“[Shayla]’s my name! My secret baby name that I made up when I was eleven years old for my daughter when I had her. Don’t tell me you don’t remember!” — Charlotte
[Carrie’s voiceover] We all remembered. Charlotte had made us all swear never to use it.
Charlotte is on the other end of the spectrum from Samantha. She has a maternal instinct and she’s not afraid to use it. She has kept a “baby box” with keepsakes and memorabilia for her daughter-to-be, Shayla (“The Baby Shower”). And she is devastated when she learns that she and Trey cannot conceive naturally. After a number of trying rounds of IVF, Trey finally gives up, contributing in part to the end of their marriage. But Charlotte doesn’t lose hope.
When Miranda is deciding whether or not to go through with her pregnancy, Charlotte is furious. “You’re not even going to consider having it?” she demands (“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”). Then, when Miranda decides at the last minute not to terminate the pregnancy — and worries how Charlotte might react — Charlotte tearfully and joyfully exclaims, “We’re having a baby?!” So, despite her personal troubles with conceiving, Charlotte is thrilled to have a little baby in the group.
Finally, a year later, Charlotte gets pregnant. But then, on the day of Brady’s first birthday party, she miscarries (“One”). She is obviously devastated, but then decides to pick herself up and support her friend and her “nephew” on his special day. This shows how strong Charlotte is and is one of the many reasons I admire her character.
Maybe it wasn’t in the cards for Charlotte to give birth, but by the series finale, she and Harry have been approved to adopt a baby from China and receive her picture in the mail (“An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux”). To be honest, I cried when I saw this scene. Charlotte had been waiting so long for her baby, and she was finally getting her. And of course, it made me think of how horribly Trey’s mother Bunny had reacted to Charlotte’s idea to adopt a Mandarin baby:
“Now I know some things can’t be helped. But I must tell you right now, I don’t enjoy Mandarin food, and I don’t enjoy a Mandarin child.” — Bunny
“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” — Charlotte
“But it is my business. The McDougal name will be carried on by sons of your own — not daughters of the South Pacific.” — Bunny
Harry and Charlotte’s baby arriving from China was probably done intentionally, showing that while Trey and Charlotte were never on the same page, Harry and Charlotte always are.
“I don’t like any children but my own.” — Miranda
I love Miranda as a mom. While she was a hardworking single woman before Brady’s birth, she remains that same hardworking single woman after his birth. Of course, she eventually proposes to and marries Steve, Brady’s father and Miranda’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. But for quite awhile, she goes it alone. And it isn’t easy.
From feeling ostracized by her neighbors for not interacting with them, to getting into an argument with one of them as a result of Brady’s crying (“Critical Condition”), to getting a “talking to” at work for not “doing as much as she had been” (which always kills me; what working mom isn’t doing ten times more than they had been before having a baby? It’s just that sometimes we have to prioritize, and work isn’t number one anymore), Miranda has a rough go of it. Plus, she starts feeling left out when her friends start not inviting her out because they think she can’t go.
Despite all these changes, Miranda still acts the same way she ever did. She just happens to have a family. And although she’s preoccupied with diapers, burp cloths, and binkies, she still has the same sarcastic sense of humor, and the same desire for independence. It’s almost as if she didn’t realize she really wanted kids until she had Brady.
Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose 
on Aug 31, 2012 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
