First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes A Third Baby in a Baby Carriage?

The Honeymoon Phase - please ignore my bushy eyebrows if you can.

a rare pic of me pregnant - (the front side is too scary). please note the hideous birkenstocks i wore for 9 months due to ginormous swelling of feet and ankles.) not fun!

and then there were three...

is there room for one more?

if you know me, you know about my love for movies. i must have been an actress or a movie critic in another life. on friday, my dad and i saw 2 movies - back to back. and we even paid for the second movie too! what better way to not get sucked into the black friday madness? the first film we saw was nicolas cage's bad lieutenant. eva mendez also starred (i'm way prettier- ha!) and it was okay. nothing spectacular and i'm a little baffled as to why my trusty rotten tomatoes gave it a whopping 85%. the next movie we saw was the road. the storyline seemed interesting. the movie surpassed my expectations. one reviewer writes:

"...see it for the simplest of reasons: Because it is a good story. Not because it may be important. Not because it is unforgettable, unyielding. Not because it horrifies. Not because the score is creepily spiritual. Not because it is littered with small lines of dialogue you will remember later. Not because it contains warnings against our own demise. All of that is so. Don't see it just because you loved the book. The movie stands alone. Go see it because it's two small people set against the ugly backdrop of the world undone. A story without guarantees. In every moment — even the last one — you'll want to know what happens next, even if you can hardly stand to look. Because The Road is a story about the persistence of love between a father and a son..."

viggo (don't you just love that name?) mortenson is incredible and i stand corrected regarding his acting talents. the little boy was amazing as well. enough about movies. the point of this post is to tell you that the itch is back. no, not the itch to become a soap opera actress. the itch to have a third child. ok, let's be honest. the itch to have a son. when i returned home from the movie, i immediately emailed alex:

i think i want to try for a boy, quick before i change my mind!

i then began to search the web for sure fire ways to conceive a boy. here is what i learned:

1. apparently chance is on my side - statistically there are 51 boys for every 49 girls.

2. the shettles method says that a couple should have intercourse no more than 24 hours before ovulation and no more than 12 hours past ovulation (this seems way too complicated for this lazy chick)

3. deep penetration from your partner will deposit sperm closer to your cervix, allowing the more aggressive Y sperm to get a head start in fertilization. ahem. no comment.

4. change your diet to include red meat, salty snacks, and soft drinks (no problemo!)

5. let your partner initiate sex and focus on his pleasure. legend says if the man climaxes first, you'll have a baby boy. legend can kiss my ass.

6. schedule your love making sessions for odd numbered days of the month. (can you picture me filling out our calendar and penciling in "love making session" every other day?)

7. have sex at night, preferably when there's a quarter moon in the sky. (seriously people? a quarter moon? i should have been one of "them" and taken astronomy in college dammit.)

8. have as much sex as possible, since boys are conceived during the "honeymoon phase" of a relationship (the people who wrote this must have had kids out of wedlock or given birth exactly 9 months after their wedding)

9. have the man drink coffee before sex, since this causes the sperm with Y chromosomes to become more active. (it's a good thing alex loves coffee!)

it's such a huge, no turning back decision. do i really want to put my life on hold again? do i really want to travel with 3 kids? (and put my grand travel plans on hold for another 4 years, cause people with kids under 3 should really stay home) and shuttle/chauffeur around 3 kids?? do i really want to go through 9 months of the hell that i call pregnancy? do i really want to deal with diapers, poop, burp cloths, baby gear (darn! i already donated most of anais') all over again? do i really want my little baby anais to suffer from middle child syndrome?! *shudder*

my true fears are:

1. will the baby be healthy?

2. will our parents be able to babysit 3 kids at once when i am in desperate need of some me time? (which is usually every weekend)

3. will i go insane?

4. can we afford a nanny?

5. if the plan fails, can i survive raising 3 teenage daughters?

6. will i have to sit through 4 more years of latvian school? did i just admit that out loud?

so if you see me ordering a T-bone steak at a restaurant, you'll know why. if you see me shoving coffee down alex's throat, you'll know why. if you see a quarter moon and alex and i all of a sudden have to jet, you'll know why. if you hear me complaining about back problems on even numbered days of the month, you'll know why. if you see alex walking around with a limp, you'll know why. if you see alex and i all lovey-dovey with each other, holding hands, and blowing kisses across the room, it's because we're trying to recreate the honeymoon phase of our relationship, etc. etc.

if you don't see any of the above and find me teaching shakespeare in a school classroom or frolicking in the sands of spain with my girls (with my new and improved flat belly), you'll know i decided to stick to the status-quo.

it's now or never...