Do any of you Momberries try to time your conception so your baby will be born at a certain time of the year? Or does it not really matter to you?
For instance, I wouldn’t want my baby to be born right at the start or end of the year, for fear that a December 30th baby might not get the chance to be developmentally equal to the other kids in his early grade. Similarly, a January 3rd baby might be held back and bored in his first few grades. (For clarity, our school years start in January and end in December, meaning all children born in the same year are put in the same grade.) Then there are those really hot fly-ridden summer months where nobody really wants to be lugging around huge bellies, giving birth or throwing children’s birthday parties for the next 18 years.
I’m probably just overthinking things, but I wanted to know if any TTC moms consider birth months too!
I just gave birth on Thanksgiving day and my opinion is you’re definitely way over-thinking it. What matters is having a safe, healthy, happy pregnancy and baby.
I did NOT want to give birth November through January, since those months here are cold & wet and depressing & I figured that could only increase the likelihood of PPD. Alas, we conceived without trying & baby’s EDD is January 2.
I definitely plan to be more careful with my next pregnancy, since its turning to be inconvenient and rather stressful having a due date so close to the holidays.
Our first daughter was born July 1st and to me that was awesome. I got to wear sundresses through the fattest part of pregnancy & it was easy to eat healthily & stay active right up to the end.
I myself am born early October and I think that would be ideal. It WOULD be nice not to be the size of a house in the heat of Summer.
In the future I will try to plan pregnancy so I will give birth any time March through October.
ETA: I realize it sounds like we’re not excited about this pregnancy. I just want to clarify we are ecstatic, but I do feel a bit sad that I will miss out on a lot of the Christmassy stuff I usually get to do this time of year… and that it is hard to find any energy being so hugely pregnant during such a busy month.
My birthday is in [name_u]January[/name_u] and I always wished I’d been born in the summer, for many reasons - I hated having my bday two weeks after xmas, because you get all your presents at the start of the year, and none for the rest of it and I hardly ever got to have outdoor bday parties because of the weather. That said, as long as you have a happy, healthy baby, it really doesn’t matter x
It’s those hot months that fill me with dread. I do not deal well with heat at all. I can’t imagine being pregnant and huge and uncomfortable AND having to deal with the heat. If we’re still in Australia when we start TTC, we’d ideally like to aim for a [name_f]May[/name_f]-[name_f]September[/name_f] baby so that I’m not miserable with the heat in the last few months of pregnancy. When we start TTC our plan is to start around [name_f]September[/name_f]/[name_f]October[/name_f], but that said if we get to February and still aren’t pregnant I’m not sure if I’d want to stop! We’ll see when the time comes, I suppose.
As for myself, I was born in [name_u]March[/name_u] and loved it. Being from a northern US state, I had a snow day on my birthday three or four times growing up. Nearly always snowy and cold so no beach parties for me, but sledding/snowman building parties can be just as fun. My mom was terrified she’d go into labor with me in the middle of a blizzard, though…
I wasn’t really bothered but would have liked my kids to have either [name_f]October[/name_f] or [name_u]June[/name_u] birthdays because my father, mother, brother, his wife, myself and OH all have birthdays in those months and I thought it would be nice to continue the tradition. We didn’t try for any particular month, though I may have tried a bit harder in months where the births would have been in [name_u]June[/name_u] or Oct.
I spent a year ttc my first and he was born in Oct.
I spent 2 months ttc my second, he was due in [name_f]May[/name_f] but born in [name_u]June[/name_u].
I conceived my DD in the first month and she was born in [name_u]June[/name_u].
I spent 18 months ttc my 4th and had one miscarriage of a baby due in [name_u]November[/name_u]. My DD2 was born in [name_f]September[/name_f]. I had hoped she would hold out until Oct, but it didn’t work. She’s the only one not born in [name_u]June[/name_u] or [name_f]October[/name_f], but it doesn’t really matter in the end.
There is an old thread about favourite months to have a baby and the majority choose spring months, if I remember correctly. My own birthday is in late [name_u]June[/name_u] and I like it. Semester break or after exams birthday sounds great to me.
I don’t think being the oldest/youngest in the class is a problem. I know some people who started school a year early than what it is suppose to be for them and they are doing great.
There is an old thread about favourite months to have a baby and the majority choose spring months, if I remember correctly. My own birthday is in late [name_u]June[/name_u] and I like it. Semester break or after exams birthday sounds great to me.
I don’t think being the oldest/youngest in the class is a problem. I know some people who started school a year early than what it is suppose to be for them and they are doing great.
It would be wonderful to try to plan the month to give birth, but the reality of TTC makes me realize I just want a healthy baby, I could care less when they’re born. You can’t control these things.
I was due in [name_f]July[/name_f] and really didn’t mind being pregnant in the heat! You can live in maxi dresses and flip flops and not need a lot of expensive winter maternity clothes. And a few weeks after delivery, we had nice weather to get out and walk. Plus turning 12 weeks on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] [name_f]Eve[/name_f] was fantastic timing
Id probably choose spring or summer over winter just because of flu season worries and being stuck inside, but as others have said, you can only plan so much.
If I had the choices, I’d love a spring baby so that I wouldn’t have to be preggo in the hot summer, but after 4.5 months of TTC with looooong cycles, I definitely don’t care enough to time things. If we conceived this cycle, I’d have an [name_u]August[/name_u] baby. If I were 22, maybe I’d consider waiting so as not to be huge in the summer months, but right now there is now way I would put TTC on hold for a few months just to have an ideal birth date. Having a healthy baby would be a joy in itself.
FYI, my brother was a [name_u]January[/name_u] baby (oldest in his class) and I was a [name_f]September[/name_f] baby. We were both head of our class and had no complaints. I think being the baby of the class is worse for boys, because they may be smaller than the oldest boys and it can be really frustrating for them. I would have sucked at gym no matter when I was born, so it’s no matter to me!
I definitely am interested in planning out birth months, and care about when the birthday is. So much so that we will definitely NOT be TTC in [name_f]April[/name_f] because the baby would be due on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] day, lol. I know someone who’s birthday is [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] and I always feel bad for him—no one gets to celebrate on his actual birthday and it’s totally overshadowed by the holidays.
But I’m also paying for a more expensive/better insurance policy this next year and we want to make the most of it and ideally contain the entire pregnancy and birth within the calendar year. So we’ll be trying at the beginning of the year and hopefully delivering in the fall. I’m okay with that but I would prefer a spring or summer birthday. Mine’s in [name_u]March[/name_u] and I always liked the timing of it.
I used to think I wanted a summer baby–or be in the cute stages of pregnancy during the summer. Neither wish worked out, but I am so glad now. Because of hormones my skin has been going a little crazy, so I am grateful I get to cover it all up! And after a long upper Midwest winter, I am going to be so happy in the spring with my newborn baby.
We didn’t aim for a particular month. I was just happy to a) get my cycle back after Depo b) get pregnant at all. I think it’s natural to think about though, and if it works out for you, then that’s awesome.
I planned out birth months. I wanted a summer baby so we TTC around [name_f]July[/name_f]-Sept. We got pregnant in Sept. tracking ovulation and such and gave birth in [name_u]June[/name_u] exactly a week before my own birthday to [name_f]Persephone[/name_f]. It’s perfect because having a spring/summer baby meant her name was so much more meaningful being the goddess of spring growth and all.
For this next baby, we’re trying for a fall baby, hopefully an [name_f]October[/name_f] baby, but anywhere in fall would be nice.
Now, if it doesn’t work as I want, it’s fine and I’ll be happy no matter when he/she is born as long as they’re healthy and whole, but it’s nice to try to make it work
The only thing I’m worried about is being finished with grad school when I have a baby - so since I am graduating in [name_u]August[/name_u], we can’t start trying until after my next cycle - if we got pregnant right away this would give the baby an [name_f]October[/name_f] birthday, which would be fine. My birthday is really cloe to [name_u]Valentine[/name_u]'s [name_u]Day[/name_u] and it never bothered me. I love having a bday in what is generally considered the worst month of the year.
I would ideally like all my babies to be spring-early summer babies. DS1 was born at the end of May and that was perfect- he was born before the heat of summer set in so I wasn’t too uncomfortable, but the weather is still nice enough at the end of May so we could have his birthday party outside. And we avoided flu season with a newborn, which is huge. He’s never been sick and I do attribute some of that to the fact that he wasn’t born in the middle of cold and flu season. His birthday is two days after mine and I always liked having outdoor birthday parties right before school ended. His birthday is also right in the middle of the pack for school cutoffs (Dec 31 is the cutoff date here).
This baby is due at the end of April, which is on the early end of when I’d ideally like all my babies born. We didn’t know how long it would take to conceive and figured April was the earliest we would want a baby, and got pregnant first try. Ideally I’d like my next baby to be born in June.
We didn’t plan to have a summer baby, we just started trying when we decided we wanted a baby. At first I didn’t think I’d want to be 9 months pregnant in the heat of summer, but given that our apartment has a pool and you can shamelessly wear maxi dresses constantly, I’m actually pretty excited about it. A spring baby would be awesome because by the time they’re getting big enough to sit in the grass outside it’ll still be nice out. We will avoid a [name_u]December[/name_u] or [name_u]January[/name_u] baby, as my family has a lot of birthdays in [name_u]December[/name_u] and [name_u]January[/name_u] on top of all the holidays, and it just makes me crazy. We will not be adding to the chaos if we can help it.
Ideally i would like to have kids born around February-[name_u]June[/name_u]. I am an [name_f]Autumn[/name_f] baby ([name_u]November[/name_u] 3) and I have always loved my birthday because it was close to the holidays but not too close. So I wouldn’t mind it having a baby around [name_f]September[/name_f]-mid [name_u]November[/name_u], I just wouldn’t like to be heavily pregnant in the summer months. But i guess at the end it doesn’t really matter, as long as the baby is happy and healthy.
My mom was terrified she’d go into labor with me in the middle of a blizzard, though…