Happiness: a philosophical question

Maybe Gilbert addresses this, but it seems like having children is a poor thing to judge based on any instance of happiness. I imagine if you asked a woman during childbirth how happy she was, you'd get a very different response than say, when she's looking at her child of 5 weeks while he's sleeping peacefully. Peacefully being the operative word here.

I mean, the ramifications of having a kid are so wide-ranging that it seems the only accurate measurement would be in aggregate. Retrospective, to use your terminology. I don't think this necessarily invalidates the reality of whatever happiness you experienced. You just have the perspective to better appreciate it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.