We’ve had more than a few similar reactions to this announcement when we’ve told people, so let me anticipate your questions and answer them briefly:
- “Was this planned?”–Yes. Very much so.
- “I thought you were done having children.”–Don’t know where this came from. I’ve mainly diverted any questions about how many kids we wanted to have, since I feel like that’s a really personal question and none of anyone’s business but mine and Denisa’s. It’s generally easier to let people assume you’re finished with the whole “bringing life into the world” game–that way, they stop asking you questions about it.
- “Is it a boy or girl?”–Don’t know yet. Too soon to tell.
- “What do TRC and DC think?”–They’re both in favor of it. Well, TRC was worried at first that we’d have the baby sleep in his room when it was still a baby. He didn’t want the screaming. 🙂 But once we let him know that it would have its own room (until it sleeps more normally), life was much sunnier. DC stated she only wanted to help care for the baby if it’s a girl. But then she thought about it, and conceded a boy would be okay, too.
- “Ha! Now you need to get a minivan!”–Really? Because my little Civic seats five, and I’m not afraid to jam those kids in the back seat. Denisa’s Buick Century seats six. (No–we’re not having twins.) We have no plans to get a minivan at the time. They’re bigger, more expensive, and we like the cars we have. TRC is out of his car seat, and DC is in a booster. It will be a tight fit back there, but as kids, both Denisa and I had plenty of experience being cramped in the back seat. If we had a fourth child, we’d probably have to go up a car size or two.
- “Will you be having more?”–Why is it that as soon as you tell people you’re having one more child, then they start wanting to know future plans? That said, I can tell you that we’re pretty darned certain this is our last child. Yes, there are always “accidents,” but we’ll be doing our best to keep those accidents from occurring. It took quite some time to decide we wanted to go to three kids. I can’t imagine we’ll make the choice to go to four. Denisa and I both firmly believe our children should have as much exposure to the Slovak side of their heritage as possible. Once you’ve got a family of six, it becomes prohibitively expensive to toodle around Europe. A family of five is already going to make things more than a little problematic. (Which is one big reason we’re going to Europe this Christmas, before the arrival of Baby 3.0.)
That about sums it up. It’s exciting. We’re both very happy, though it’ll mean big changes for us for the next while. Denisa’s teaching, baking, doing her church calling, working online. I’m writing, librarian-izing, flitting from conference to conference. We’ve looked at all our activities and believe they can all proceed as they have. Denisa’s still planning on baking (though she’ll likely take a month or two off, of course) and if she gets a chance to teach again next year, we’ll work our schedules to make sure that can happen. (She’s really been enjoying it.) Life’s all about priorities, and you choose what you do and don’t do. If this choice means we have to give up some things, so be it. But we’ll tackle that problem when it arises.
One point strongly in our favor is the fact that we have two very well behaved children already. TRC and DC are both hyped for this, and they’ll both be a lot of help. So while some say going from two to three kids is the biggest hurdle, I’m not really looking at it like that. We’re going from four family members to five, and that should be just fine.
I got so caught up in explaining the different special Magic cards, I only mumbled congratulations. So here it is for realz:
Congratulations!
Thanks very much! And I just sort of mentioned it in an offhand kind of way, so your offhand congrats was perfectly normal and acceptable. 🙂
1. Yay! Congrats!
2. Good freakn’ luck. #3 broke this camel’s back.
So excited for you guys! Honestly, I felt like the jump to three wasn’t too bad–I felt like I actually knew what I was doing that time around, and I could relax and enjoy it a little more. (Four was another story. And I’m expecting #5 in April as well, so hey, bring on the chaos!!)
Hooray! Congratulations Bryce!