Out With The Old... Time for Something New?

So I decided with the recent rash of family deaths (for various and possibly genetic-carried causes) that it was time to go in and get a physical. Of course it was brought to my attention when I booked my appointment that it was (uh, past) time to have my IUD either removed or replaced with a new one. Which put Heli Dad and I in the position of having to make a decision about having, or at the least attempting to have another baby.

This topic is one that has been circling in our house for a couple years. When Big Sis got pregnant with HG 4 years ago we started talking about it. At that time, it wasn’t a good time to make another attempt. Too much was going on in our lives, we were incredibly busy, stressed and, quite honestly, quite simply, it just wasn’t a good time to try.

When Big Sis became pregnant with Genie nearly 2 years ago the discussion came up again. The timing was better, life was certainly looking better at that point but we put the discussion on hold a bit and then life went to hell. There’s really no other way to describe it and I’m not going to go in to all the ways that those months following the announcement of Big Sis’s 2^nd pregnancy were honestly some of the worst (mentally and emotionally) in my life. They were bad, really bad.

After Genie was born we started thinking about it again. By then my mental and emotional well-being was much improved and I felt like I was in a much better place to start considering a 4^th Corner Table Kid. We talked about it with other family (though mostly just for the sounding board effect) and we talked about it very frankly with each other and with the kids. Because honestly, if the kids were 100% completely against the idea of another sibling, we simply wouldn’t even consider it.

Except they aren’t against the idea.

Gamer Boy is 100% “Give Me A Baby Brother/Sister” for us having another kid. Princess is about 95% for the idea of another little sibling too – she’s hoping for and dreading the babysitting hours (and pay) that she might get from the prospect, and for imparting all of her ‘considerable’ knowledge on a new baby. Angel Face wavers between being for and against. She’s been the baby of the family so long that (we think) she’s worried that she’ll be lost in the shuffle and craziness of a new baby. On the other hand she’s intrigued by the idea of being a big sister (instead of just a big cousin) and having a little brother or sister to play with and help care for.

As for Heli Dad and I? Well, we always wanted/planned/talked about having 4. So the idea of having another just falls into that “plan”. The reality of having another kid at this point – cause let’s be real, we’re almost half done with the kids being children, is something different. With the age gap between the 3 we have now and any new child would essentially put us as starting over. And we had to ask ourselves very seriously if that is something we want to do.

Turns out we’re willing to try.

But with conditions.

My IUD is out now. However we’re not going to go in to any month with the thought that we need or have to get pregnant. If it happens then it does, and we’ll know that we’ve been blessed. If it doesn’t happen, if we don’t get pregnant, then we don’t. We’ve got 3 amazing kids and we’ve always been aware of how lucky and how blessed we are. And we’ll give it that course a year and see what happens. If we haven’t gotten pregnant by my birthday next year (2017) I’ll either have a new IUD inserted or… Well, we’ll discuss the particulars of birth control at that point.

So… It could be a very interesting year.