Shortly after celebrating my oldest son’s first birthday, the question that everyone was inevitably asking was:
When are you going to have another baby?
Truth be told, I was feeling the itch to have another cuddly newborn to snuggle while breathing their sweet smell, but I was nowhere near ready to give up the precious time with my first born. Shortly after my oldest’s second birthday, I did become pregnant again, only to find out that I was due a mere 10 days after my oldest’s birthday, which would make them three years apart.
The pregnancy was such a ride of emotions: excitement for our new surprise, planning, talking to our then two year old about the baby in mommy’s belly, but it also was accompanied by a twinge of sadness. Sadness that these would be my last months with my oldest baby, my first taste of how powerful it is to love someone more than yourself.
Baby #2 arrived and he was equally as wonderful as my first. My oldest loved on his baby brother with all his might, which made my heart so full. However, in the midst of the new baby not sleeping through the night for the first eight months, people started asking:
Will you have another one?
Inevitably following would be,
Are you going to try for a girl?
If I made a dollar for every time I was asked that question, I wouldn’t be a millionaire, but I would at least be on a very nice vacation.
The question did get me thinking. My sister and I are four years apart and are very close. She’s one of my best friends. I tend to lean more on the girly side of things versus the tomboy side. I always pictured myself with a daughter that I would take shopping or to ballet class. But honestly, when I thought about having another baby, it wasn’t the thought of possibly having a girl that made me excited. It is the love and pure joy that you get to experience with all the firsts of a new baby. It is seeing the new baby with their siblings for the first time and watching them grow from sweet smelling newborns to wobbling toddlers to independent, head strong four year olds that can still make your heart melt with an “I love you Mommy”.
It is holding that pudgy hand as they pull you to something new and exciting to them, their big eyes widening even more in awe of a worm or a little ant. It’s having more puddles to jump in, more books to read and another little body jump in bed with you in the middle of the night. It’s the first words, first laughs, and little-hands-patting-your-back hugs. It’s more of these things that make me excited at the possibility of having another baby, not the gender.
If/when we decide to have another baby, I will still be nervous about how my boys will react to another pudgy face, but I know one thing for sure: They wouldn’t mind another boy in the house and I sure wouldn’t either.
I have 3 perfect daughters and the youngest is 10 weeks. I would also be rich if I had a dollar for every time I was asked if I wanted a boy with my third. My response was always the same– “I just want a baby…girl or boy doesn’t matter”. Would I have been excited if baby 3 turned out to be s boy? Of course. But I was just as excited to have another sister for my other 2 daughters. I wish people would realize that it doesn’t take a baby of each gender to have an amazing family.