Going for Two

The past few weeks have been interesting in our household. About a week ago my wife was shall we say, late, by about a week and it had us a bit on edge. We ran the gamut of emotions from nervous to excited to happy and back to nervous. Since she had resumed her clockwork like schedule after she finished nursing we were getting ourselves prepared for the reality that we might be expecting again.

After about four days past zero hour she took a pregnancy test and it turned out negative, but the test had also been expired for about a month. Deciding that since the test was so out of date we would pick up some more and try again the next day. Well, we never got that far and now I’m still dealing with the same flux of emotions.

Every talk we’ve ever had about starting a family revolved around the notion that if we were fortunate enough we would like to have two children. We felt that was the right size for us, but we also know that twins run in my mother in-laws family, so we have a chance of rolling snake eyes. Since my wife is in the whole ‘advanced maternal age’ category, we figured little man was at a good age to start trying for a brother or sister (or possible one of each, AHHH!). After all, can you truly be parents if your child doesn’t have a sibling to annoy the crap out of them? *grin*

My wife was obviously dissappointed despite her ‘it will happen when it happens, if it is supposed to happen’ mentality. As for me, I was a little sad, but oddly relieved at the same time. The planner in me had already started a mental list of things we would need to get and do to prepare to welcome another child into the world.

The first thing on my list of concerns was managing the care of two children, especially an infant and what would likely be a very precocious two year old. On the plus side my wife has dutifully saved her PTO at work so she would be in position to have a full twelve week maternity leave. However, the fact of the matter is unless I hit the lottery, or start the next Facebook and sell it, I’m going to have a lot more to juggle as a stay at home dad than I’m mentally ready for right now.

I’ve always been the type to psych myself out, be it tests in school, projects at work or the realities of starting a family. In all fairness to myself, I’ve also always managed, usually quite well, to meet or exceed expectations. It’s just a mindset I seem to default to whenever a situation I’ve never encountered before presents itself until I seek out more information.

Another thing I did is start reviewing the baby gear we own, evaluate how effective it was with our little man, decide what we would do differently now that we have some experience as parents, and identify other supplemental gear we may need, including cost. This all really started when I pulled out our stroller for a quick shopping trip and my mind started wondering what type would be best to transport an infant and a toddler. It’s a sickness and, no, it can’t be cured.

The last thing that kept me up a few nights was the whole issue surrounding our home. For those of you that don’t know, our house is presently on the market for sale by owner. I won’t get into it all here, so, if you are interested please check out the post I wrote about our decision to sell it right here. The market here in Charlotte is still tough, as I’m sure it is everywhere, and, what compounds our situation is that our home is very unique.

I know it is going to take time, time that I didn’t think I was going to have a week ago.  It is also going to take a special buyer for us to sell the house in a mutually beneficial transaction. In a perfect situation a retired couple, a couple with no plans to have children or a successful single person that wants to own a charming, fully renovated bungalow a stones throw from the city will come knocking on our door with a check, or at least a bona fide offer, in hand tomorrow. Since that is not likely to happen, I know I need to step up my marketing efforts and keep my fingers crossed.

In any event, it may be no where near the fourth quarter, but we are surely going for two.

Wish us luck!

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