My husband and I have been together for almost 7 years have have been married for 2 and a half of those. We are both turning 29 this year, we recently bought a house and I just got a promotion at work, so I feel like we're in a position in our lives where are able to start thinking about having children. I'm also due to get my IUD removed so it just feels like the natural time to have this conversation. The problem is, we've never seriously discussed it. At the beginning of our relationship my then boyfriend would bring up children all the timenames, how many he wanted, etcbut a year into our relationship I became pregnant after my birth control failed. I was devastatedwe were living in a hotel and working at McDonalds at the time so were certainly not in a position to bring a life into the world and we both agreed on an abortion. Although it was absolutely the right decision, and I've never felt an ounce of regret about it, the whole experience was extremely traumatic for me, and in turn, difficult for my then boyfriend, and I've ever since found it extremely difficult, impossible even, to discuss children with my now husband since. Apart from one drunken conversation a couple of years ago about wanting a house with a garden for the children (which we now have, by the way), my husband has never brought it up either. I know it's crazy, but the longer time goes on the more impossible it feels to bring it up, because I know it's ridiculous that I haven't already. We have a fantastic relationship in all other aspects, but a huge communication problem when it comes to this one thing becase of what happened in the past. I am looking for advice on how to approach the subject and no judgement please--I realise this is a discussion we should have had a long time ago but I can't fix that now. Asking the man I've been in a relationship with the past 7 years "Hey, do you want kids?' feels too absurd a question to ask, though I'm constantly on the verge of blurting it out.