This is a question I’ve seen come through on a handful of Monday Morning Q&A boxes.

How did we know when to start a family" Did we have a feeling" Was there a certain thing that had to happen in order for us to know" And when did you know your family was complete"

While we were dating, we discussed that we both had a desire to have kids. This was important to each of us, and it was a non-negotiable that we had to agree on before getting married.

He kind of always mentioned wanting two, and I always imagined having three children. I think that is primarily due to the family size we were both raised in.

He grew up with one older sister, and I grew up with an older brother and younger sister.
When we got married, he was still finishing up his undergrad degree (he started college later than usual due to his time in the USAF) so we knew we wouldn’t start a family until after that was complete. We also wanted to enjoy being married for a while, just the two of us.

After he finished his degree and started working, he also began to toss around the idea of grad school. At the same time, we were also discussing a timeline of when to start trying for a baby. Our plan was for me to stay home with the future children, and for Justin to work in Engineering.

We decided to start trying in early 2012. And to make a long story short, it took 14 months to get pregnant with David. I wrote about it here.

Given our experience ...