Hi all. Hubbie and I have been going through the exact same thing! We were TTC about a month ago then it hit me that I may not actually want to go through it all again. My DS turned two yesterday and life is beginning to become easier and I wonder if I'd want to go back to the sleepless nights etc again (although DS slept through from 5 weeks and was a very 'easy' baby). I am trying to convince hubbie to get a dog/cat instead!

This is funny!

I never for one minute questioned the wisdom of my decision to stick with just one child but I waver on an almost daily basis about whether or not to get another cat!!

My DS is now three. We did plan to have more, but now feel that we stick with one and will get a puppy. Maybe it's me being selfish, but I've seen so many people struggle with two and I don't want that to be me. I know I would struggle.

puppy

Puppy - but I would wait a year or so myself until your dd is old enough to really appreciate it and also her friends are less likely to be overly enthusiastic when playing & pull tail/ears etc (easy to teach your dd what is appropriate, but harder when you have loads of visiting tinies).
And what stealthsquiggle says, no reason you can't have both if you change your mind!

Can I send my dds back and just keep the puppy?

Puppy - it doesn't exclude the other option later.

FWIW, DS was 2.5 before I even started thinking about another, and we ended up with a 4 year gap, which works really really well .

I'd wait and see how you feel for a year or so.

Definately a puppy.

We love ds deeply and passionately, but even with just him we sometimes look at each other and say "why didn't we just get another dog?".

Another one for puppy I could have written your post and decided to get a puppy when I realized that I had 10 times as much enthusiasm for that as having another child!