Illustration: Gillian Wilson
My daughter was only 18 months old when my husband and I started talking about whether we should try for a second child. It had taken almost a year for me to get pregnant the first time and I knew that, if we were going to have another, I wanted the kids to be close in age. But my husband was reluctant. As much as he loved our daughter, he didn?t know if he actually wanted another child. Truth be told, I was still fairly uncertain myself; life with the three of us was pretty great. But I pushed. ?I?ll never regret having another one,? I told him, ?but I might regret not having another one.?
He still wasn?t convinced, but the more he resisted, the more determined I became. I ached to be pregnant again, and every conversation between us revolved around the question ?Do we or don?t we"? Finally, I strong-armed him into agreeing that I should go off the low-dose birth control pill I?d been on and ?see what happened.? Three weeks later, I was pregnant. We were both shocked, but any qualms I had about expanding our family disappeared the second I saw the positive sign on the pregnancy test. His initial hesitation quickly gave way to acceptance?and even a little excitement. When I had to haul out the maternity pants less than a month later, he was even able to joke about it. ?Maybe it?s twins,? he said, eyeing my rapidly expanding midsection. ?Can you imagine"? I replied.
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