Maybe Baby
The Big Dude and I are talking about having another baby.
I always intended to have another baby. In the last few weeks of my pregnancy, I spent a lot of time feverishly plotting how we could have a second child - when we would do it, how we would get the money for the fertility treatment, at what point I could take more leave, and would my Big Dude's health hold up.
When we inquired about our original sperm donor last year, the news was not good. The terms under which our fertility clinic now accepted sperm had changed and the donor hadn't yet replied to a letter asking him to donate under the new conditions. I was very uneasy about using a different donor for a second child and decided to wait.
Now, it seems like all systems are go. Our original donor is now available. My working conditions (especially if I can bring myself to stay in my current job) are flexible enough to accommodate firstly fertility treatment and then a pregnancy and maternity leave and more part-time work. Our Little Dude is old enough to need just that little bit less care that makes a baby more of a possibility. We could get a loan for the money. My mother will soon be living next door and has said she'll help with the babysitting.
Everything looks right. We have booked in for an appointment with our specialist in a couple of months time.
But as I stand here on the very brink, I'm not sure if it feels right. I should be really excited that things are coming together so well, and yet somehow I'm not. I'm a bit stunned by my own absence of excitement.
I think about having another little baby to hold and I melt inside. But I am also thinking about how tired I am and about having to trudge to the clinic at the crack of dawn for the injections every morning. I am thinking about how unbelievably crap it feels when a cycle fails. I am thinking about the impact on my body. I am thinking about how distant my Big Dude seemed to be when I was pregnant. I am thinking about the pain of the birth. I am thinking about lack of sleep, a baby crying and that utter dismay I felt when I truly realized just how hard having a baby is and that I was going to have to do it all day after day after day.
I love my Little Dude so much. He seems more beautiful every day. Everything I went through to have him I would do again fifty times over rather than have missed out on having him.
But can I really face going through it all again?