Start nursing school with a newborn at home?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi, Thank you all for reading! I have just decided not to attend a Johns Hopkins nursing program that begins in June, due to financial reasons. Since I was intending to go there, I turned down all my other school options that were more reasonable cost-wise. This means I'll be starting school in the summer of 2010, and ending 1 1/2 years later (accelerated program). HERE'S THE CATCH: My husband and I have baby fever. We've been together for 7 years, since we were young, and we feel like we've been waiting ages already. So, I'm strongly considering trying to get pregnant now, and trying this month and next (if we failed to conceive after two months, we would stop trying until after school). This would mean I would have a 2 or 3 month old baby at home when I stared a 1.5 year accelerated program. Now, I'm not an idiot... I know this would be hard, I'm just trying to decide whether or not it would be impossible. The idea of waiting 2.5 years just to start trying makes me want to die inside, but I know it would be the smartest thing to do.

While it may seem like I've answered my own question... we're still planning to try this month. I would love to hear from anyone who has done this personally, or known someone who has. I'd obviously love to hear words of encouragement, but I know I'll be getting more harsh doses of reality than kind words. :crying2:

Thank you again!!!:redbeathe:redbeathe

Okay I have alot to say about this topic since, I got a suprise.

In fact, my boyfriend sitting her actually thought I posted this thread when he first glanced at it.

I am not able to take birth control of any form because my body reacts inappropriatly and I have severe adverse reactions.

We used other methods foam, condoms, and the morning after pill. We used these as directed but apparently I was very fertile. The condom broke to make a long story short. I had the morning after pill within 12 hours and another 12 hours later.

Don't get me wrong I am glad to be having a little boy soon but my emotions and guilt are starting to get the most of me.

I hate to think I would have to be gone for school and work all day while he is so little.

I also have a hard time imaging when I will be able to sleep. Since I will have classes all day, work all evening, and a small child at night. Not to mention finding a daycare I feel safe leaving my child with.

I feel once you made this decision and are expecting the fears you should have now will finally set in.

Wait until you have half a year left then start trying. I will saying doing school and work while in the early stages of pregnancy is not as bad as it seems.

Specializes in Med Surg, Peds, OB, and ER.

You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength...Phillipians 4:13, that's how I got through school with two small children! Good luck with what you decide!

Specializes in L&D.

Of course you CAN do it.

Personally, I would not. A tiny baby at home takes up a lot of time. If you want to breastfeed, you need to consider where and when you would pump in clinicals and at school. You need to consider the (lack of) sleep you'll be getting at home, and whether you'll learn at the pace required in an accelerated program. You need to consider the choices you'll have to make between spending time playing peek-a-boo with your baby or studying for the exam you have tomorrow.

My advice is to have a baby and wait a year to go to school. Then you'll have a toddler, which is still crazy difficult in nursing school but way more sane than having a newborn in nursing school.

Good luck. This is a really hard decision to make, I know.

Specializes in GU/surgical, Bariatrics, Endoscopy.

I had a 8 month old when I started pre req's and she was three when I started in the nursing program. It has been very hard. I was gone all day at school and clinicals, but when I was home I had to study. I never got to spend time with her. Thank the lord I had lots of help from my husband and mom, but a newborn is a lot more demanding than a 3 year old. She is now 5 and I am officially a graduate nurse today!:D I would def wait until after school, but that's just my two cents.

Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Family medicine.
I had a 8 month old when I started pre req's and she was three when I started in the nursing program. It has been very hard. I was gone all day at school and clinicals, but when I was home I had to study. I never got to spend time with her. Thank the lord I had lots of help from my husband and mom, but a newborn is a lot more demanding than a 3 year old. She is now 5 and I am officially a graduate nurse today!:D I would def wait until after school, but that's just my two cents.

congratulations linz09!!

School is not bad if your pregnancy goes well, but it is kind of hard to concentrate on un-baby related things. Once you have the baby it's going to be a whole different ballgame! Having a support system like family and friends you can rely on will make a huge difference. Life will be much less demanding without a baby. You may find that you never want to leave the little bundle! It kind of depends on your situation, ie, whether or not you will need to work, who can help you out. I will say this: neither of my children were planned and they are 6 years apart. My baby just turned 6 mos and I am (planning) NS in the Fall. While I dread putting him in daycare, I know that school is temporary and this is ultimately to better our lives...BUT, even if you have perfect angel children like I do, they still are incredibly needy, and there is a good chance your husband will be needy, too, and may be resentful when you need to study. You might feel guilty about pawning off the baby on others yet again... The important thing is that you set yourself up for success. Stress = bad. Get your support network of family and friends together and put it out on the table for discussion. Good luck!

No one even mentioned how you might feel after birth... It's possible that you will not feel like your old self since your body will be recovering from giving birth. Some women get post partum depression. If you try to do both baby and school, you would be a new student and a new mom plus you also need to tend on your role as a wife. If you are still in your twenties, I think that you should finish nursing school first as fast as you can then have the baby.

But if you are a little older then have the baby first then do nursing.

I found out I was pregnant shortly before being accepted to nursing school so I put off school for two years and did not regret it one bit! You will have to spend so much time on school work and they are little for such a short time. I don't think it would in any way be wrong for you to go to school when the baby is so little, but you will be missing a lot.

Specializes in LTC.

I too had baby fever bad when I started nursing school. I wanted to try to get pg despite my plans to start school, but my husband convinced me we should wait. Once I got to the point where if I were to get pg the baby wouldn't be born until after I finished school, we stopped trying to prevent pregnancy and I got pg right away. My dtr was born literally days after I finished school (our last day of class was Dec. 5, 2008, she was born Dec 9, 2008) and I proudly attended my pinning cermony with my 3 day old baby in the audience.

I am glad I waited. Even though it was tough being pg while in school, it was doable. But I was blessed with an easy, relatively uneventful pregnancy. But I don't know that I could have managed a newborn and school. I planned to study for NCLEX while on maternity leave (I even naively packed my NCLEX review book in my hospital bag!), but I was so exausted the first 6 weeks, taking care of the baby and myself took every bit of energy I had. I didn't even open my NCLEX review book until she was 2 months old.

That being said, there were a few gals in my class that did have babies while in school and they managed to make things work. One thing that continues to amaze me in my motherhood journey is my ability to find strength and energy I didn't know I had to make things work for my family. Living on no sleep doesn't seem so bad when I know I'm doing it for my dtr.

Good luck with whatever you decide. I know how baby fever can take over your life.

Specializes in My son...for now..

Even in the best of circumstances the rigors of nursing school, not to mention an accelerated track will result in sacrifice. I cannot emphasize too much how differently your feelings are after motherhood. There is a physical longing that I cannot explain that occurs and does so well into infancy.

I have a two year old and six year old and even though I am only gone two days during the week (all day) and two full weekend days (12hrs), one has to account for time to study and time to relax. Enjoying a new baby should be done without the strain of scheduling, not to mentio the unforeseen illnesses and numerous first doctors' appointments that can more than overwhelm the daily schedule of new moms. A girl in my cohort was two clinicals away from finishing the semester and boom, the baby arrived early and so now she finds herself even further away from her finish line and with a baby that is not well.

There are many things to be considered outside of just desiring a baby.

Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
Even in the best of circumstances the rigors of nursing school, not to mention an accelerated track will result in sacrifice. I cannot emphasize too much how differently your feelings are after motherhood. There is a physical longing that I cannot explain that occurs and does so well into infancy.

You said that so well. I didn't realize how strong the longing would be until I had my first baby while I was in nursing school. Fortunately I was done with the LPN part, but I never went back for the RN portion, even though that was my intent in the beginning. I just couldn't be separated from her that soon.

I did go work out of the house when she was 3 months old until she was fairly close to 3 years old, but it was uncomfortably difficult for me to leave her with a near stranger in the form of daycare.

I still feel so strongly this way that this is one of the reasons I work at home now, even though my youngest is not a little baby anymore. (She's 3.)

To the OP--If you find that you still have plenty of spare time after you start nursing school, that might be a good time to start trying to conceive.

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

It would be hard, but not necessarily impossible. I had a baby right in the middle of my 3rd semester of nursing school, and managed to finish that semester and finish the following semester and graduate.

HERE'S THE THING: it might not have been possible had it not been for my husband's parents. They kept the baby a LOT while I went to school, and my husband worked; then I worked on the weekends.

So, in my opinion, it's really important to have good family support in place... or not even necessarily family support, maybe friends that would be willing to help out with the baby.

Good luck!!! I think you can do it.

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