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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I convinced my DH to have a third. At first he was neutral about having 2 or 3; then when he realized I was trying to convince him he became adamantly opposed to a third. When he finally saw that I would absolutely respect his wishes to stick with two, but that I would feel a sense of loss because I’d always envisioned three, he became open to it. Once we started trying he was TOTALLY on board and super excited.

Money was not an issue for us, so that was less of a factor, and we have a somewhat larger gap between kids (a little over 3 years) so we had a good chunk of time out of the baby phase before diving into it again.[/quote]

OP here. Thanks so much. This was helpful advice. Money is not an issue as well. Did you just say, "Okay I am fine with two, but let him know that you will feel a sense of loss without three?"[/quote]

Yes, basically. I mean, I told him I thought we were really a happy family, and we would still be a happy family with just 2 kids, but that it’s something I would think about my entire life. I think that part surprised him; that even in our 60s and 70s I’d be left wondering what life with 3 would have been like. I also presented all the reasons (more rational than emotional) I thought 3 was better for us than 2. I wasn’t ready to be done with the toddler phase (and our youngest was 2). I said (and this part got to him) with three there’s less pressure on any one kid when they are adults, and greater guarantee that we’d have adult children and grandchildren living near us. We both would like grandchildren but are pretty opposed to pressuring our kids in any way to have kids of their own. With 3 adult children if one (or two) spend the holidays elsewhere you still might have one come visit you.

I also listened to and addressed his concerns, which in our case were that he wouldn’t have enough time or energy to devote to a third, and that our relationship would suffer. We came up with a plan to address both those fears.

We had conversations over the course of 6 months about this however, it wasn’t just own night. And it felt like a decision we came to together even though I started out wanting a third and he didn’t. [/quote]

Thank you so much. This is the most helpful advice I have heard so far. I agree for the same reasons. What's the age gap between your children?[/quote]

PP here. Our kids are each a little over 3 years apart (so 6.5 between oldest and youngest).

And for the other poster - yes, we had a third just so we’d be less lonely at Christmas in 20 years! And we’d probably both love 4 or 5 adult children but it’s just so much work that we figured 3 is our limit.

Also I agree my division of rational v emotional reasons is arbitrary and probably inaccurate, I should say I had some conversations with him I which *I* was quite emotive about my feelings and some in which we were just sort of cold and rational about the idea.  Ultimately his concerns were all logistical, and fed by his underlying fear of change. He felt like we had a good thing with 2, why mess it up? Also he knew (by baby #3!) how much work kids are and he didn’t want us to be overwhelmed. We literally came up with a list of all our potential sources of support (my mom, babysitter, outsource more housework), what we would do if things were hard (long term night nanny if sleep was too rough, for example), what our expectations were in terms of time together (we took a bunch of weekend trips alone before #3 was born, and said the goal will be at one year postpartum to be doing weekly date nights again, and at 2 years do regular weekends away again - obviously that’s a long time for some people but for us it was helpful to just have a vision for when we’d have time just the two of us again).

It’s hard for me to remember what his other concerns were, I’m sure there were more![/quote]

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