Help desperately needed to make a decision!!!! - rather long and probably boring

[greenbeanie]

I have 2 ds and would desperately like a 3rd, as would dp. I work parttime and hate my job and the oportunity has come up to do a 3 year full time degree course which would give me a new career that I have always wanted to do.

My current job is getting increasingly diffictult but if I started the course the end would be insight as once I had finished I could look to start my own business.

My dilemma is do I wait to have a dc now which would delay starting the course by around 2 years (the course is a 2.5 hour drive from home, so would mean spending weekends away, so I would want to wait for the baby to be at least over 1yr) or do I start the course, as I don't know how long it will take to conceive anyway and take a break in the course if I become pregnant.

The 3rd option is do I stick at 2dc - which I don't think I want to do.

I could also wait until the end of the course but by then my ds will be 6.5 and 10 and I don't really want too big an age gap.

I know that it is a decision that I can only make myself but any advice from fellow students would be gratefully received. Everytime I think I have made up my mind I change it again!!! This is driving myself and dh mad....

I don't think waiting is too bad-for a start you will be in a better and happier position to have another, and if you defer you may never take the plunge and do it. If you wait until your baby is two, then you won't have started the course for another 3 years (one is too little to leave baby all weekend imo), then there is another 3 years on the course, so you will be stuck in bad job for another 6 years! Whereas if you wait you have fewer dc's to share your money around (which may be an issue as a student), you are settled and know what you are doing, and having a 10, 6 and baby is not that big an age gap-the boys are then big enough to entertain themselves for a bit so you have more quality time with baby, and they will be more responsible for themselves on family outings etc, so life would be much easier, I promise!

Thanks for the response Paddington. I think you are probably right. The problem is I am so inpatient I just want everything all at once!!! If only I could win the lottery....