It means that you should crochet around every edge: top, sides, bottom, and the neck edge.

If the center is too big, you could make several decreases around the neck edge by inserting your hook into a stitch and pulling up a loop, then inserting your hook into the next stitch and pulling up another loop, then yarn over and draw through all three loops. Repeat this every few stitches and see what you think. If the neck edge is far too big, you will want to do this for several rows.

Oops sorry, I reread my original post....I meant to say does this mean more than ONE stitch in the DC's along the sides?

Thanks Donna for the reminder to keep decreasing when I try to fill in the center.

At least I learned that I like this yarn (cottontots from bernat) and I like most of the pattern, next time I will try a smaller hook, etc.

I usually do 2 sc along the side of one dc.