The IUD is out....

As of this morning, I am no longer on birth conrtol, and with any luck, I won't ever have to be again.

I gave Roland a warning at the beginning of the summer that I was going to get my IUD removed in August unless he gave me another reasonable timeline. He never did, so it was off to the doctor I went, at the END of the month I might add. He has had plenty of time. No complaints...

It kinda sounds like I am trying to clothes-line him into having another kid, but that is seriously not the case. We just have differing opinions on when precicely to have another, and hopefully last, baby. He thinks the 4-year gap between him and his brothers is ideal, but if you use his brothers and him as examples, this is not an ideal time between. They barely even talk to one another. He doesn't like his older brother at all, and his younger brother only calls when there is something wrong with his car... or needs a clean pee test.

I initially wanted there to be two years between Rosalie and our next kid, but I'm pushing that to two and a half to three years now. If I still wanted my kids two years apart that means I would have gotten my IUD out and gotten pregnant at the beginning of July. I honestly can't even fathom that. Rosalie is still so young, and she still loves to cuddle so much and she is still SO reliant on me. I don't think it would be fair to take that away from her so early. She needs a chance to be the baby for a while...

That being said, is getting my IUD out and potentially having a baby 2 months later all that much of a difference? No probably not. But the argument for having kids closer together makes it a viable option. I mean, in the long run, it is more likely that they will be friends and play together well rather than having them further apart and being in completely different stages in play styles. Also by establishing birth order earlier, Rosalie won't really "miss" being the baby, she will adjust to being a big sister earlier. I know that there was a bunch of sibling rivalry between me and my brother when he usurped my position as baby in the family because I was 5 when he was born.

And ALL of that being said, who knows when I will actually get pregnant? The anxiety I had waiting in the doctors office you would have thought that I was going to be pregnant the second I got the thing removed. I had to remind myself that this was just the first step to the OPPORTUNITY to get pregnant. It could still be years before I get pregnant. I am also realistic enough to realize that it is entirely possible I might have a baby miscarry on me. It happens more often than many people think and I am not one of those people that think "It will never happen to me". I am far more likely to think "That is probably going to happen to me." Like before I got pregnant and I convinced myself that I wasn't able to get pregnant, and that was before we were trying and I was still on the pill/ring/patch... Or once my pregnancy with Rosalie was stable, I was sure that I was going to have her breach when it came to delivery time and I was going to have to fight against a c-section. Even when I was in labour and they never told me she was breach I was a little surprised.

Anywhoo, we are giving ourselves a bigger window than is really in the "plan". It would be REALLY early for me to get pregnant now, and not really ideal, but we would be fine. It would be a blessing and I would be totally excited. :)