Well, I've wanted to address the death of the fifth child for a while. There were three children between Emma and the baby - two boys and a girl. Four or five children in an agrarian community, especially one recovering from massive population loss, isn't at all uncommon (especially in a family more on the outskirts) - the kids are relatively cheap farm labor.

Even if Ana wouldn't have wanted as many in other circumstances, it's a matter of practicality - they need the people, and I'm sure the community encouraged them as well. And it gives Michael, in time, people to interact with - he can't go into town, certainly not regularly. He'd want a larger "hive", I think - once he acclimated to dealing with children, and really, it's easier to have them in a bunch and deal with the drawbacks all in a five or six year period than spread the sleepless nights through fifteen years.