Back in the Baby Business
Babies are a blessing and they smell good but there is so much preparation and energy that comes with this wonderful gift. First of all, if you’re like me and have a huge age gap between the first and second-15 years, you have the opportunity to pretty much raise two children from two different generations. For instance, my first was born in 1999 during the Y2K phenomena and the next one is due in 2015. So many things have changed from 1999 to 2015 like car seats and pacifiers (some you can squeeze food through i.e.: bananas). Organic food choices are more accessible and more ways to manufacture from home.
Aside from the technological advances and creative “new” parenting aspects, we have to address the mindset of older parents. Becoming a mother again at 39 is challenging on the body and mind. At 39, you have concerns that were not present 15 years prior. The medical community will kindly place you in the “high risk and elderly” category. If you didn't already feel old, you will after leaving that first pre-natal appointment. Overall, I’m pretty healthy, hardly ever catch colds and occasionally suffer from seasonal allergies. However, with this pregnancy, I have felt every symptom ten times more than I did the first time around. The bodily functions are more exaggerated like flatulence and aching breasts and I don’t have any shame when I let loose or go bra-less. I have never felt so liberated! On top of all of this, the doctors strongly recommend genetic testing. I guess for some it gives the option to discontinue the pregnancy if certain genetic markers are found. For us, it didn't matter what the tests revealed, we were prepared to take the pregnancy full term.
The approach with the second pregnancy felt more routine, with no surprises. With our first, the sex wasn't known until the birth. We literally, came up with a set of names for both sexes the night before giving birth. With this pregnancy, we wanted to know the sex right away. I guess knowing the sex did make it easier to decide on a name by eliminating one of the sexes. With our first, I didn't consider the name as factor leading to discrimination. We choose a name and meaning that we liked not really projecting what the future would/could entail. Post September 11th attacks, we had to consider if the Arabic name we have chosen will have any undue repercussions. We all get questioned about our heritage but I think our newest offspring will endure more questions and assumptions. We decided to keep our Arabic name and like our first child, this child will be taught to be a proud citizen no matter what.
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