New here and 3 years away from TTC

misscat28

So, I have pretty bad baby fever right now. And it's a little strange because up until recently I was very mixed about ever having children. Perhaps it was because I wasn't financially ready, or because I didn't have someone in my life I wanted to have children with. I love kids, but I just couldn't ever picture myself having them at various times in my life. I'm 28 now and my fiance and I got engaged a few months ago. We are planning on getting married next fall (~16 mo engagement) in order to put money aside for the wedding and honeymoon. We bought a house last year and lived together for a while before that. We are very excited about our future!

We really want to do more traveling before we have kids, and get our finances in top shape. We plan to have a significant emergency fund, and about $10k in a baby fund before baby arrives. We have about $30k worth of traveling we wish to do over the next 3 years, so we are also saving for that. The traveling, plus paying off my student loans, and saving for our future are the big reasons for waiting. We have both discussed we are excited to become parents, but want to wait a bit first. Our last big vacation will be Italy in September 2018, and after that we figure we will probably start TTC. Of course things change and things don't always go as planned. 

Is there anyone out there waiting this long? I also hear my clock ticking. I will be 31 by the time we TTC for baby #1. We would like to have 2 children when I'm 32 and 34 (fiance is 3 yrs older). I don't really want to be much older, but in order for this to happen everything has to align just right! The planning out our budgets and planning for the wedding has been keeping me somewhat distracted from thinking about babies. Is anyone else this crazy planning things out? It's all that has been keeping me sane lately!

LavenderBrown1018

Welcome!!! I'm like you and have had babies on the brain for many, many years! It's great that you guys have a plan, we didn't have a specific plan until a few months ago but ever since we finally made one I have definitely felt more calm about it. It gives you something to look forward to. 

ENJOY your vacations! Sounds like you have some amazing years coming up!

BlueBirdMB

I was so there when we were engaged.  I had baby fever a year before we were married and I'm such a planner, so I thought about it a lot!  We've been married 2 1/2 years and still no TTC.  We wanted to married between 4-5 years when we had a baby, so we're still a ways out.  Traveling was also really important to us.  We had savings goals, salary goals, and wanted to buy a house and make it what we wanted before TTC.  We have a house, we have reached our savings and salary goals, and are still doing minor work to our house and traveling.  I'm enjoying every minute of it.  I satiate my baby fever with TB and buying things and playing with friends and family's babies.  It's going pretty well.  Another 1- 1 1/2 years until TTC for us.

HookEmNelson

Welcome! I love that y'all are taking everything into consideration. You will be so thankful you took the time to plan, travel, and save. You got this and we are here to help the wait! Come on and join the baby fever train.

sorarose

TTC in Italy sounds like a good idea...

Xstatic3333

Welcome! We're nearing the end of a two-year wait. We also wanted to do some traveling. We didn't get to do quite as much as we hoped, but will have two big trips under our belt before a baby arrives. Where else are you planning to go?

strickland8052

I've had baby fever ever since we got married, two and a half years ago. Now that the wait is almost over, I can tell you that it was worth it. DH and I have had a blast over the last two years and saved a lot of money. However, now that all of our friends are starting to have babies, I don't think I could wait much longer....even though we would like to travel some more.

In my wait, I found that I was most distracted when working towards some big goal: running a half marathon, finding a new job, and finishing my master's degree. Best wishes on finding something to keep your sanity!