Goals before next baby...

[laketide]

For those of us who know we want another little one but aren't quite ready yet what are things you hope to accomplish before another pregnancy?

Mine are:
Getting in the best physical shape possible to help have an easier pregnancy and recovery - I had lots of complications last time so I hope to do my best to make next time smoother.

And getting DD farther along in daycare - the thought of two in daycare is tough!

Edited for typos!

[kleigh926]

Well we probably won't entertain the idea of another for a couple years yet, but the number one goal would be to have a bigger house, which we are hopefully accomplishing this year.

That's really all I can think of right now. I'd like to be in better shape, but I don't know if that's going to happen.

[kbates85]

I have a simular goal of getting into really good shape. I mean, I'm not looking to lose weight but to actually be athletic and healthy. I had a pretty easy pregnancy and all but I think it would have been even better if I was healthier overall.

Since I stay home I would prefer is LJ was in mother's day out at least a couple days a week by the time we have #2. It would be really nice to have some alone time with the new baby like I did with him.

My "dream goal" would be that our house would be completely renovated. That is mostly likely a pipe dream. I mean, I love our home and it really doesn't need to be renovated but it would be awesome

[hangryhedgehog]

Ideally, I'd like DH to find a closer, better paying job before the next baby is born. It would be lovely to buy a home. But I don't see that happening.

Womp...I need to come up with a couple tangible goals. All I can think about right now is how long is it gonna take before we get a sticky baby.

[verovladamir]

We just got Nate registered for K4, so that's good. It means at least one would be in school. I too want to get into shape. I've set a goal for myself of going to the gym at least 4 times a week. So far it seems like that is an achievable goal. I figure that even if I don't do a balls-to-the-wall work out it's better than nothing. I'm trying to do two classes each week and then two days of just walking or cycling. I have my first session with a personal trainer next Tuesday (I get two free with my gym membership).
We will also need to be in a better financial situation. I'm hoping that happens soon. DH has five interviews at the end of the month through OPE. Hopefully he will get a few more before it starts, and have a few drop-in interviews while he is there and at least one of them will pan out, though most of them would mean moving. Which is probably good... because
We also need to get away from his parents. His mom almost lost her shit when DH accidentally mentioned we were thinking about a 3rd. She thinks we were crazy for having 2. And she says things like "You have two healthy ones, so asking for a third is pushing your luck. What if it isn't normal?" Which is clearly a terrible and cruel thing to say. She points to DH's cousin who has five kids. Her youngest has SPD or something similar. MIL says that was what she got for being greedy. It's so cruel. And ILs are just overbearing. When I mentioned the possibility of a move MIL launched into a speech about how we were naive to think that we could ever do anything with out them (she seriously said it just like that). So yeah, that's gotta go. That's DH's main reason for wanting to look at jobs outside of the area. And I can't blame him a bit.
I worry about losing my doctor though.

[draeray]

Well since I am already pregnant and didn't lose all the weight from DS, my goal is to not gain as much weight this time.

[wineandcake]

Our goal was to live in the town where we work. DH worked 2hrs out of town for 7 days on 7 days off when DS was born up until he was about 15-16m old. We started trying shortly after we moved even though I wasn't working yet. Once I got a job, of course I would get pregnant right away :/ but it works out well.

Another thing we wanted was to pay off my car before I go on mat leave. It will be paid off in April and baby is due in July which is perfect, a full year off 400$ less to pay every month.

[laketide]

Feb 4, 2015 16:57:01 GMT -5 wineandcake said:

Our goal was to live in the town where we work. DH worked 2hrs out of town for 7 days on 7 days off when DS was born up until he was about 15-16m old. We started trying shortly after we moved even though I wasn't working yet. Once I got a job, of course I would get pregnant right away :/ but it works out well.

Another thing we wanted was to pay off my car before I go on mat leave. It will be paid off in April and baby is due in July which is perfect, a full year off 400$ less to pay every month.

I should probably add paying off my car to my goals before another too! Congrats on being so close to having yours paid off - that's really exciting!!

[summer]

Like kleigh, it will hopefully be awhile if/before baby #3...in the meantime, I'd love to get back into the kind of shape I was at when I got married (although not necessarily the weight; that might take more than I am willing to do). I definitely want to have DS in preschool, but I have to convince DH that preschool is not evil. Ideally, we'd like to be in a somewhat bigger house (with one more bedroom and a yard), but if we stay here it is unlikely we would be able to buy a "better" house with our budget.

Which brings me to something I've been dying to tell people about but can't really say to the people where we live...DH has started looking for jobs in SoCal. Not super-seriously, but enough to where if he got a job, we would really move. He's applied to one or two but hasn't heard anything back. We think he needs more time in his current position to be a serious contender for the jobs he's looking at (he's been a low-level manager for about a year), but we'd love to move back down south. If I could raise my kids near the beach...oh, happy day.

[verovladamir]

I should add buying a new car to my list. Ours won't fit 3 car seats.

[sagen]

Yet again ITA with @uncaripswife . We are selling our house in spring then we are going to rent for awhile until we know exactly where we want to live, and build, or buy a house that we want to stay in for a long time. If I had to do over I would have rented over buying my first home.

[seadragon2013]

I would like to get back to my pre-baby weight before having another LO. We also want to relocate to the East Coast. I will likely leave my current job at the end of the semester (it's a solid job, but has no upward mobility, plus it is on the wrong side of the country), so this timeline will hopefully be reasonable.

We've talked about trying to buy a house when we move, but that will depend on my next job. If I stay in academia, I will likely have several 1-3 year positions ahead of me in different geographic locations and it makes no sense to buy with those timeframes. If I jump ship, we may toss in buying to our new goals, as it would be easier to save for a down payment with only one LO in daycare.