"An Heir and a Spare"?

Lately I have been seriously entertaining the thought that one child is enough. This thought process began right after Gideon was born simply due to the pain of labor. Since that time, however, it has escalated to be more of a parenting preference than out of the burden of offspring.

I, as with many other parents, was asked immediately after Gideon was born, when not if we would have more children. It was never "if", it was always "how many". The more I read, the more common I find this type of comment.

At first, as I said, I didn't want to go through labor again. But since then I went from not being able to function without sleep for another 6 months- God knows how long, to not wanting to have to balance love and affection, funds, etc. on more than one child.

I've read several articles about pros and cons of having an only child. Apparently, these families of three are becoming more common. Women having only one child has gone from somewhere below 20% to over 20% in the last ten years. Many studies now are also showing that the stereotypes of "onlies" (not my term) are not always accurate. In fact many only children have higher IQ's and achieve more in school, and are closer with their parents. What more could I want than a genius child who worships me?

That said, there are also plenty of reasons why having more kids is beneficial. But, it seems to me that the only person it benefits is the current child. Most of the "pros" have been things like having a life long friend, or having someone to help take care of the parents when they're old. How does that benefit me?

Needless to say the debate is still going on in my head. I am completely torn. Having one child is hard enough financially, emotionally, and physically (you don't even want to know what my boobs look like), to think about doing it all over again is a bit daunting.

Here are some of the most helpful articles I've read in case you are interested:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/15/single-child-families - You'll have to get beyond the UK slang.
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/whats-wrong-with-having-one-child/
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=2178396&page=1#.UD2XqcFlTeg
http://www.bellybelly.com.au/child/one-child-families-advantages-disadvantages-of-having-one-child

News

After 15 months of waiting we have a tooth! Right smack dab on the top (of course my son who is different in every which way would get teeth on the top first). Everyone I have seen whether a friend, family member or stranger always says, "How old is your son? And he doesn't have any teeth?!"

To which my reply was "Shut your dirty pie hole you god forsaken wench!"

Ok, not really. Mostly I just said, "Yeah, I know."

But many people were very supportive giving me examples of people they knew whose children did not get a tooth until very late, sometimes even 18 months.

So it is with great pride that I announce the arrival of Gideon's first tooth. And there are many more behind it. We can see one more on the top and a couple on the bottom.

Apparently new teeth should be accompanied by the use of the most annoying word a toddler can say, "no". I guess I should just be thankful it took this long for him to learn that word.

In other news, sleeping is finally getting better. His is still waking up at night but only once or twice a night, which is TOTALLY fine by me. Our pediatrician thinks this is a big problem, and suggested we "ferberize" Gideon. I, of course, don't agree. Call me a hippie-new-age-thinker, but I feel like Gideon just took longer in this arena. A friend of mine (you know who you are), told me not long ago that she thinks sometimes kids just need their mom and dad a little more some nights when they are working through something. I think Gideon was just taking his time and enjoying being with mom and dad. I am under the impression that he will grow out of this waking up in the night and will eventually not need our help anymore.

Also, the kid is growing only up and not out. He is only 19 pounds. I'm not surprised by his weight since I was always very thin as a child, but his height is definitely NOT from me. He is 32 inches tall. Somewhere in the 95% as I'm told. If he keeps this up he'll be taller than me by 5 years old.

We're up to about 20 words now which is fun. Of course we are usually the only people who understand his 20 words, but there they are none-the-less.

Life carries on...

This is what we do...

D got a job. Finally. It's been a year. It's not the most exciting job, but it is doing what he wants to do, so that is a definite plus.

I am off of work at the moment so Gideon and I have been spending a lot of time doing... what we do. Swimming in the kiddie pool, going for (very short due to the heat) walks, taking naps, and this....