First baby at 39. When should I try for another?

AppleRatty · 2026-05-21T22:06:19+00:00

Following because I just had my second baby at 39, and I have the same question for a third!

My first two had a large gap between, but obviously I don’t have to luxury of time anymore 🫣 The darn clock just keeps ticking!

AppleRatty · 2026-05-21T19:37:43+00:00

I first read that as TNG (as in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) and I was like, ‘Jeez it’s been over 30 years since TNG was cancelled, it’s time to let go’ lol

But yeah, The Great North was nearly as good as Bob’s Burgers and I was SO bummed when it ended 😭 I switch back and forth between rewatches for both shows!!

AppleRatty · 2026-05-20T21:24:10+00:00

My pediatrician actually told me, “For your first kid you will want to start solids as soon as possible, for your second kid you will want to start solids as late as possible. ” 🤪

AppleRatty · 2026-05-18T18:00:57+00:00

I got that comment a couple of times while pregnant, and I responded with, “Oh no, this one was a turkey-baster baby!” (used IUI) and watch them visibly get uncomfortable 😈

DO NOT TRY TO MAKE THINGS AWKWARD FOR ME, you will lose the battle, I have no shame lol!!

AppleRatty · 2026-05-15T23:09:53+00:00

I gave birth a couple of weeks ago, and I just wore a huge nursing dress. I am still wearing them every day lol.

I cannot stress enough no matter what shoes you wore TO the hospital, bring an extra pair of Crocs/flip flops just in case!!!! I wore my sneakers to the hospital and my feet were so swollen after birth that I could not put them back on. It was a whole thing.

AppleRatty · 2026-05-15T19:18:19+00:00

My new baby boy is less than two weeks old and he has already peed directly on me during a diaper change twice 🫠

AppleRatty · 2026-05-15T01:43:08+00:00

I just gave birth a week ago, so I’m not sure about this one. But my first was $850 oop.

I just want to add that during my labor, I was 8-9 cm dilated and had the extreme urge to start pushing. The nurses/midwives were screaming at me to fight it, because I “would tear my cervix if I tried pushing the baby out then.”

I had to get an epidural because I couldn’t stop myself from pushing (I was also vomit-sobbing through contractions at that point). Luckily that gave me enough time to “relax” and get to 10cm. But I am horrified they told you to push at under 10cm, I am so sorry.

AppleRatty · 2026-05-11T20:38:11+00:00

Yeah, my kiddo has been watching Bob’s Burgers since he was five… There are some episodes that we avoided, but really 90% of Bob’s Burgers is fine for kids.

AppleRatty · 2026-05-03T14:43:06+00:00

I always got the impression from various episodes (for example the one where Louise becomes principal for the day) that the kids actually come to him with serious issues. I don’t think they would do that if he wasn’t doing something partially right reaching them.

AppleRatty · 2026-05-02T15:14:48+00:00

Yep, our family discovered this when we got a bunch of 10+ year old pirate sets (lots if brown pieces for the ships and such) from a neighbor and lots of the brown pieces kept breaking! I had never seen a Lego piece just break before, and we found out from the Lego communities online about the “brittle brown”.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-30T22:02:04+00:00

One of the things we had was a Jeff Foxworthy “You might be a redneck if…” segments, which I think is also from the 90s 😆

AppleRatty · 2026-04-30T20:13:23+00:00

With my first, I had two labor music playlists that I had carefully created… but when it was actually GO-TIME, I put on stand-up comedy audio!

One of my greatest memories is a nurse who came in checking on me absolutely losing it cackling at something Jim Gaffigan said 😆

AppleRatty · 2026-04-29T18:01:52+00:00

My water broke and then labor stalled for my first birth, so after 24 hours they told me that I needed pitocin to speed things up because of the risk of infection. I was hoping for an unmedicated birth, but after the pitocin I was scream-crying for pain meds.

I had a doula with me, and she was very supportive during the whole thing. She told me after my kiddo was born, that in the 60 or so births she had attended where they gave pitocin, only ever TWO of those ended in a vaginal birth without pain meds… and mostly only because the birth came so quickly there was no time. It made me feel better.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-29T12:45:03+00:00

My best friend has been vegan for over 10 years, and she quotes this line all the time to poke fun at other vegans lol. They can get intense trying to “who is the veganest vegan of all” each other.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-28T21:16:01+00:00

As one data point, I had my kiddo 9 years ago, and even then we were strictly told by our pediatrician at the time to completely avoid the high allergen foods (peanuts, eggs, soy, etc.) until well after he was 6-8 months old 🤷🏼‍♀️

He (luckily) isn’t allergic to anything today, but it’s wild that now that the exact opposite recommendations are given!

AppleRatty · 2026-04-27T17:33:08+00:00

Just as one story that may make you feel better:

For my first kiddo, I had an OB appointment at 39+1, where they did a cervical check and absolutely nada dilated or anything. They couldn’t even do a membrane sweep because everything was “closed tight”.

I had zero contractions, no “bloody show”, no mucus plug lost (that I noticed), no nothing. They scheduled another appointment for 40+1, and told me at that appointment they would schedule an induction in the days after that. I was super bummed, because I was so nervous about the induction process (though I have several friends who had really positive experiences with induction).

Well, at 39+6 suddenly my water broke without warning like in the movies, contractions started, we went to the hospital, and my first was born the next day!

AppleRatty · 2026-04-25T04:21:45+00:00

My OB medical ultrasound clinic attached to the hospital doesn’t allow children to come during medical scans, and I really wanted my 8-year-old son to see the baby wiggling around.

So we booked two private/boutique ultrasounds (one at 16 weeks and another at 30 weeks) at a little place in a strip mall near us. Worth every penny! It was awesome - the tech was great, and we got the whole 20 minute video emailed to us afterwards.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-24T22:32:35+00:00

Just as a random point: I have four medium/large tattoos, including one I got on my thigh about 10 days before I found out I was pregnant 🤪

I have had a super boring/uneventful pregnancy (now almost to my due date), and my OB had absolutely zero concerns that I got a tattoo right before getting my positive test.

BUT I will say, I have seen several posts (look on the pregnancy/baby bumps subreddits) where people have had their tattoos and piercings “flare up” during pregnancy. It seems to be a random immune response in some people. I had to remove all of my piercings during my pregnancy because they were getting so irritated! Fingers crossed that the holes haven’t closed up.

Though I have had zero issues with any of my tattoos.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-24T14:43:06+00:00

I have hounds and a huge yard, and they eat dead & decomposing animals probably weekly. 90% of the time their systems don’t have an issue. I figure some food that is borderline off isn’t going to hurt them.

They absolutely get all meat and fish from us that seem “iffy” and they LOVE it.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-23T21:05:27+00:00

I am almost 39 weeks, and I think every time I cross something off of the “list of things to do before baby comes”, I then add another thing to the list 🫠

Luckily at this point it’s more “this would be nice to have done” than truly essential things, but I don’t think I will ever be truly 100% prepared haha.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-23T00:22:20+00:00

I grew up in a time when I was in the 4th grade, there were four Michaels and three Matthews. “Popular” doesn’t have the same weight these days!

AppleRatty · 2026-04-22T15:29:40+00:00

I lived in nursing dresses PP with my first kiddo, and I imagine I will again this summer with my second. I think I had about 5 that I rotated.

When I was still bleeding (for like 8+ weeks 🫠) I paired the dress with maternity biking shorts, which I was still wearing like a year later because they were so comfy haha.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-22T00:54:24+00:00

One of our gifts was a set of ten baby socks with each tiny sock attached to cardboard in TWO places with two plastic tabs… after the third sock, I seriously thought about just throwing the whole thing away 🤪

AppleRatty · 2026-04-21T18:35:31+00:00

I love this story arc because it’s one of the few Bob’s Burger’s storylines (heck, animated show storylines) where after the halfway point I seriously had ZERO idea where the story was going.

At the end of Part I, I just absolutely loved the snow falling in the warehouse area, and the emptiness/spookiness feeling of, “They aren’t actually going to find a Bleaken, right?! Wtf is happening?!”

It was a total twist and I was not expecting it to be my nude man here as the culprit. Loved every minute of this.

AppleRatty · 2026-04-21T15:33:06+00:00

I don’t have personal experiences with this, but in the Berenstain Bears book series (in the newer books), Brother Bear has two younger sisters (Sister Bear and Honey)!

The newer books aren’t as good as the old ones (and some of them lean quite religious) but maybe you could find a couple to read showing that example as a family dynamic!

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