If you had asked me 10 years ago about my future family, I more than likely would have said that I would be the mother to twins. Twins run in my family in every generation. My father is a twin (identical). My aunt (his older sister) has twins (fraternal). Twins go back several generations on my father’s side. I always assumed I’d be the next one to have them. I accepted it as my fate and moved on.

During the post-mortem on my first (failed) IVF cycle with our RE a few weeks ago — in which he said that my cycle was absolutely textbook perfect minus the lack of pregnancy (not as comforting as it might sound) — he asked whether we would like to move forward with a one or two embryo transfer for our second cycle. As soon as I opened my mouth to answer, my RE jumped in with the laundry list of complications that are more likely in a twin pregnancy. Increased risk of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, low birth weight… yep, check.

For these reasons, as well as the perceived quality of the embryos we currently have frozen (Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff and Anakin, you may recall), he recommends another single transfer. And while this is his recommendation, he is open to transferring two because of the practical and logistical factors involved with IVF.

I left the office that day with my husband — me headed back to work and him home — and said in the parking lot, I don’t know what to do. This surprised him, mostly for the resigned to twins reason above. And honestly, it surprised me a little, too.

One of the very (very, very) few positives of medically assisted reproduction is that I have some small amount of control over having twins. In the future my 20+ year old self envisioned I did not. Our odds of having twins with a two embryo transfer is about 25 percent, per the RE. That seems somehow more significant – heftier – now when I have the option, technically, of choosing a singleton pregnancy and child.

I’m struggling with a few things as I try to make this decision (presently my husband has allowed me to make the choice). Perhaps most seriously with the practicality of caring for and raising two children at the exact same time. I’m not naive – that shizz is hard. That shizz is expensive. I ask myself if I could be a good mother (or perhaps more accurately, the kind of good mother I aim to be) to two as to one. The questions I ask myself are honestly exhausting.

Residing on the other side of the fence, of course, is the part where I’ve tried for three and a half years to have a baby and create my family… I can’t possible say, oh, I only want one at a time. Nope. Give me all the babies!

I don’t really see myself coming to a resolution on this any time soon. Overthink, much?