Baby in last semester of NP school

NICUmiiki, DNP, NP · Feb 20, 2018

Yes you can. You have support from your daily and I'm assuming your school. You have a plan. I'd just say have a contingency plan if things go sideways (bed rest/preterm delivery). Otherwise, keep chugging along.

And congrats!!!!!!

EDNURSE20, BSN · Feb 27, 2018

Personally I would wait a little bit longer.

A. School is stressful. Adding to it isn't the best idea. Plus you don't want the stress to effect the baby.

B. You may have complications that might force you to give up school, for example if your in bed rest for a complication. Trying to go back and finish school with a baby won't be much easier too.

C. You have plenty of time to have a baby. Why rush it.

But in the other hand there is no perfect time to have a baby or you might have a hard time getting pregnant. Only you know what's best for you. But personally I would wait, and maybe start trying towards the end of your programme that way if you get pregnant you won't be to far along while still studying so shouldn't have much effect of your studies

meaghann3 · Feb 27, 2018

I am in NP school as well but I am just beginning. I found out I was pregnant when I was accepted, and took my first 2 classes while I was pregnant (summer & fall, had my baby January 10th). I considered taking a class this spring because I thought it would be easy to take a class since I had 12 weeks off and babies sleep a lot-right? I am very glad I did not take a class this semester and here is why...

I had an uncomplicated lady partsl delivery but it has taken me 7 weeks to be able to sit and walk distances comfortably due to 2 second degree tears I had (80% of women have tears after birth so it's safe to assume you will have a tear you will need to heal from). Not to scare you, but it was extremely painful and I am just now feeling back to my normal self. There is NO way I could have gone to class and sat in a chair while I was healing from that.

You will be exhausted. Babies eat-wake-sleep cycles are only 1.5-3 hours the first couple of weeks and after that they are 2-4 hours. So yes, although they sleep a lot, once you are done feeding them, they are awake for a couple of minutes, sleep for an hour (2 if you're lucky) and you're right back to feeding them. It's extremely difficult to get anything done in that time period. I am seriously lucky if I get to take a nap, shower, and eat all in one day.

If you have any complications with your pregnancy, delivery, or if your baby needs to be in the NICU, have surgery, etc. your plans for school will 100% be completely out the window

Also, if you plan to breastfeed, it is a FULL TIME job in the beginning. Nobody warned me about this, but I literally fed my baby 10-12 times per day and each time it took minimum 30 minutes, usually closer to an hour once I burped them, changed sides, changed diaper.

I honestly would just wait a few months and make sure you have your baby a few weeks after school ends. I was 35 weeks pregnant my last day of class in the fall semester and that was about as pregnant as I felt comfortable being in case I had a preterm delivery or something go wrong.. i was very lucky I didn't though and everything ended up fine.