I've joined Mumsnet only recently - well before we're even TTC. I'm an avid planner - i.e. I like knowing what I'm getting into before being in a certain situation. So was just planning to soak up the knowledge here.
I'm 33, and will be 34 at the end of the year. DH and I have been together for nearly a decade now, but it has never been quite the right time for having kids. With DH's extensive stay in higher education (PhD), and the recession that followed... and various other things that came in the way, the timing has been pushed further and further into the future. A while ago, we've also decided that we won't even try for a baby, unless we could offer that child a childhood that is either the same or better than the one we had. Anything less than that would be so completely unfair, we thought back then. Though now, we're starting to come to terms with the fact that our children (should we have any) will never have the same things we had anyway. Both of us had stay-at-home mums, because a few decades ago, one good job per household was enough to pay the mortgage, bills, holidays, etc. In my case, there's the extra issue that I grew up on the continent, where everything continues to be cheaper, and some of my high school mates are SAHM's now, without suffering much financially green-eyed monster. That is just so difficult to achieve in the UK (DH is British), and I find it difficult to cope with the fact that I will never be able to do that.
But I'm not getting any younger, and we decided, we will TTC by the end of next year by which time which time we'll have paid off most of the debt. So we're aiming for a 2014 baby, though by then, I will be 35, and if we're lucky enough to have a baby quickly, we may try for another one soon after, before the biological clock inside me closes that window of opportunity forever. Aaaargh!
Are there any more ladies here who for some reason had to postpone having children late into their 30s for whatever reasons?