[miamor]

i was just thinking about the amount of time i would wait in between babies...i dont think i would want another until carlos would be at least 2.5 or 3 years old because of the amount of attention i want to spend on him and the length of time i'd like to nurse him for and let's be realistic, the night wakings, the lack of sleep, etc.... i was wondering if you ladies feel the same way.
i should have thought about this before because i'm not getting any younger!!

[joonzgurl]

I totally know what you mean. There have been nights when I thought Avery would be my only baby. But deep down I know I want 4-5. That and the fact that me and DH almost never find time to DTD anymore because the baby requires so much attention! Do you think it is our parenting style... or just the nature of our babies?

I have wondered when my period would come back, especially since we did toss the idea around of TTC this spring. But that was when she was much younger and we thought for sure things would be "better" by now. So that is definately not going to happen!

I also really don't want to nurse while I am pregnant. Part of me would like to allow DD to self wean, but realistically I think I will probably start the weaning process around 12 months. I will just see how it goes. I was sooooo tired in my pregnancy, I just can't do that to my body I don't think. I want my body to focus on growing another baby, not nursing still.

So anyways, the point I am trying to make is that we have tossed the idea around of having another sooner... but realistically I think there will be 2-3 years between these babies, rather than the 1.5-2 we originally had hoped for. If Avery had been a "good" sleeper things might be different. I'd like to see her STTN before I get pregnant again. If that EVER happens? Because right now I really don't see the light at the end of the tunnell.

[miamor]

i think a lot of babies are like this..it's probably the nature of most babies. but since we dont believe in"sleep training", it's a different demand for us. i know there are some rare babies out there that sleep on their own with no intervention, but i dont believe that's the norm.
carlos slept a lot like avery does and things have gotten better. typically he wakes 3-4 times a night...unless he's teething, then he wakes a lot more...but the 3-4 times a night ranging from 7pm to 5am isn't really too terrible. he goes right back to sleep too...things should get better for you in a couple of more months...it probably wont be perfect, but you'll get more sleep!

[Jule'sMomInOR]

For me, yes.

Personally I am planning to wait 3-4 years in between if I ever have another one (which I think is only about a 50% chance). Part of that is due to wanting to devote as much time as possible to Juliana and part of that is wanting to give myself a break because I do work full time (from home) and I haven't had a decent night of sleep in 20+ months. Even if I wanted to get pregnant now, I'm not sure if I could because I've only had one cycle pp and that was 2 months ago.

I'm not sure how much of it is due to AP parenting style and how much is due to working FT, or if it's the combination of the two that's so hard.

[*Jennifer*]

We are a one-and-done family, but if we were to have another, I would wait until Billy was in school at least part of the day.

[MissImpatientlyWaiting]

I think its the style. I now plan to wait 2-3 yrs and before I had Caleb I had thought we would ttc when he turned 1. I had a miserable pregnancy and I was sooooooo sick. I definitely don't want to nurse while pregnant. And I want Caleb in his own bed before I get pregnant again. I am a tummy sleeper and I toss and turn a lot while I'm pregnant. Plus I just want to enjoy Caleb, but at the same time I don't want to wait too long either.

[alwayssmile]

In an ideal world, yes we'd wait. However, we're TTC right now. We're fertility challenged and we wanted to start TTC sooner than ideal in case it takes us another 3 long years to conceive. I've had my cycle back since DS was 7.5 months (basically when he started eating more solids). I am still nursing, but I do approach it differently now than I was. I used to offer often during the day, but now I don't offer at all unless he's sick or hurt (boob is great for fixing boo boos ). Aiden can sign "milk" and let me know when he wants to nurse. THis has helped me mentally SO MUCH, plus since he really wants to nurse he's a lot more still and productive.

I do remember thinking last summer that I was never going to sleep again.

[breathing for two]

Not at all for me. I was in labour with Elijah wistfully looking forward to doing it all over again. I want quite a few kids and not too far apart.
We are putting a little more space between our next one, but it's more to give my body a break than anything since I've just been sick on and off constantly for the last 3 years. Nursing while pregnant wasn't the easiest either, and I'm hoping to be done with that or almost done by the time I get pregnant again.
Having two kids actually helped my relationship with my daughter. I'm not positive how, but things got so clear when Elijah was born.

[ashleyj88]

We are done at one for various reasons, but I do think AP plays into it a little, especially when I look to the future and think about handling discipline scenarios. I don't know if I could have enough patience to do gentle discipline with a toddler/child plus being sleepless with a baby attached to me all the time (I still wouldn't spank but I don't know that I could fully explain the reasoning behind the discipline and whatnot). I give a lot of credit to people that can do that, I just stink at balance.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Originally Posted by breathing for two

Not at all for me. I was in labour with Elijah wistfully looking forward to doing it all over again. I want quite a few kids and not too far apart.
We are putting a little more space between our next one, but it's more to give my body a break than anything since I've just been sick on and off constantly for the last 3 years. Nursing while pregnant wasn't the easiest either, and I'm hoping to be done with that or almost done by the time I get pregnant again.
Having two kids actually helped my relationship with my daughter. I'm not positive how, but things got so clear when Elijah was born.

Ha, I distinctly remember during labor thinking that one baby was plenty!

[stargatemommy]

We started TTC #2 when Peter was 6 months, because we though it would take another 6 years and 10 miscarriages, but I am knocked up again and Peter is only 11 months old!

[ashj_1218]

Not for us. But I recognize it will be hard and accept that to have the family spacing I would like to have, I might not sleep and be mildly phsychotic for a few years . Not that I think I can control it that much, it could take years to conceive our next child, but we will try for them to be 2 years apart. It is just a personal preference to have the kids close in age, AP or not.