Mothering, Nursing & Education

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This is my first post on this board. ;)

Basically, I am 33 years old. I have had a rich and beautiful life—full of growth and some trauma that I have been moving past pretty gracefully, if I may say so myself.

I want to have a baby. My fiance and I are getting married in September. We have known that we wanted to have a baby for a long time. He is super supportive. I think he will make a great dad.

Nursing makes sense to me because I want to become a nurse-midwife. My plan is to try to get into to Frontier for my MSN in midwifery and psychiatric nursing. I am currently 13 credits shy of my BS. Frontier will take my BS and an ADN.

The ADN option is so much more affordable but takes a semester longer than the accelerated BSN that I have in my area.

We are planning to try to get pregnant in the Fall.

My plan is to go to nursing school Spring 2019/ Fall 2019. However, I have never had a small child before and so making this plan seems daunting. People have said to wait to have my kid and go for the nursing program now. However, I don't want to. I want to have my baby. I am passionate about midwifery—having a baby is part of the path, for me.

Could anyone share some stories about having a 1 1/2 year old and going to school? Also, has anyone done an ADN and gone to Frontier?

I am just looking for some connections and positivity! x

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I have an almost 1 year old and am attending graduate school. It's hard... some weeks I am a good student, some weeks I am a good employee, some weeks I am a good wife... never all three at once. If I had to do it over again, I probably would start my family earlier and wait to go back to school.

But it's doable. And you may be super smart and not have as many struggles. Once you have your little one and are working as a nurse, you will probably have a clearer picture of wI'll work for you and your family.

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At age 33, you may not have a lot of time to play with. Best case scenario is that you're only "over the fertility hill" and not to the bottom of it yet.

If the baby is important to you, my advice is to start trying right away.

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At age 33, you may not have a lot of time to play with. Best case scenario is that you're only "over the fertility hill" and not to the bottom of it yet.

If the baby is important to you, my advice is to start trying right away.

So, here's a point to consider that you may not have thought of. Would you be ok if you specialized in midwifery, then discovered you had infertility problems and were unable to get pregnant? Would you still feel comfortable committing yourself to that career path?

I only ask because I've known so many NICU nurses who switched specialties to NICU right around the time they were trying to have a baby, and then were devastated when they couldn't. It was especially hard to see moms who were consistently using drugs or abusing their children become pregnant so easily and often. From what they told me, the experience made them dread coming to work. Several of them became burnt out and left the NICU.

It's unlikely that would happen to you, but it is a point to consider before committing yourself to a baby-centric specialty. Another possible benefit of having kids now, then going back to school later on down the road?

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I know we are going to start TRYING this Fall. :) I am in good shape and have been going to acupuncture (which I believe in). I DEFINITELY ovulated this week (sorry, if TMI).

Thanks for the advice. It validates how I feel.

It is going to be hard to go to nursing school with a 1 year old but my priority is to have a baby.

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Oh and I would be 100% fine going into midwifery if I was infertile. I have been a doula without a baby. My passion is helping moms & babies.

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Thank you all for your insights. The decision now is do I do an ADN at the local community college, work for 18 months, then get my MSN or do I get my BSN in 18 months?

I have a BS in Family and Human Development. Our local hospital has a child development center. I would like to work there while I try to get preggo.

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