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Another One

By Unknown
We had trouble conceiving so we were late to game of having children.  While everyone around us was getting pregnant and rearranging their lives for kids, we trudged the miserable course of trying and failing, testing and failing, anticipation and disappointment.

Luckily, we succeeded, in a big way, in time for this period in our lives not to pass us by.

And we did it early enough that lots of our friends are having a second go around of it.  In fact, one of our triplet friends is due in December.  A friend of mine from a long-ago job is also pregnant and due soon.

I can only think one thing: What are those people thinking?

Sure, we had difficulties conceiving that probably colored the whole process for us.  And sure, having triplets probably gives us a different spin on what babies are like than most.

To wit: When we are out, people ask me how we do it all the time. How do we do it; how do we handle it; can we handle it; it sure must be hard.  Sure, we can handle it.  I can't imagine anything else.  But what I really can't imagine is having another.

One time around was hard enough.  Having three at the same age presents certain, um, difficulties, but it also provides for certain economies of scale.  We were exhausted, really, truly exhausted all at once.  But it was such an exhaustion and such a busy time that, looking back, we hardly noticed.

That wouldn't be true if we chose to have another.  You want to know what scares this triplet Dad?  The idea of "another."   Because, its one thing to be that tired when all you have are infants.  It has to be a whole different ballgame when you are that tired AND have a two year old running around.  When I did it, they were all immobile.  By the time mobility comes to children you aren't nearly tired or sleepless, thank you very much nature.  But if you choose to have a second, well, then you have exhaustion of an infant AND mobility.  That is just your own damn fault.

Come to think of it, triplets are just about the perfect way to go.  I truly believe this.  Except for those times when I see my little ones' getting so big and I realize that those cute little phrases and word mixups aren't going to be around forever.

Then I think, well, maybe it would be nice to have "another one."  And then I get to think about it.

Nah.
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