Does broodiness come and go?

[Cosmogirl]

This may seem like an odd question but I'm just curious as to whether it is possible to go through feeling very broody then ...not. At the moment I do feel very maternal etc... I guess what I'm asking is in your experience, was this an itch you had to scratch, or did it go away and resurface again later??

for me I got v broody when ds was about 8 months old. pestered dp who was reluctant and I eventually "got over" it.
started up again later and again dp really wasn't keen and I eventually got over it again.
then it came back and I got my own way lol and am due tomorrow.

so yes, for me it came and went. I think it would have kept coming if I hadn't got pregnant too iyswim? don't think it would've gone away for good

yes. I got really broody at the beginning of last year. started planning when we would begin ttc. but then i suddenly, very suddenly changed my mind. decided to quite my job, go freelance, change my life and put ttc on hold. during summer of last year I ended up looking after my two little half-brothers while their mum wasn't in the picture. put me off ttc for another year.

THEN about 3 months ago I suddenly decided I wanted to start ttc. this rapidly progressed from wanting to start in dec, then bringing it forward to oct, then starting there and then (aug). Like a switch has gone off in my brain, I absolutely want to get pregnant and start a family. Nothing will change my mind, not even an amazing job opportunity that would be best taken without ttc to complicate things.

So, if you find yourself easily persuaded to wait, then you're probably not ready. If it's the only thing you can think about no matter how inconvenient then it's not likely to go away.

But that's just my experience (sorry for long reply!)

Thanks for those replies girls - really interesting. Unless of course mother nature intervenes, I want to make sure I'm really 'ready ready' before I go for it.

This is interesting... I wasn't remotely broody until I got to 38 and was with the right man, then it was like a switch was flicked. Unfortunately, I have miscarried four times in the past two years. After each mc I was desperate to get pregnant again, which I wasn't sure was broodiness or a means of getting over the grief. It's not like I even particularly like babies in general, but my own would be a different matter. Now, it's six months since my last MC, and I suddenly don't seem to mind about conceiving any more, though whether this is a self-defence mechanism, or what.

I once worked with a late forties woman who said that she had been broody for a while, 'but it passed'!

I am not nearly as broody now aged 41 as I was, say, 10 years ago.

I don't know if it's mother nature's way of protecting me as, given my age, there is a very real chance that it might not happen for me.

I would love to have my own child and believe I'd be a good mum but I've never been that ga-ga over other people's kids.

When I have rushes of broodiness it's not triggered by somebody else's cute baby or a Pamper's ad on TV - it's more likely to be me in the park, or on holiday and thinking: "I'd love to bring my daughter/son here."

I like some babies, but not others! I feel that's probably bad.

And yeah, Nancy, I feel like that. Seeing Clapham mums with babies doesn't make me broody, but imagining how I'd explain certain things to a child, or teach them things, does. One reason why I'm looking at adoption, as the whole baby phase doesn't interest me vastly...

... that sounded odd. I meant that a lot of my maternal feelings are towards raising a child, rather than the whole 'baby' thing, and as I'm not that likely now to have my own, I think I'd have a lot to offer an adopted child. Or something...

(just living in fear of a fierce answer from the adoption boards!)

Comes and goes with the hormones!

I started getting broody about two years ago when my SIL announced she was PG, watching her go through the pregnancy (we are quiet close) made me unbelievable broody, then after she had the baby, the story of the birth and seeing how stressful the first few weeks were really put me off but only for a few weeks before was obsessive again

That coupled with the diagnosis of Endometriosis and Adnemyosis last June (have also had issues with "abnormal" smears) I really stared worrying about my fertility and finally took the plunge to come off the pill in February, still not PG but am seriously broody now.

I do a lot of child minding work part time (evenings and weekends) and I just love all babies and children now.