always returned around 5 months postpartum despite breastfeeding around the clock.

 

6 WEEKS here. :glare: :lol: Hence 14mo difference between #3 & #4. Who came after the dr suggested testing for infertility. (4yrs between #2 & #3, w/ little to no bc & then ttc for...6mos to a year, I forget.) :svengo:

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I didn't answer your poll because our situation doesn't fit. Used BC for about 6 years then went off for a year but was trying not to conceive. Then once we decided to try I got pg with ds1 right away. Went back on BC for about a year then went off to try again. 1.5 yrs later I got pg with ds2. Back on BC for about 6 months then went off again but not trying. 6 years later I got pg with dd. No other pregnancies.

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I didn't vote because only two of my six children were conceived on purpose without use of BC. With the rest of them I was actively and desperately trying not to get pregnant, most times using more than one method of BC. I have been married a total of 30 years and have six kids so that equals one kid every five years. However, my hubby had a V 11 years ago so if you take out the last 11 years then the average goes up to about 3.5 which is about the average age difference between my kids.

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Are you asking about if you use the withdrawal method, how many times do you end up pregnant anyway? If so, we purposely conceived my daughter (now age 10) right before we got married (yes we got married while I was pregnant lol) and then used the withdrawal method for 5 years and then one day, whoops, there came my happy surprise, now 5 years old. :)

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I won't vote and mess up your poll, but I've conceived 4 times in 9 years without" trying" (and sometimes actively and" correctly" trying not to).

 

 

:iagree: Except I've conceived 5 times in 9 years. Youngest is now almost 10 months old and oldest turns 10 in a few months. We are now actively trying *not* to conceive as my body simply can't handle any more pregnancies.

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My SIL would get pregnant (like clockwork) when her baby was 9 mos. old.

 

Me? I was too chicken to find out. I am one of those who gets their cycle back at 6 wks post partum (despite on-demand, exclusive breastfeeding, co-sleeping...whatever). My SIL tried to convince me that just because I was "cycling" didn't mean I was "ovulating." :glare: The term "Irish Twins" exists for a reason... and I'm pretty darn certain with my body, I'd be having several sets.

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Watching this thread, I'm wondering if a large percentage of the more fertile of us chose to use birth control *after* discovering just how fertile we are and those who stay on the no birth control path have experienced NOT getting pregnant right away every time and so that's an easier choice to make--religious reasons only being *part* of the motivation. The fertility of women is very mysterious and unique to each one, too! Very interesting.

 

Or, perhaps there's something about the, umm, drive of more fertile women. LOL Another thread. :tongue_smilie:

Edited by 6packofun
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Are you asking about if you use the withdrawal method, how many times do you end up pregnant anyway? If so, we purposely conceived my daughter (now age 10) right before we got married (yes we got married while I was pregnant lol) and then used the withdrawal method for 5 years and then one day, whoops, there came my happy surprise, now 5 years old. :)

 

No. I mean no bc, but not charting, planning, *trying* to have as many as poss. Just...the natural course of things.

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OK....ahem...we've been married 10 years and we've had 5 pregnancies.

 

So, I put 1 every 2 years.

 

Edited to say: I was told not to take any hormonal birth control by dr. They said I was a huge stroke-risk.

 

I'm curious how they know this. I have a huge family history of heart problems, but was still told that hormonal bc was...well...the only thing. :001_huh: I was 19, about to get married, & decided that that little brown bag of pills was just too weird. A friend suggested NFP, & that seemed better to my very young self. So I haven't ever tried them, but now I'm wondering--assuming it's based on family history (maybe it's not)--how on earth I ever ended up w/ an rx. :001_huh:

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No. I mean no bc, but not charting, planning, *trying* to have as many as poss. Just...the natural course of things.

 

 

Well, I have met this criteria for the last 8 yrs of our marriage. We really had to try to get dd. Afterward, we did not try or prevent. No pregnancies. However, I have endometriosis and pcos. Both of which effect fertility, so I don't think my data will help.

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If you use NO bc--not even NFP--but you don't *try* to conceive, either (anybody still w/ me???), how many kids have you had on avg per yr of marriage?

I don't know what NFP is...

 

We don't use bc, dh stops himself... iykwIm. We've only had our kids intentionally, so I answered other. O untried for pregnancies after almost 12 years of marraige.

 

Does ci count as bc? I know most people would say no.

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I don't know if I should vote because our situation is so different.

 

We've been married 20 yrs. In that time, I've been pregnant 7 times. We had 2 live births (middle dc is adopted). We went through periods of infertility and then periods of time when I was pregnant every 1 1/2 - 2 years but had miscarriage or stillbirths.

 

Since my dd was born, 4 yrs. ago, no pregnancies. We aren't trying to conceive but we're not using anything, including NFP, to prevent. I'm also now 47, so that is a factor.

 

My cycles are like clockwork and returned about 2 months after each pregnancy. My kids are 15 yrs. old, 10 yrs. (adopted) and 4 yrs.

 

Denise

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I didn't answer the poll, either, because right now we're preventing, but we don't use BC either. Every time we decided to not try, but not prevent, we got pregnant within 3 months. I don't nurse, so after a baby, we do try to space them a bit. If I wanted to, I'm sure I could be pregnant already with #7.

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I was told not to take any hormonal birth control by dr. They said I was a huge stroke-risk.

I'm curious how they know this. I have a huge family history of heart problems, but was still told that hormonal bc was...well...the only thing. I was 19, about to get married, & decided that that little brown bag of pills was just too weird. A friend suggested NFP, & that seemed better to my very young self. So I haven't ever tried them, but now I'm wondering--assuming it's based on family history (maybe it's not)--how on earth I ever ended up w/ an rx.

 

 

Ok, this is timely because I just got back from the gyn. I asked about BCP and her only concern was blood pressure. The nurse had taken my BP but the doc took it again--I'm good. That seems to be the primary factor, although stroke is still a possible side effect (along with blood clots and weight gain and a couple other things she mentioned that I can't recall). FTR I'm 46yo and have no other health concerns.

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I'm not answering the poll, but I know that I'd get pregnant every year. I can't seem to stop the freight train.

 

 

:iagree: Abstinance is our only choice as a Catholic couple who can't handle any more dc right now. The only reason our last two are a whopping 2.5 years apart is abstinance.

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Hmmm. Maybe I voted wrong. :confused: I put 1 every 2yrs, but really it was usually a couple months shy of exactly 2yrs. (23m, 21m, 19m) or it was a few months over 2 yrs. (26m. between my two girls) Between this baby #6 and my 5th, there will be 20m.

 

In any case, it was around 2 yrs. between each.

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When dh and I first got married, I had some problems with bc. I stopped using it and got pregnant the first month. When we stopped using bc, 2nd dd was conceived the first month. A couple years later, we got careless. One time w/o BC and I was pregnant again, but I miscarried. With dd9, we were ttc and I read that women over 35 tend to take twice as long to get pregnant. I got pregnant the second month. If we didn't use bc, I think I could Michelle Duggar a run for her money.

 

My mom and dad had 8 kids (including a set a twins) over 17 years. The smallest gap was 13 months and the longest gap was just under 5 years.

 

I didn't vote since I don't meet the criteria.

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We used birth control (the pill) for the first 6 months of marriage. We got pregnant with our 1st the first month after going off the pill. We did not try to get pregnant or do anything to prevent pregnancy, except for normal breastfeeding for the next 11 1/2 years and had 6 more children. The closest spacing is 18 months and the farthest 2 1/2 years.

 

After baby #7 we started using NFP and, later, non-hormonal birth control. That has resulted in three more babies: one in Feb. 2003, one in May 2008, and one due in Aug. 2011. I'm 42 and still don't seem to have any trouble conceiving.

 

 

Susan in TX

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We used abc the first 4 yrs or so but then quit due to physical reasons and then because we were morally convicted against it, we then both converted to the RCC as well.

 

We used NFP for a while and upon stopping of abstinence got pregnant the first month. Since baby #1 I haven't officially charted except for a sm stint of learning another method. Although, not charting though having done NFP classes I have an awareness of things that I cannot turn off. Fertility returned officially w/ #1 and #2 at 15-16 months, got pregnant at 24 and 21 months. With #3 here I have had one period at 15 months but none since, not pregnant.

 

As I said though, even though not charting or officially using NFP, I cannot help but notice some things and would prefer not to get pregnant without a bit more time although if I did get pregnant we would be happy as well. So, I didn't answer your poll. I prefer to be sane between children before actively trying for more :)

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