DH Ana I did a lot of planning for DD. We paid off our student loans this saved to buy a house and a car. We saved our time off for mater it’s lrave and took some adventurous trips. It took about 6 months to conceive. That said, we were not prepared for some of the realities of parenting. The sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, post partum depression, career trade offs.

Yes and no. We adopted so we only had 6 weeks. We didn’t buy anything until birthparents signed at two days old.

Nope. We didn’t plan on becoming pregnant but it wasn’t difficult to incorporate a baby in our life. We already had a house, I stopped working (economy was tanking anyway), and it was just a nice, easy time in my life.

Not really. Our first was a surprise so we didn’t have a chance to plan anything before conceiving. Once we decided to try for a second, we didn’t feel the need to plan because everything was in place and we had already adjusted as needed for our first child.

Absolutely, and it made things a million times easier, because I have ADHD. I'd have been lost and extremely stressed if I hadn't prepared. Not that it was easy! But people say things like, "You can never be totally prepared," and it's like... no kidding? Maybe the most you can possibly be prepared is 40%, but there's a huge difference between 0% and 40%.

We paid off both of our student loans, finished major home renovations, made sure we had enough time off saved, and did a few big trips before trying to conceive our first. It took us 5-6 cycles to conceive, which is normal but still tough - everyone around us was getting pregnant on the first try - and one *very* early loss. But our kid is amazing and we are SO happy that we have this specific kid.

Probably will try for another in a year or so. Nothing is currently on the to do list but we do talk about maybe doing an addition to this house or moving, and do want to travel a bit with this kid before we add to our family.

Even though we did a lot before DC1, I think ultimately life happens and it is what it is. It is hard to 'make things right.' Good luck!

My first child was not planned and nothing close to an ideal situation. My husband and I are planning for #2. We're renovating our house, I'm working on losing weight, we had to both make career adjustments. It is such a different experience to essentially try to make things right. I almost feel like it will jinx us and we will have trouble conceiving. Anyone BTDT and have a happy story?