The inevitable question – are you going to have another baby??

So, a couple of weeks ago, Mr HypnoBaby and I were staying with friends and started having a chat after dinner about whether or not we should take the plunge and have another baby, now our children are past the 18-month age…

Dad’s perspective

Mr HypnoBaby declared that of course we should, it ‘would be a breeze’ as it’s so much easier second time round when you know what to expect.  Cue a rather large debate between our friend’s wife (M) and myself against Mr HypnoBaby (who was warmed up by a few glasses of wine to fuel his debate).

Mum’s perspective

Both M and I have just turned 40, so we argued our ability to cope with the physicality of pregnancy and a sleep-deprived life with a newborn are now compromised by our age.  Still Mr HypnoBaby argued we would find it easier.

M & I then went on to explain how having a toddler while pregnant means no time to rest and put feet up like the first time.

Still he insisted we would find it easier as we would be accustomed to being pregnant.

M & I explained in detail how much harder it would be to have a newborn up all night and no time to rest in the day because toddlers never rest (!).  Still he countered we are experienced, so it would all be so much easier.

All the while, M’s husband stared on, mute, signalling with his eyes for Mr HypnoBaby to shut up before things turned nasty!

The dangers of debate

The irony is that I had come round to the idea of having another baby, in spite of my age, health, fatigue and general concerns about doing so…until we had this conversation!  We spent so much energy in telling Mr HypnoBaby why NOT to have another baby in answer to his simple, but somewhat naive argument that we talked ourselves out of it!

The truth is, we can talk ourselves out of anything in life, but it’s probably best to just get on and do it and see what happens.  As for whether we’ll have another one…we’ll see!