I?m an only child, so before I even knew how babies were made, I was daydreaming about and naming my unborn future children. I have paper notebooks filled with scribbled ?name lists? that later migrated over to the ?notes? section of my smartphone. I may or may not have even named my ovaries at one point (Eggjelica and Eggnes, if you?re wondering).
In the early days of dating my husband, when I was 19 turning 20, I would openly discuss my desire to have children one day (?Maybe two" Or three"?) and share my list of names (?Cole if it?s a boy, and Raya if it?s a girl?). I?m still not sure how that didn?t scare him away, but he smiled and listened as I happily rambled on. He agreed with my name choices but was firm that he only wanted two children. At the time, I was OK with that, too, since I wasn?t certain I wanted three kids. All I knew was I had to marry someone who was as passionate about having a family as I was.
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How do you know you're ready for a second baby"
Ten years later, our daydreams became a reality. We had our first baby, a little boy, and, yes, we named him Cole. Two years later, we had a little girl and named her Maeve (though Raya was still a contender on the list). We had the ?million-dollar family,? according t...