Delaying Children until after nursing school.

[mydee]

HI,

Prenursing student here starting to take my prereq this Jan and I am so happy that I changed my major. I am A also 25 years old and married for 3 years so the itch of having children started happening. My husband and I have decided to wait to have children until after school. Michael (husband) is working on his AS in computer and I of course a AS nursing but it looks like it will be another 4 to 5 years before I am finish. I don't know how to deal with it all of my coworks/friends that are my age are starting to have their families. All this because I so badly want to become a nurse and having children right now will make things a lot more difficult. I am going to wait to have children later but are their people in the same boat as I and how do you deal with it?

[dansamy]

Get at least your ASN/ADN (whichever your school likes to call it!) before you have children. I have 3 small children and it was difficult getting through nursing school.

[jov]

I also know that staying healthy, exercising and good nutrition throughout a lifetime are good for fertility.

I am not so sure. Remember that 1 out of 6 couples goes through some sort of infertility. All your good nutrition, exercising, etc. won't be but a drop in the bucket if your husband has a low sperm count or if you have an auto-immune problem, blocked fallopian tubes, etc.

While I don't recommend going to nursing school with infants/small children, I also will tell y'all it took us 11 years to have our first one. Fortunately we were able to go to the best infertility specialists in Chicago AND our insurance covered it (15 years ago our bill for conceiving child #1 was $30,000)...

one needs to be very careful about delaying, delaying, delaying until all circumstances are perfect to have Baby.

With all respect, my personal opinion is it is naive to think you can wait to have kids until you're 41 and all will be well as long as you eat your veggies and walk on the treadmill. JMO

[MB37]

I know I would be nervous about waiting if I was 10 years older, but assuming I get accepted in March I'll be 29 when I graduate. DH is 10 years older than me, but I know that his age is less important than mine. It's really for his sake that we want to start as soon as we can though, especially if we have more than one. He wants to be involved in their sports and everything else. A couple we're friends with is going through the in vitro crap right now...for the third time...she's at 11 weeks right now, so hopefully this one takes. It's weird how the people you think would make the world's best parents are unable to conceive, yet so many people get pregnant that don't want or aren't ready to support children. We are going to wait until I get through my accelerated BSN (Aug 09) and maybe even start trying a few months before graduation - who knows how long it will take. Try to have 2 in 2-3 years, then once they are both in school, I can maybe go back and work on a masters. To the OP, at 25, you're younger than most of us who are responding. You have nothing to worry about. Don't wait forever, b/c the time will never be "perfect," but if you're already in school you should try to finish first.

[sol9]

Ive sat here and read these post twice. Im in tears. Im a 24 year old husband and the father of a 6 month beautiful, demanding, stubburn boy...and expecting what we call his "irish twin." Another boy. He is expected to have the same birthday, a year younger. I work full time, and am dreaming and working so hard at a B.S.N. My wife has an amazing degree from a top school, and does not work. A brilliant Full Time Mom. I can only say to the original post...it is hard. And i wouldn't want to change a thing. I can get Scared, Stressed. Overworked. I am not superhuman, so i ask them for help and Because of them, I can honestly say that I know I will earn my degree(s), and we will adopt more when we can support them too. I may be the only one to say it, but don't wait.

[danissa, LPN, LVN]

Children & studying-- It CAN be done! I had my three children when I started studying, they were all tiny, but we all managed through it! I went back to Uni and studied some more for my NICU Intensive course, this was easier to manage as they were a bit older. I'm glad I did it this way, now they are teenagers, we are reaping the benefits of my hard slog!! It's now that we need that extra cash, especially for my baby boy (14), with his enormous feet in K-Swiss trainers!

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

....With all respect, my personal opinion is it is naive to think you can wait to have kids until you're 41 and all will be well as long as you eat your veggies and walk on the treadmill. JMO

ITA, and thank you for your post.

MOST people think that they won't have fertility problems. Certainly I didn't think I would.

You never know, and the sooner a problem is found out, the easier it is to treat.

But, again.....nobody thinks it will affect them. IMO, fertility is the thing most taken for granted.