Would appreciate your thoughts on this dilemma.....
DS1 is 10 months old. At the moment he is an absolute dream, sleeps at night, plays on his own, doesn't fuss a lot etc.
I'm a SAHM and will be whilst our children are young. I happily left my job of 8 years to have a career break while I bring up our children. When/if I go back to work I will most likely work for my husband because he happens to run a business in the same field I used to work in.
When we decided to try for DS1 there was one fundamental professional exam I was yet to take. We decided not to wait until I had taken this exam to try for a baby because we didn't know how long it would take to fall pregnant, risk of miscarriage etc. As it happens I was lucky enough o fall pregnant quickly and had a successful pregnant, so I have not yet completed the exam.
I am able to take the exam without being in employment. The exam comes in 2 pets, one to be taken in the autumn and one in the spring. The autumn part is a written submission (coursework, essentially) and the second part is an interview.
DH and I would like another baby fairly soon as we'd like a close age gap. DH thinks we should start trying in September so if I was lucky enough to fall pregnant quickly again I'd be due in May. He has done the exam himself and says it's not too difficult and it is not a reason to delay trying for a baby. I'm wondering whether we should wait until say February or March so I'd only be in the early stages of the pregnancy when I take the exam.
If it weren't for the exam I wouldn't be delaying. I am definitely up for having another baby and for keeping the age gap fairly close, I just worry about juggling a toddler, a pregnancy and an exam. Obviously there is the element of stress as well, which if have to manage carefully if I was doing the exam whilst pregnant.
I can defer the exam and I can resist it if I fail (there is a negligible fee). So if for example I had a horrendous pregnancy I could defer, but who knows when I'd do it again once I've got 2 small children to look after.
We have plenty of help (family etc) would be happy to provide childcare for DS1 for me to study.
Part of me thinks I'm mad for considering it but the other part of me thinks that people retrain and study all the time whilst they've got multiple small kids so surely it will be ok having 1 and a bump.
Any experiences or thoughts?