My husband & I are in the preparation stages of TTC. I’ve thought a lot about the months that I’d prefer to have a baby. He thinks I’m crazy. lol He always says, “You can’t plan that.” You can’t plan it to a T, but you can be approximate. Like, I don’t really want to give birth in [name]December[/name] for a # of reasons, and I’m not sure sure that I want to be 8-9 months pregnant in the middle of summer. I’ve heard that it’s pretty rough.
I don’t want to seem so picky. It’s just things I’m thinking about. Have any of you planned out a pregnancy because of similar reasons or maybe a job (like a teacher going on maternity leave in the summer) or something else?
Oh I think about timing for #3 all the time! I want to avoid being very pregnant in the hottest months, I would like to avoid coming too close to either of my girls birthdays (at least a few weeks), other considerations are [name]Christmas[/name], a planned vacation etc, but those are not as important. I know I can’t plan exactly but hey, why not shoot for the best timing if possible!
I am 35 weeks right now, I can tell you that it’s miserable being heavily pregnant in the summer. My first was born in early [name]December[/name], and while that season had its challenges too (the area where we live was hit with a series of massive snowstorms that winter), I would much rather be pregnant and give birth then than now. The only advantage to having a [name]September[/name] baby is being able to take long walks in the stroller once the temps cool down a bit.
Also, I’m in academia, and I can tell you that all of my colleagues begin TTC in [name]September[/name], in order to give birth in [name]May[/name] at the end of the school year. Obviously, my pregnancy was unplanned.
Speaking as a [name]Christmas[/name] baby, I can say that I wouldn’t have minded be born earlier in [name]December[/name] or later in [name]January[/name]…
I’m a teacher and we tried to get pregnant with both of our kids in late spring/early summer so that I could suffer the morning sickness (all-day sickness in my case) and extreme tiredness that comes with the first trimester while I wasn’t working. I have a pretty sensitive stomach and I had a feeling I would be sick while pregnant and I was quite sick with both for the first trimester. We were extremely lucky and extremely fertile and got pregnant right away with both and I was feeling great by the time I went back to work in the fall with both pregnancies. There’s no guarantee that you can plan it, but some people can and there’s no harm in trying! I felt very blessed that it worked out the way it did for us.
I’m not TTC yet (OH and I are still in the WTT stage) but ideally I’d like to give birth sometime between [name]August[/name] - [name]November[/name].
I’d like to give birth then for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the climate where I live is rubbish all year round, our [name]Summer[/name] is just a couple degrees hotter than our winters so being too hot isn’t an issue for me.
Secondly, in terms of the school year, I think [name]August[/name] - [name]November[/name] is a great birthday to have. Kids born in those months are usually amongst the eldest in their class, which I think is a good thing.
[name]December[/name] isn’t good for me cause personally I wouldn’t like my birthday to be so close to [name]Christmas[/name]. [name]January[/name] - February wouldn’t be too bad I guess. I think that [name]March[/name] - [name]June[/name] aren’t good because the kid would be one of the youngest in their class, ie. they’d be starting school aged 4 and wouldn’t turn 5 till almost the end of the school year, and this can impact their learning ability because they are sometimes not as mature as the other kids.
This is me letting my inner control freak out, of course. When we start TTC we won’t be aiming for a specific birth month. [name]Just[/name] getting pregnant in the first place would be great! These would just be my ideals if I could choose.
[name]Strawberry[/name] Shortcake, I am totally on the same page as you with this one! We definitely planned conception around having our child be one of the oldest in the class and fortunately we are expecting a [name]November[/name] baby. It is really enlightening when you read articles about how being the oldest in the class has a cascade effect (waaaaay less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and medicated - those poor little ones in the class simply don’t have the attention span that the older ones do) and then they are physically more mature so eye-hand coordination for sports is often better. I was really surprised when I read an article that talked about being older helping all the way into post secondary. I totally agree that my husband and I are being a little neurotic about this, and just because you might have been one of the youngest in your class certainly doesn’t mean you won’t go on and have a successful life, however if the stars align and you have the option of giving your child a bit of an advantage, why not?
Our goal was a feb baby for number and numbers of reasons. We were incredibly lucky and got pregnant in [name]May[/name] on our first try. Our other favorite months would have been [name]April[/name] or [name]October[/name], but if we weren’t so lucky right away we would have been happy with whatever.
Also, my bday is [name]Jan[/name] 12 and I dont mind it at all. It’s always two pay days after Xmas so ppl couldn’t use that excuse to bail out in dinners or parties. [name]One[/name] year we rented a chalet (a friend has the same bday) and it was awesome!
I am trying to avoid [name]July[/name] as a birth month for future babies. This is not to avoid being horrendously pregnant in the heat (since june/july/august is [name]Winter[/name] here in New Zealand); It’s because my own birthday and my son’s are in [name]July[/name]. My (step)sister has two boys born in [name]July[/name], add up all the other family members and close friends whose birthdays are in [name]July[/name] and we are up around the 10 - 12 mark.
This past [name]July[/name] was just crazy for birthday’s and functions.
Ideally I’d like to have any future babies [name]March[/name] to [name]May[/name] or (late)[name]August[/name] to (early) [name]November[/name], avoiding [name]Christmas[/name]/New Year and very middle of the year!
I’m not having kids for a while, but I know what you mean! Months to avoid for me are [name]August[/name], [name]July[/name] and [name]March[/name]. Especially [name]August[/name]! Not just because of the heat, but because there are so many [name]August[/name] birthdays in my family (me, my sister, at least three cousins, and an aunt) it would be exhausting to keep track of them all. [name]March[/name] and [name]July[/name] are the same way, there are a lot of birthdays scattered about. Idealy I would want a late fall, winter, or early spring baby. Something about those months is appealing to me (besides the cooler weather!) @strawberry shortcake- I was born in [name]August[/name] and I’m the youngest in my class. While all of my friends were turning sixteen, I was just fifteen. So [name]August[/name] birthday doesn’t always guarentee eldest in class. [name]Just[/name] thought I’d mention it!
My mom is a teacher, and my brothers and I were all born in the summer (though it wasn’t planned that way)! Like many others mentioned, I would personally prefer to NOT be heavily pregnant during the summer months, especially since I’ll likely be living in [name]Arizona[/name]. My mom sad it wasn’t bad with my one brother and me, because we were both born in [name]June[/name], but it was awful being pregnant through the whole summer with my other brother who was born in mid-[name]August[/name].
I’m pretty sure that everyone on this thread is just talking about this for fun - I doubt anyone here wouldn’t want their baby just cause it was gonna be born in an inconvenient month.
If I were to plan I would be trying to get pregnant now
That way you are in your 2nd trimester by Christmas and have the baby late May/early June. My daughter was born the end of June and I was glad to not go through the whole summer.
Also, I was around a lot of kids my age in my neighborhood and one of my friends who had a later birthday couldn’t start school with the rest of us which was hard on her to be split from all her friends (just playing devil’s advocate) :-). I know for a lot of kids the extra time and maturity is beneficial.
But yes in the end it doesn’t matter when they come - they are always a blessing!
I knew I didn’t want to be largely pregnant in the summer months. When our first try didn’t take, I did want to skip a month, to avoid a [name]December[/name] baby, but for a few reasons, my husband was against it, and voila, we’re due on Dec. 21. I think all best planning intentions can’t really compare to the baby you’re given - what I mean is, if we had skipped a month, I wouldn’t be pregnant with the same tiny person that’s growing inside of me now. They’d be someone completely different, and so when it finally happens, even if it’s not exactly what you plan or are hoping for, ultimately you can’t imagine it any other way.
I’m a huge planner in most every area of my life so it really has to be a constant “woah, take a step back, the timing will be perfect whether you get your way or not”…but it’s hard not to have a preference (it rings similar to the thread about gender preference, obviously an extreme preference isn’t okay, but who doesnt have SOME preference)!
I’m just a big baby about weather and would love not to be enormously pregnant in [name]July[/name] and [name]August[/name]. An [name]April[/name]–[name]June[/name] birthday would be ideal in my book.
Totally normal…I think lots of people consider this. In fact, it’s one of the last things you can try to plan, because once you do get pregnant, your body does what it wants/needs to! Pick a window and shoot for it, knowing you’ll be happy no matter the actual birth month once you’ve got that baby in your arms.
