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This probably belongs on 'The Bump,' but...

How did you decide it was time to start makin' babies? Did you always know you wanted to have kids, or was it a decision you came to as an adult? If you've chosen not to have children, what influenced that decision? I'm intrigued.

Re: This probably belongs on 'The Bump,' but...

  • JJ was a surprise. A pleasant surprise, but we were nowhere near having kids when we found out we were pregnant with him. Even before him though, I always knew I wanted to be a mom.

    Now that we're consciously making the decision to have another baby, this is about the age I wanted to have our first one. When H and I first started talking about having kids a few years ago, we wanted to wait until we were around 25, were settled and both had stable jobs. That was all before we had JJ and he went into the military...so things have changed a little.

    After JJ and the military came around, we wanted to wait until JJ was older and H was settled. Well, JJ will be 3 in December, and H should be in Colorado for awhile [with JJ and I moving out there soon]. We hope to get pregnant with no. 2 this fall, and we'll talk about a third in a year or so. If we do have a third kiddo, no. 2 and no. 3 will probably be back to back [as in, 2 under 2].

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  • DH and I had talked about having children when we were dating. When we finally married I wanted kids long before DH was ready. We decided that we would start trying when we reached certain goals (buy a house, clear cc debt, and move closer to some family). When these goals were met it felt like a huge weight was lifted off of us.
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  • We always knew we wanted to have kids while we were young. We liked the idea of chasing them around now and enjoying more "time as a couple" when our kids were grown and we would only be in our early/mid 40's. We got married young and were married a little over 2 years before DS1 was born. It's just something we always talked about while we were dating and early in marriage.

    There came a point in our married life where I could either finish college, have a baby or do both. We were financially secure enough with H's income so at that point I could be a SAHM if I wanted to (which is always what I've wanted to do). We decided to leave it up to God, get off birth control and see what happened. About 6 months later I got pregnant with #1.

  • I do not like kids. I never have.  They annoy me. Unless there is an accident, I will not give birth.

    I have pretty much felt that way forever.

    DH and I talked about it while we were dating; he felt the same way.  Clearly, at this point, he had no idea he had a child.  I wouldn't say kids are growing on him.

    We are still placed in the 'no children' category.

  • Thanks for sharing your personal stories so far!

    I'm sort of on the fence about having kids (which obviously means I'm not ready at this point). DH had a daughter when we met, now my SD, and I have fun with her, and I love her, but I'm always a little relieved when she goes back to BM's house. People tell me it'll be different with bio kids, but I'm not 100% convinced. 

    I both like kids and am annoyed by them. I tend to enjoy the quieter, more reserved/independent kids more, which was how I was as a child. But then I worry that I'll have a loud, bossy, active child, and it'll just drain me. :)

  • C and I talked about it alot in 09 so I got of BC in Jan 10 in hopes that we would be atleast PG by now but that has not happened. I do believe there are reasons as to why we have not been blessed with a baby yet. Some of my friends can't believe I am not PG yet because I have been off of BC for almost 1 1/2 years. C is a little upset we aren't expecting yet so we had a nice talk about a few weeks ago. I will be 30 next year and I do not want to go through IVF or anything like that so when I go see my OBGYN next month I am going to talk to her about it. If it comes to the point that I will have to take meds to have a baby then we will look into adoption.

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  • I have never been the most enthusiastic when it comes to children. Maybe it came from me being from such a large family (4 sisters and 2 brothers) or the fact that I love what dh and I currently have.

    We have not ruled out children but we are extremely comfortable with what we have so far. Kids come with a lot of responsibility and with our respective careers... who knows? 

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  • llizzybllizzyb member
    Sixth Anniversary

    We both always knew we wanted to have kids, and have them in our twenties.

    We started trying about 6-9 months earlier than we originally planned to, due to various reasons, but namely the fact that we knew we would probably face infertility issues.

    I can really see why someone would be in the childfree by choice camp. Even though I want to be a mother, I still think of what our life could be like if we chose not to be parents. It definitely has appealing elements. 


     

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  • imagellizzyb:

    I can really see why someone would be in the childfree by choice camp. Even though I want to be a mother, I still think of what our life could be like if we chose not to be parents. It definitely has appealing elements. 

    Oh, this is my thinking, too.

    I've known for as long as I can remember that I've always wanted a lot of kids. Maybe it comes from having such a huuuuuge family (on both my mom and dad's side), I don't know. I always wanted babies when I was young... like 21/22/23 - I know it's crazy to a lot of people, but that's just what I wanted - mainly for the reasons Tavia stated and because that's how my parents did it. H always wanted kids... but he didn't really have an idea when. We've been 'just going with it' for the past 2 years and nothing has resulted in baby, so now we're getting a little bit more aggressive about it.

    But, like Lizzy said, I can see why some choose not to have children. And sometimes, as badly as I want all those babies, it's really appealing.

    "Always have faith in God, yourself, and the Cowboys...'-Eddie Sutton

  • I've always wanted to have children, so it was important to me to marry someone who felt the same way. Before DH and I started dating, I knew he wanted to have kids (we were friends for a while first).  Once we started dating we both confirmed with each other that kids were in our future, then when we got engaged we discussed how many kids we wanted to have and when.  We decided 2 works for us and that we wanted to be married at least 1 year before TTC.  

    We've bought a house (DH bought it before we met, actually), both have stable careers, and we've paid down a good amount of debt and gotten on the same page financially so that 1 year timeline worked for us.  We'd been married almost 1.5 years when DH said he was ready to start TTC.  When Baby arrives we will have been married a little over 2 years. 

    I wanted/hoped to be a young mom, but DH and I didn't have that luxury (not to say I'm old--I realize 28 is not old).  I was 23 when we started dating and 26 when we got married, DH was 28 and had just turned 32.  I'll be 29 and DH will be 34 when LO arrives this summer...I figure we'll start TTC again in a couple of years, partly because of our ages and partly because we don't want our kids to be too far apart (my sister and I are 8 years apart--not cool).
  • I always knew that I wanted to have kids and also knew that I wanted to have them at a young age. H and I discussed this while dating and he feels the same way. We want to be young when they are born and fairly young when they are moving out of the house. We've been talking about kids for years, but we knew that we needed to wait. We got married when I was a junior in college. I definitely wanted to be graduated before we had a child. H wanted me to go off BCP way before I did. I went off BCP in January and graduated last Friday. I'm not pregnant yet but am hoping to be soon.
  • imagetjlovesthepokes:
    imagellizzyb:

    I can really see why someone would be in the childfree by choice camp. Even though I want to be a mother, I still think of what our life could be like if we chose not to be parents. It definitely has appealing elements. 

    Oh, this is my thinking, too.

    I've known for as long as I can remember that I've always wanted a lot of kids. Maybe it comes from having such a huuuuuge family (on both my mom and dad's side), I don't know. I always wanted babies when I was young... like 21/22/23 - I know it's crazy to a lot of people, but that's just what I wanted - mainly for the reasons Tavia stated and because that's how my parents did it. H always wanted kids... but he didn't really have an idea when. We've been 'just going with it' for the past 2 years and nothing has resulted in baby, so now we're getting a little bit more aggressive about it.

    But, like Lizzy said, I can see why some choose not to have children. And sometimes, as badly as I want all those babies, it's really appealing.

    I can see us doing this. I'll be 29 in a month and H will be 35 in a few months. We have a 6-yr-old SD/DD, and I can see the benefits of having another child as close to her age as possible (though 7 years really isn't "close"). Sometimes it feels like I've already made the choice to have children, because SD is around quite a bit, so I don't think it makes sense to wait.

    I'm not sure I'll *ever* be 100% sure, but when I think "what if H told me he never wanted children?" that makes me upset. I'm apparently rare, in that I haven't "always known" that I want to have kids, but I don't *not* want kids, either. I tend to over analyze everything, so I'm sure this is just another example of that. :)

  • I knew I wanted 4 kids and wanted at least one of those to be adopted.  DH said he would be fine with 1 kid.  When we got serious we decided that we would have at least 2 and talk about a 3rd and/or 4th.  We were married right at 2.5 years when B arrived (I suffered a couple of MC's), I had planned to be "done" birthing children by the time I reached 30. 

    Our views have flipped a bit these days....  DH is ready to knock me up once again and I am running the other way!  I still want multiple children but I am fine with waiting awhile.  

    Adoption is something that we have pushed to the back burner for a bit.

  • Hubby and I had agreed we both wanted kids before we got married. We started trying about nine months into our marriage and got pregnant the first try but had a miscarriage. That was the only time we have been able to get pregnant without "help".

    We spent the last five years of our marriage trying to have a live baby. After our fifth failed pregnancy, we decided we needed a break from trying. It was consuming us and our marriage. For the first time pretty much in our marriage we have just focused on us and it's been awesome. Being able to sleep in late, being able to come and go as we please, and many other things have allowed us to put ttc on the back burner. If God chooses to bless us in the future with children, we would be over the moon. But for now we are content with enjoying our marriage and not having "that" responsibility.

  • jesse and buttercup-- Wow. I can't imagine how tough one miscarriage would be, let alone multiple. Sounds like you both came through the tough times as a couple; I think that says a lot about how strong your marriages are!
  • OUKapOUKap member
    Eighth Anniversary

    Oh gosh.

    H and I wanted children. We didn't want children right after getting married. We just wanted to enjoy it being the two of us. It was always in a few years. H was more ready than I was. He was beginning to think I wasn't interested in kids. I think I got baby fever when several people I knew got pregnant last fall. We talked about going off bc in Nov and trying. It was a pretty sudden decision - we knew we wanted kids before that, but never picked a time. I was expecting it to take a while. We got pregnant that first month of trying.

    I think some people think it was a surprise. It wasn't. Prior to it, I never really talked about having kids with others. I always avoided the conversation.

    We were always ready financially and career-wise. Before the decision to start trying, I always wondered when I would feel ready. Last fall, I started to want kids to share life with and to show them things.

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