In With the New

What do I see in store for us in the next year? For the most part I don't know, we haven't planned any career changes, moves, or trips out of the country so it should be a pretty stable, calm year. Except for one not so minor detail.

In the beginning of June, we will be receiving the final (yes, we will be making sure it is final) expansion to our family. I found that making the decision to have our first child was so easy. Probably due to naivety and a love for children, Dustin and I jumped in with both feet and didn't really spend much time obsessing over the details. We thought it would be great to have a baby, so 9 months later we had one. With William, we spent a lot more time stalling, postponing, and getting cold feet about having another child. We knew we didn't want Theo to be an only child but it took a long time before we were ready to jump back into taking care of a young baby again. For this new baby, we spent nearly a year agonizing over whether we should or shouldn't have a third. 

Truthfully, I never really intended on having three children. A family of four is quite simple and neat. You can avoid the self-centered and lonely life of an only child (sorry if I have offended any only children out there) but still fit your family into a small-ish car. Also, you aren't outnumbered by children in your home. Regardless of this logic and all the reasons not to have a third, I felt deep down that we were meant to have one more child. I knew that I would never regret the decision to have a third child but that I might forever regret that we didn't. I know this sounds like over emotional, hormone driven logic and pretty uncharacteristic my normal outlook on the world, but I can't really explain it any other way. Also, the decision to have a third child has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I have two sons. It absolutely makes no difference to me whether this baby is a boy or a girl. I am actually pretty touchy if anyone implies or assumes that we are only "trying for a girl". We were trying for a baby, not specifically a girl, so there! :) 

Our newest addition at 16 weeks

I will be having the baby here in Fukuyama. I would like to return to Canada for the birth but the complication of having to take the two children back with me, leaving Dustin for a few months, Dustin not being able to be at the birth or see his new child for a few weeks, and the cost involved makes this impossible. 

This week marks the halfway point of my pregnancy and hopefully the second half will be much better than the first. One of these days I will do a post on my experiences being pregnant here and the differences I have noticed between prenatal care in Canada vs. Japan.