POLL: family planning, kids spacing

harvest-wed

so we have been talking lately about our own family planning, when to have #2,

What are your thoughts on having kids and spacing them?  also how many kids do you think you want to have?

harvest-wed

We would like to have #2 summer 2009, but we aren't sure. 

I would kind of like to have the kids close together so they can be closer growing up and be playmates.  Owen would be 18 months. 

Total kids, probably 2, maybe 3. 

WeThreeEs

My boys are 19 months apart and I obviously think it is worth the exhaustion to have them close in age. The pregnancy was way rougher though. I think it has to do with my body not recovering completely. I was still nursing when I got pg at 11 months post partum.

 

Oh, and we are all done for at least 4 years. We said we would revisit then. No decisions yet.

BeckieC832

I really only want one child, but if I do have two, I would hope they would be at least a couple years apart. I don't know if I could handle two in diapers!

TeamBlueMama x2

Well our boys are 2 years and 10 months apart...and it is PERFECT IMO...Drake is just old eough where he is pretty self sufficient and understands alot so communication is good and he helps get diapers and throw diapers away and gets bibs for me etc etc...he's a great helper and loves Jackson to pieces! So I'd say the 3 year timing is good, at least in my experience.

I'm pretty sure we are done having children...DH has his consult in 2 weeks with the urologist for a vasectomy....though now I am 2 days late for my 2nd real cycle since having Jackson....hmmm.... hoping it's just due to wacky periods post baby....if not I will be FREAKING out...but then again we're never given more than we can handle and it will be a blessing. Honestly though if we were to have a 3rd I'd want them closer together just so the chaotic baby stages are overwith and I can go back to work when #3 finally goes to school...I wouldn't wait another 2 years to get PG again. I love being a SAHM but am also getting excited to get back to work eventually.

tmp-62868

I'm glad to read Stacey's response because my 2 will be 2y10m years apart! We chose this spacing more by process of elimination . . . I didn't want 2 under 2, but I also don't love the 4-year difference. So, somewhere in the 2.5-3-year range for spacing was the goal

As far as how many, we're probably done (mostly based on time, space, and money constraints), but I'm not entirely sure our family will be complete at 2. We plan to keep the option for a 3rd open for a few years. 

PenguinGirl06

If you ask me now, while I am awake at this ungodly hour, trying to get Ben back to sleep, ?I would say I am never doing this again.

Ask me later on when he is hugging me and smiling and the answer will be different.

Ideally, I would like to have another in Spring/Summer 2010. ?I will be 33 this year, so I don't want to push it. ?This will all depend on whether we are able to get a house before then, because we have no room at the inn for another bebe. ?I def. want Ben to have a brother or sister though.?

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aparadis1013

We're having #2 about 5 minutes after #1....lol.

Back in my ideal world where I thought I had more control over these things, I wanted to wait until #1 turned 2 to try for #2. After this pregnancy, I can't see myself trying for #3- if we did, I would want the twins to be around 3 1/2 - 4 years olds

Mommy&Tahoe_bri

Mine are 28 months apart. Since my oldest was a very verbal sweet cooperative girl, it worked. My son is all toddler and all boy. Praise be to God I won't be having a third when he's 28 months.

 

I'd like in theory to have another, but not TTC until my son is at least 3, maybe 4. Who knows though? I'm in no hurry to get pregnant again.

 

I think 3 years is good spacing when the oldest is a boy....

mrs.magoo

Right now, I only want one. Tom has joked about only having one in the heat of the moment, but honestly, I'm really thinking only one...I don't know if I could handle two and really doubt I could do 2 under 2...but Tom is 36 now and he really doesn't want to be having children in his 40's...so IF we have another, we will probably only have 2 children - when we were first married though, I wanted 4 - HA!

ChefSarah22

I'm willing to have one more, I think.  Evan keeps saying we need to keep trying til we have a boy.  I told him if he makes girls it's not my problem.  I'm thinking at least 3 years apart, maybe more.  My sister and I are 11 years apart and we get along great.  Plus, I'm only 24 (he's 25) so we have time.  I don't think we'll wait that long though.

izzybella

I think 3-4 yrs apart would be ideal. That way I can thoroughly enjoy the newborn and the older kids are more independent.

I would love to have a big family but we would have to see how that would work financially.?

Nwlyweds

I would love more than anything to have a large family, but fianancially we are unable to support a large family, so we have decided 2 kids, 3 at the most will be perfect for us. Ideally they will be spaced 2-2 and half years apart because I know I never wanted 2 under 2, (paying back to back college tuitions would put us in the poor house) and I certainly don't want them too far apart. If I knew our next baby would be as good of a newborn as Maya was, then I would say let's go for # 2 now, but there's no guarentee that the next will be as easy, so we are waiting until 2009 to try for # 2 which is fine by me!!!

Inlove05

Initially we wanted to have our kids 2 years apart.  But nothiing is set in stone and it doesn't look like thats going to happen.  If I got pregnant now or in acouple months the baby would be due right when we plan to take our vacation back to  Disney... so thats not going to work.  So after a much long and heated discussion... I THINK we've decided Jan 2009, when Brianna turns 2 we are going to start TTC #2.  Thats the plan for now... so we'll see!!!  = )

WideSmileMama

We were older when we got started with this whole baby making process and knew that we definitely did not want an only child (not that there's anything wrong with that - we both had siblings growing up that we were close to so we only hope to provide the same opportunity for our kids to have that) so we wanted them to be close in age.

However, given that we were TTC for just over a year to get PG with our first, we thought that the second would take awhile too so we weren't very careful - NOT SO!  We wound up with a 17 month difference between our kids and you know what, I now think it's perfect for us and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Sometimes you can't just "map out" exactly the way you want your life to go (don't I know it) and you have to just be grateful for the miracles you are given regardless of when they come. 

LnW

If we get pregnant this cycle, my kids will be 2y10m apart, too!  I wanted the 3yr-ish spacing, so that would be perfect.

nwlywedsfooreva

We plan to have at least 3, maybe 4. We really don't want 2 under 2, so I think we'll start trying when Jordan is 18mos-2 years. With all that he went through in the beginning, we're in no rush to bring another baby in right now...we just want to enjoy him and give him lots of attention. I think for the 3rd we'd like the 3 year age difference again. It's tough to think about how we'll do it financially, but it will all work out if it's meant to be!

mrsconti2be

At this point I think that I may only want one child.  My pg has not been easy since the beginning and I really don't think I could do it again.  Also we just started discussing our finances and I don't know if we could comfortably afford more than one child. 

However, I would really like a little girl.  I would never be able to do 2 under 2 b/c I work full time (which is not optional for me).  I would probably wait until Anthony is at least 3 years old before we started trying again and that would only be if we could afford it. I am highly against having children that you can not afford.