So You Think You Want One More Baby?

Sitting on the concrete basement floor packing away my youngest daughter’s outgrown toddler clothes, I spied the rose-and-ivory chenille sweater someone had knit for her, and heard the whisper. “There’s no one else to save this for.” I surveyed the hill of blankets, onesies and elastic-waist pants I was so neatly folding and packing in plastic bins, and began to consider why I was bothering with the effort. We had said two, now we had two.

Yet I continued my careful sorting and folding.

I let that whisper float in my heart for months, not daring to make my doubt real by voicing it to my husband. It just kind of lingered, while I waited to see whether it would intensify or fade.

We were good, the four of us, two adults, two kids. Why mess with that? Parenthood is the ultimate leap of faith. Nothing is guaranteed—not your health, not the child’s, and you don’t know who you’re going to get. So I should have been content with my lucky lot. But I just couldn’t shake the baby feeling. When I broached the subject of a third, my husband considered it for a few weeks before agreeing to “see what happens.” … //READ MORE