Before I had any kids I thought I’d want a house full of kids. Three or four. Not necessarily because I want to be pregnant that many times or, if I’m being honest, spend that much money, but I want my kids to have each other when they get older. However, since having one child, I am surprisingly content. She’s a great kid who you’d think I’d be looking to clone ASAP but I’m not. As of right now, as our little one approaches 20 months, we have no immediate plans to extend our family.
However, if we can control it, we would like to have at least one more (in a few years). Sure we’re looking forward to having another baby but more than that, again, we want our daughter to have a sibling. Family is very important to us. Though I believe there is no real perfect time to have kids, there will always be something on your to-to list, you can still be more prepared than we were with our first.
We went into having our first sort of blindly. We had no idea how long, or if at all, we would take to get pregnant. It took a lot less than we ever expected which sort of threw us through a loop. We lived on a ”it will all work out” mantra and luckily for us, it did, barely. Come baby #2 we will be much, much more prepared.
Deal With Debt
Ideally we’re debt free by the time kiddo #2 is born, but if we’re not we will try to save enough extra money during the (ideal) nine month pregnancy to continue making our extra debt payments so my 12 month maternity leave doesn’t hinder our efforts. Unless someone has other plans for us, this is something we should be able to control. Having this sort of financial freedom will be liberating and allow me to have a stress-free mat leave.
Use What I Have
There will be huge monetary savings with kid #2 in the aspect that we don’t need any baby ”stuff” since we bought almost all gender neutral baby stuff (minus clothes). We chose to buy a lot of quality baby clothes which we kept so if we have another girl, there will be additional savings with cloths. If we have a boy, I’m confident we can sell the clothes we have to get a good start on a new wardrobe for a little man.
Be More Selective
I’ll be way more selective about what I buy. There was a lot of baby stuff and mom necessities I ran out and bought out of sheer ignorance and barely used most of it. Now that I know what I’ll want and need I will be able to better predict how much money we will really need. I’ll also utilize family and friends in the sense that if it’s an item I can borrow instead of buy, I will.
Diapers
I’ll try cloth diapering. I opted out of cloth diapers this child simply because I was scared and overwhelmed with the whole process. I have friends who have since started cloth diapering and I’ve done research myself and it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. For an upfront cost of approximately <$1000 I’ll definitely give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out I won’t worry since there is a large market for second-hand cloth diapers regaining a large portion of what I put into it.
Breastfeed Again
I was fortunate enough to be able to breastfeed our first for over a year. If I can do it again I would love to for the many benefits and huge cost savings!
How did you proceed with children after your first? Does it get any easier?
Catherine is a first time momma to a rambunctious toddler. When she isn’t soaking up all that motherhood has to offer, you can find her blogging over at Plunged in Debt where she chronicles her and her husbands journey out of debt. You can also follow her on Twitter.
