Metal Mouth Message Board

I have a son who will be turning 3 years old in April. My husband and I were planning on trying for another child soon. That means I'll probably have the second child close to when my son will be turning four years old. I am trying to weigh the pros and cons of getting pregnant now. Financially we are doing great and have a four bedroom home. We also can still afford for me to be a stay at home mom for two kids. So those things aren't holding me back. The main things that are right now, is I'm in braces (only 9 months of wearing them so far). I still have a year and 9 months to go. The other thing is that it is so nice just having one child right now. I also hated being pregnant but loved what pregancy gives me
( a little baby). I was thinking of holding off another year. Maybe have a baby when my son would be turning age 5 instead of age 4. The cons of this are there is then an extra year between two children. Even if I wait another year, I will still be going to the orthodontist when I am pregant but probably not for long after the baby is born. I have to talk to my husband more but I wanted to know what other people thought. Would you wait if you could or would you get pregant now? Just so you know I am age 29, so age isn't a factor in when I should have a child.

-Carolyn

I don't think you can go wrong with anything you decide. I tend to like siblings to be closer in age so I would go for it now. I think the transition for the older child seems easier the younger they are. There isn't anything wrong with waiting either. I would not factor braces in the decision at all.

That being said I can't imagine morning sickness and throwing up every day all day long with braces. If I wasn't done having kids and wanted another though I would still do it and suffer through it. I did not like being pregnant but I did it three times because I just love the prizes you get at the end

Hi csmorg - everyone is different, so I can only share my experience. I found out I needed braces right around the time my husband and I decided to start our family. I decided to put the braces off until afterwards since being pregnant is enough of a challenge and I'm glad I did. Obviously you have the opposite decision to make, but I can understand how you feel and wanted to share some support. On the bright side, you've probably been through the worst with the braces (getting used to them, sore teeth) so if you were to start on your second child now, you could wind up with a beautiful baby and a beautiful smile! Best wishes

Whatever decision you make I'm sure will work out great for you and your family. Since you are already in braces, the main X-Rays have already been taken but you make want to discuss this with your orthodontist becasue some ortho's take X-Rays during treatment. But, I'm sure you wouldn't be the first to get pregnant while going through ortho treatment. There are always alternative solutions to the standard process. It won't hurt to discuss it with your ortho to see if there are any pros/cons with your ortho treatment if/when you become pregnant.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

ssfw

I agree with the others, there is no wrong decision here.

From the perspective of child development and sibling issues, the one year difference really doesn't matter. Once you get to about 4 years apart, the older one will think the younger one (especially if the same gender) is a pest and try to avoid him/her, so 4 versus 5 years apart is a wash.

If, however, at age 5 your child will be in full-day kindergarten (mandatory here), that will give you plenty of quality time with the newborn that might otherwise be shared if the child were 4 and still at home or part-day preschool.

Lastly, even though you are young and probably have no reason to worry about conception, sometimes the second child is harder to conceive than the first. (secondary infertility). Because it sounds like having a second chilid is important, you might consider starting, just to make sure it does happen, sooner than later, but I have no reason to doubt it will from what you said.

Good luck.

wow congrats!!! lol!, i actally was going to ask the same question if there any pros and cons and stuff! not because i want to get pregnant im only 18 , well i wouldnt mind lol but this weekend a guy told me that he wanted me too have his child weird-o right? lol, and he wants a kid as soon as possible but with me coz he is inlove with me, adn you know how guys can be sometimes.
of course i wont, ill haave kids whenever i want and with whom i want lol. so.......

anyways the question just came into my mind and invated my thoughts lol.

well i wouldnt mind lol but this weekend a guy told me that he wanted me too have his child weird-o right? lol, and he wants a kid as soon as possible but with me coz he is inlove with me, adn you know how guys can be sometimes.

Oh hollywood smile, your so ambitious. You want to swim, skate and travel the world and go to college, and now have a baby too? Slow down and enjoy life. That's what it's there for. Spend a few years finding out who you are. Having a child will make motherhood your number one priority. Everything else, including yourself will come after that.

of course i wont, ill haave kids whenever i want and with whom i want lol. so.......

Yikes, sounds a bit self centered. Remember that when you do have a child, that child will belong to two people. Not to mention you will be tied to that person for the rest of your life. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it was off the cuff statement flexing your independant muscles.

Very good question... I am in a similar situation myself. I have a daughter who just turned 2 and would like to have another baby by the time she is 3.5/4 years.. I am only 4 months into my braces treatment so I know that I will still be braced if I were to get pregnant. I am 30 so age is an issue for me only because I dont want to run into any possible infertility problems..(runs in family)... The one bad thing I dread about being pg with braces is how sick and nauseated I would get when brushing my teeth. I ended up only being able to brush 2x daily and using childrens bubble gum toothpaste because anything minty made me sooo horribly sick... (amazing what pregnancy will do to your taste..hehe) Now with braces I need to brush 4-5 times a day to keep things looking fresh! But I saw my ob and he thought the braces were cool and said he had other patients with braces in the past.. that made me feel good...So long story short I am leaving it up to God since I am not on any bc... LOL! Good Luck with your decision! You will know when the time is right!

missing tooth so you do pay attention lol!!!! thanks! lol!, well yeahhh!!! i know! im ambitious, lol, im gonna quit swimming until i settle in college and find a good team, about skating im not a super pro so, i will quit too and after finding the swimming team if college and swimming leaves time then ill continue skating looking for more than just a hobby hahaha, about traveeling yeah i love to travel and every time i can, i do it. lol are just plans, not facts thou the plan is to make them facts lol!! u know? so...........yeah!! dreaming is for free! so why not!!, right now trainning and school takes most of my time, some weekends i dont even get to see my friends lol, yeah frustrating thats why we all need a trip together lol!there are seasons in swimming so sometimes i can take weekends for my friends. anywayss as i said dreaming is for free! lol!, i just hope i can accomplish all i want about the baby i didnt say that im looking for one, i understand im young and i have a future, but.....(it depends on when you ask lol,) anyways im not looking for one i just received a proposal from a weirdo, of course i said no!!! i meant more like...hm....if fate gives me one, then i guess thats how my life is written so i wouldnt give up you know?

Yikes, sounds a bit self centered. Remember that when you do have a child, that child will belong to two people. Not to mention you will be tied to that person for the rest of your life. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it was off the cuff statement flexing your independant muscles.

yeah sometimes im self centered, and it sounds HUGE self centered lol didnt realized till now, as i said depends on when you ask and yeah it belongs to two people, but i guess you agree that it would be stupid to tell this guy, oh really? you want one? thanks for choosing me! i waited my whole life for this and then....you know the rest and getting pregnant and blah blah..reallly stupid, so i guess i have the right to say that im gonna have a kid

whenever i want and with whom i want lol. so.......

I just found out I'm pregnant! I've been in braces since December 04 and was given the usual 18-24 estimate so I am hoping to have them off by the end of this year. If I'm lucky, they will be off before the baby is born but I'll have them most of the pregnancy.

Funnily enough at a previous adjustment, I asked my ortho if there was any way we could close my extraction gaps faster and he said "Get pregnant!" (That's NOT why I got pregnant!) He said that teeth move quicker during pregnancy. He doesn't know I'm pregnant yet...

I decided I wanted to have a baby and I didn't want braces to stop me. I didn't know how long it would take so I thought it best to start sooner rather than later as I'm not getting any younger and who really knows when these things are coming off my teeth!

As someone who has been pregnant twice while in braces, I say go for it! It's really not that bad. I think it's probably the least important consideration in deciding to expand your family.

I'd gotten pregnant for the first time two months into ortho treatment, so I was still in the expander. That was probably the worst part of it, as the expander catches food and vomit far more easily than braces. I was about 13 weeks when I got the expander off and the braces on (which was not pleasant, but I did manage not to puke all over the doc).

This pregnancy, I don't even think about the fact that I'm still in braces ( I will likely get them off around the time the baby's born). It just doesn't bother me. But I'm 32, and want to have four children by age 37, so I had to get going.

Pregnancy does make the gums more tender, so adjustments were a little rough, especially as ibuprofen was forbidden. But Tylenol helped, as did getting used to the braces and adjustments. I have only had one adjustment so far in this pregnancy, and it was super easy.

I am assuming that surgery is not in your future, which would be a major consideration (the reason we waited to try for #2).

As far as the age difference between the children, I don't think 1 year will make that big a diiference. My brother is almost five years older than I, and we're very close.

Whatever your decision, good luck in the trying, and hope your ortho treatment continues to go well.

My husband and I have talked about this over & over again. My personal decision, I'm going to wait till the braces come off. Of course, our situation is different, b/c we are still pretty young (24 & 25) and it will be our first child.

I just want to close this chapter before we start a new chaper. Also, this may sound like the dumbest reason in the world, but I don't to have braces in my pregnancy pictures. I know, I know, not a good reason to wait, but there's also the fact that the braces payments puts a huge dent in our expendable income each month.

I still agree with everyone in that, espically for your situation, there is no way to go wrong, I'm sure you'll be happy with either decision.

sorry, didn't mean to imply that you are not young, i am just programmed to saying that to other people when they ask when we're going to start having kids.

I have a five month old baby boy and have had my braces on for 22 months now. It wasn't bad having braces while pregnant. The only time it was even an issue was during the couple of weeks after I had him, I was too busy recouperating and trying to figure things out to bother with my elastics. Now I'm suffering the consequences as my midline went back to its original off position. Overall, though, it was no big deal.