script question

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

How can I include a counter in this if statement so only sends out 5 notifications.

# the if statement will check for the lines status, if status is down sends email
if
[ ${status_1} -ne 2 ]
then
LIST="user@email.com"
mail -s "rje_lines_down" $LIST  < ${tmpfile}    #sends an email to list
fi

thanks in advance

2 
A=1
...
if ...
     while (( $A <= 5 )); do
          mail ...
          let A=$A+1
     done
fi
...
3

thanks for the quick reply....