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My LO isn't here yet so I don't have personal experience. I just wanted to say I'm sorry you're going through this. I think the best thing to do would be to wait until you're in a place where you feel like yourself again before you worry about making decisions for the future. You'll have a clearer head once you feel recovered. You have plenty of time to make the decision about having another kid so I wouldn't put that extra stress on yourself right now when you don't need it.

I haven't given birth yet, but this is something that I'm nervous about because I've required medication for depression and anxiety in the past. I can say that I have a close friend who had severe, almost post-partum psychosis with her first child. She had her second a couple of years later and her first experience made her a lot more open with her doctor and open this time around to going on medication while pregnant to mitigate risk after birth. She said it was like a completely different experience and that she was able to actually enjoy her second child and almost felt bad that she didn't feel that way with her first.

Anyway, that's all just to say that I know it can be done! And hang in there (which sounds lame, but you know what I mean).

Haven't given birth yet but my mom had very bad PPD and elected not to have any more children. I've never really heard her complain or regret her decision. I'm an only child and I had a great childhood.

Not at all. I had PPD but I knew it was just a sense of being overwhelmed and not about me being a terrible mother. I desire more children and PPD hasn't changed that. What has changed was, perhaps, my outlook on motherhood and how I can better manage myself with any future children.

@T-Mom: As someone who had a nasty bout of postpartum depression, your comment is so helpful! Like the OP, I have these same fears of, will I be able to handle another baby? I definitely want another, but I feel apprehensive about it.

So far my tentative plan is to reevaluate how I feel in two years (DD is nearly 5 months old). I had a lot of trouble with breastfeeding and now that LO is formula fed I find motherhood so much more enjoyable. That said, I'm really hoping to have an easier time w/ nursing the second time around, so thanks for your input! Here's hoping that if we decide to have another, my experience will be similar to yours.

I have pretty bad PPD. It's definitely made me want to wait a while until we have another but I do still want another. I know that I will stay on antidepressants for a long time, if not for the rest of my life, so I'm hopeful that I will be in a better place when the next one comes along.

@meredithNYC, @Goldilocks1107 and all the other moms who are "in the throes" of PPD or shuddering from the memories. BIG hugs to you all. Your LO's are blessings, whether you have only one or decide to have more. PPD turned me into the worst version of myself, but I came out on the other side! If you are on meds, be faithful taking them, they are a tool. Continue talking to your friends and anyone who will listen to you vent. Post on HB! Most of the anxiety I experienced was me just working myself up. Find a minute for yourself, even if it is to watch the Kardashians! You are all amazing moms!

@Goldilocks1107: The only way my mom could have had more children was if she stopped taking her medication...and her medication was something she had to be on to remain stable (and still does to this very day). It was more important to her to remain stable and healthy and be a good, present mom to me rather than go off her medication, risk getting sick again, and also have to manage a pregnancy/additional child while suffering. I think it was the right decision for her. But her case was also very extreme, and she still suffers from it today, like I said before. Her situation may be more serious than yours. I'm not sure.

I only had a touch of PPD, and mine was clearly linked to the bad sleep deprivation she put us through at about 8 months. I'm pretty nervous about the next baby - this one is a good sleeper in general. I know that a baby who slept badly might really do me in, depression wise.

The extent to which I struggled to deal with my baby's (not even that terrible) bad sleeping really have helped convince me that one more child is probably enough. I'd like 4 or 5 more, in some ways, but I just don't think I'm cut out to do this phase four or five more times.