Just following on...if we were making our decisions based on emotions, we would have a football team. We love our babies and we would be fascinated to see what our genes would come up with numerous times. When I got pregnant with Number 3, there was still no question about Number 4. It has been as this pregnancy has progressed that the issue has come up.

But it's not just about that. There are practicalities. Money. Time. Quality of life. The more kids we have, the less of us there is to go around. Freedom - a baby does restrict your life and the life of its elder siblings. Sleep. Housing. Cars. Schooling. Social life. Holidays. Health. Your age and how old you will be when your child is X years old. Emotional capacity to cope. Your village or lack thereof. And your own needs, wants and dreams - for your own self as well as your children and what you want to provide for them. It's all very well to have a tiny, gorgeous, brand new scrap of humanity in your arms but if you can't parent it as confidently, competently, calmly and contentedly as you would like to then that isn't fair. Not to mention the curve balls that life throws at you anyway.

That was our train of thought and from that we came to the conclusion that 3 is our magic number. I do wonder if I will be haunted by the ghost of Number 4, so to speak, but I am worrying about that less as I become more sure of stopping at 3. DH hasn't got the snip yet, just in case...we are leaving the gate open for a while to let the decision settle, but once again, as we think about it more, I'm finding he is now openly telling people he's probably going to get the snip. It's not an instant decision, it's one that evolves, we have found.