— a 34-year-old Rhode Island mother of a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old
When my husband and I were dating, his deal-breaker was having kids. I didn’t feel the same way, but I didn’t see life without children as an option. It always felt like the next stage of life for us. I remember telling my husband, “I’m worried; I love our life now and I’m not sure what it’s going to look like with a child.” He told me, “It’s going to be better.” I was the executive of a nonprofit, which was a stressful but fulfilling job. I was worried about my career, but I thought, There are working moms everywhere. People do this. Then I had my first baby.
Her first year of life, she was colicky and cried all the time — you couldn’t put her down.