Would you try for a January baby?

My son, my brother and I all have January birthdays and it sucks. It's the start of school. It's also cold so for my sons birthday parties I have to always hire a hall. If you can avoid it, great! Awesome planning on your part.

My DD is a January baby, and what I can say is it's quite a good time from the mum's point of view. You're not heavily pregnant in the heat (my DS is mid-July, that was tough); you have an excuse to spend those first couple of months cuddled up indoors keeping warm with your baby; then just as they start getting more alert and active and interested in the world, it's spring and you can get out and about and enjoy the milder weather.

DD doesn't seem bothered by her birthday being in January, though they may change as she gets older. She's literally the week before payday, so may have to get used to celebrating it a week later if she wants her friends to be able to afford her join her!

We’d been trying a few months for DC2, and I did wonder whether we should skip a March conception because of the likely December birthday but then thought “what if this is the one month it takes??” And true enough I did get pregnant and we have a mid-Dec baby (he was late as well, little bugger!) 😀 I won’t lie, I am a little annoyed with myself for it, so I understand why you’re not sure about January either. But DC is happy enough and there are loads of birthdays around that time of year in his class. Don’t think anyone would blame you for thinking either way.

My birthday is mid Jan and I love it. People rarely have other plans as its cold /damp / people are skint, so it's easy to get a group of people together. And as an adult - I've had great success with bars giving me deals for booking parties.

I didn't even realise until my late teens that Jan was seen as a rubbish time for a birthday

I can't believe people take birthdays so seriously, maybe im a scrooge lol but apart from big milestone birthdays they're no big deal, I know people in work take their birthday off every year, it perplexes me. I certainly wouldnt be organising my life around a birthday.

My advice would be keep trying and I'd you're lucky to get pregnant and birth falls in January I doubt you'll regret it

Don't overthink it, don't do test strips for ovulation and try to guess the optimum time for sex just have regular sex! ... babies are made that way all the time. If after a year you don't get pregnant that's the time to get scientific however my gp friend has a theory that people struggling to conceive simply aren't having sex at the right time because they are using tests and apps, plus crucially not having any other sex!

My second is an early Jan baby. Much more sensible time to have a baby than the late Aug first!

Go for it!

My birthday is first week of Jan and, yes it's shit. No-one has any money, or doing dry January or on a diet. Also, they forget. They forget because Christmas is so all-consuming.

However, if it was this or not existing? Think I can live with it. In my list of difficulties my birthday is waaaay down.

I wouldn't slip a cycle. You can't guarantee getting pregnant right away anyway. It could take months.

I'd just try to get pregnant hoping it was going to happen and not worry about when baby is born as you could have fertility problems and all this waiting around could be more of an issue than when the babies birthday is.

It's an adult having a January birthday is boring af

Everyone is broke after Christmas, everyone is doing bloody dry jan and regifted Christmas presents are the norm. But it's fine. I just go out in December for it or feb!

Having a Jan baby is lovely because you have something to look forward to after Xmas rush is over. Its a reason to pay every year when you are done with Xmas /new year. It just extends the celebrations IMO.

It's not ideal but by far the worst thing in the bigger scheme of things. You can ask relatives to do a combined Christmas-birthday present which cuts down on clutter. You won't be able to have a proper birthday party for them because they will almost certainly be sick over the holiday period, or many of their friends so you get tons of cancellations. The nursery years are worst for this so don't bother committing to any fancy venues with down payments.

My sons birthday is December 27th!
Not ideal I know, post Christmas etc but it's not depressing or anything like that, family & friends all come to his parties. Defo overthinking it!
It can take a long time to conceive so planning when to have a baby doesn't always go to plan!

If I'd been mid 20s, I'd have skipped this one. However at mid30s, I'd go ahead.

I have a January DC. It's brilliant. We look forward to his birthday every year and it makes January NOT depressing. Also, we get his birthday presents in the January sales, and birthday trips can be in better locations because travel in January is cheaper.

In Scotland the school cut off is different from England so those born in January are one of the youngest in class making it especially not a great month to be born. I’m still going to try as don’t want to miss a month.

Also no other celebrations in January such as Valentine's day, Mother's Day or Easter.. Another bonus

I have a January baby and a June baby. There are pluses and minuses to most months of the year. Yes my DD who was born in June tends to have nice weather around her birthday however she is one of the youngest in her class. My DS birthday it's normally cold and dark but when he starts school he will probably be on much more of an even playing field.
If you're in England you would ideally be aiming for a September/October baby (I was with DS!) or February-April. We're talking 5 out of 12 months to aim for. Would you realistically consider avoiding the other 7 months of the year? You have no idea how long it will take you to conceive, if you're still trying in 12 months time will you still be trying to avoid a January baby?

Parties on top of Christmas can get quite expensive (I have one either side of Christmas 😂) but apart from that which is truly a first world problem there aren’t any downsides (I’m a June born - again no schooling issues being towards back end of school year).

Even if the due date is early Jan, baby may come early or late. My 2nd was born at the end of Jan but was due in March. I don't think January is the greatest month to have a birthday but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter.

Yes in fact it is a preference of mine and don't understand the issue. Perks imo:

No one else close in the family has a birthday then to clash with celebrations.

January is such a drab month that birthday for child would mean there is something to look forward to

Dark and cold so no sweltering in summer heat or pressure to 'go outside' after having just given birth

Just a couple months away from Spring time (my favourite season)

Not approaching being youngest in the school year

My birthday is the 2nd Jan and I maintain that it's the worst day of the year to be born tbh - nobody has any money, everybody is done with celebrating, so many people start 'detoxes' or diets on the 2nd and restaurants typically use it as a rest day for staff. However, I'd be delighted right now to get pregnant so will chance having a baby round my birthday if I get pregnant this month.

Good luck with whatever you decide ☺️

One of mine is a Jan baby. It’s not ideal but not too bad either. I wouldn’t skip a cycle to avoid. I might do to avoid a Xmas baby though. But then again you never know. You could be due in feb and baby arrive early on Xmas day.

To be honest (hard hat on) I did avoid having my due date in dec/Jan/july/aug.

Would never tell anyone in real life that though! We were very lucky not to have any issues conceiving.