Babies, Babies, Everywhere...

Yeah, I'm having those feelings again. Those who have children might recognize it; it's the feeling that comes just before the feeling that says, "Hey, let's have another one." :) I'm noticing babies a lot these days, when I'm not noticing mine, that is. :-P Babies in strollers, babies with sticky-up hair, babies in their mother's arms.

So, we're hoping to try for another one at the end of March, and hopefully, that will go a LOT smoother than our pregnancy with the wee one did. At least the docs know what caused my preterm labor and can do some preventative measures much earlier in the next pregnancy...which means we'll probably have a healthy, nearly full-term baby. We can hope. :)

Which brings me to the octuplets that have been in the news lately, along with much speculation about how the mother is going to take care of all 14 of her kids when the 8 babies come home. I confess to wondering about that too, as well as wondering what the hell happened there. DH and I did undergo some fertility treatment (though that wasn't how we got pregnant with the Wee One. She was a surprise, in every sense of the word.)

So I can understand the burning desire to have kids. I can even understand not wanting to have a reduction, as this woman apparently decided. There's just something so heart-wrenching about finally being pregnant with a much-wanted child, only to be told that you should consider aborting some to save the others. But what I don't understand is this: if the woman knew ahead of time that she wasn't going to reduce, why did her doctor implant all eight embryos? Did he/she really think it was worth the risk?

And in the end, the babies are the ones that'll suffer. Multiple births mean multiple hazards and it's extremely rare that a family like the Gosselins (of "Jon and Kate + 8" fame) would not have at least one child with cerebral palsy, developmental delays, etc. Plus, there's the NICU itself---it's a great place and it can do a lot to help early babies out (and don't we know it) but it's not a mother's womb. And it's not a place I would wish on any parent or any baby.

So I don't know who I'm more annoyed with---the mother, who decided that six wasn't apparently enough or the doctor, who decided to implant all of the remaining embryos? Somewhere in there, I keep thinking that someone should have decided that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.