Expressing emotions

I want to feel closer to my husband but he’s always had trouble expressing emotions. We have a great relationship but sometimes it gets hard because I don’t feel like he expresses his feelings for me much. He will say I love you and we have a great time together but complimenting or anything spontaneous is pretty rare. I always try to do these things for him but it is unnatural for him. It’s something we have worked on throughout our relationship and i have seen improvement but at particularly vulnerable times like starting this TTC journey I feel sensitive to it. I want to feel closer, and its been hard on my self esteem lately to not see it expressed. He has been going through a lot lately between his job and some health issues and I’m sure it has something to do with it. We spoke about it and he says he really wants to express how he feels for me and be closer. Has anyone ever felt like this? Any ideas? I feel like it’s something we may have to work on throughout our marriage. I am an advocate of marriage counseling for healthy marriages and problems of all sorts but it isn’t an option for us right now due to his work schedule.