thank you all for your replies.

i've talked to the husband about it... i'm all for adult dog rescue, but he wants it "fresh off the teat" so he can raise it himself.

it seems to me that if a puppy is so annoying (read: wakes me up all night), i might as well get it when i have a newborn. IF we get a puppy ever, that is.

i don't think i can push this off forever. my husband grew up with dogs his whole life and loves lab mixes and thinks a family needs a dog.

i come from a household which never had a dog. i don't even really *get* the whole dog thing. he says "you will." part of me thinks allowing non-human animals to cohabitate with your humans is just wrong. part of me thinks my kids will love having a dog-friend... ugh.

estee your post is everything i have told them in my quest for NO. i even cried (thank you pregnancy hormones) and told them i just don't want one. it worked. for a day or two. then we were discussing it again.

we had decided on lab/beagle. i tried to get him to go for the labradoodle (bc it's hypoallergenic, and i have seasonal allergies so i'm worried that i might be allergic. and i don't believe once you get a dog you should ever consider sending it back....unless i'm allergic to it. sorry, dog, i'm not going to medicate myself twice daily just to live with you.) also the shedding. but my husband said he doesn't want a "foofy," and the labradoodle was "an overgrown foofy." which it was. so, there goes that.

we live in a house on a ton of land. yard not fenced. my grandparents had a lab and he was the greatest dog ever. but he was HUGE and super hairy and sheddy.

i think for now i've managed to get everyone to agree that we need to wait. by everyone i mean my husband. the kids still want a dog yesterday.

vacations: everywhere we go, a dog would be welcome. so although i tried to use this as an excuse, it's not a good one for our family. we go camping or we go visit relatives, and they're all VERY dog-friendly people. *sigh* ;)

i was thinking how can i handle a puppy and a baby at the same time, but t-kitten's post makes me feel like i might as well get all the sh!ttiness over with at once! if i'm gonna be up all night with a newborn, when it finally sleeps all night, i then have to start over with a puppy? and by then it will be winter??? so now i'm thinking we have to hurry up and get this dog now, or probably wait until all the kids are older and really WILL help.

my biggest gripe against the dog is having to get up with it in the morning. the worst part about being a mom, for me, has been having to get up early. i am a sleeper. i adore sleep. i miss it. i have to get the kids up at 6:30 and, seriously, every morning when my alarm goes off, my first feeling is to suppress the tears. i absolutely sleep in on weekends. i feel like getting a dog is signing up for 15+ years of never sleeping in ever, ever again. and that thought alone makes me so sad! everything else about it i am fine with. accidents in the house, whatever. none of it truly bothers me except the sleep!!!

cq

having grown up a non-dog family, i don't think i'll ever be "ready" til the dog just lives here already