How Old is Too Old? Right Now, 33 Seems Too Old!

So, a friend of mine and I were talking on Monday about how tiring it is having three young kids. And add to that: sickness, yours and theirs, and the fact that the world doesn't stop spinning EVER so how are you ever going to be able to recuperate?!?! I said, "Yeah, I was all about maybe having another child at some point, but now, NO WAY!! I can't even imagine having another kid!"

She agreed. She has three young children herself and said something to the effect of they would have to institutionalize us if another one was to come along! Bring on the straight jacket this woman has gone certifiable!!!

That topic, and my recent realization that I am getting OLD, got my mind going. I started thinking about kids and age, and how I think it is INSANE to have a child late in life! Now, no one get offended here. I do not think it is wrong of anyone who decides to live life in this fashion, I just think, for me, I would be NUTS to have a child later in life, like after the boys are already almost out of the house and what-not. But, hey, I am me, so it is very possible that I will change my mind. I may just decide at 45 that I am ready for baby number 4. Now, I will most definitely have to go out and buy the male component necessary to have this baby, because it would be then that my husband would find the nearest door out of this loony bin saying, "You can take on that mid-life crisis all by yourself! I'm OUTTA HERE!!!"

That being said, I am pretty sure I won't be changing my mind that late in life. I do enjoy my husband's company therefore no more babies past 35! (or maybe 36, or 37, okay 38, but that is the latest, I promise, unless I get pregnant at 39, then maybe my limit will be 40.)

So, I started searching the internet for just how OLD the oldest woman to ever give birth was. I thought I remembered reading when I was younger about a woman in her late 50's having a child. But, I had to assume that that number had bettered itself with all the advances in medicine we have had since then, and I was right. The oldest woman to EVER give birth, did so this year in July. She was 70 and her husband 77!!!!! They had already had two daughters and 5 grand children, and now, they have twins, a boy and a girl. (On a side note, apparently they would have been much happier had they not had the girl. They only went through Invitro to get a male heir, but got a girl as well. As they told it to one news agency, she is a "burden". Nice! Love you too Mom and Dad!!)

It would seem that I was very timely in my questions into the age of a woman at birth, because today it was reported that another 70 year old Indian woman gave birth just last month. The oddity of this story is that the woman was married to her husband for 50 years without a child and then went through Invitro to conceive. And through this method voila, they now have their very own Burden, I mean, Girl Baby!

But, my point in all of this rambling is this...... How the heck will they be able to keep up with this infant? Holy Cow!! (And in India cows are) I can't even imagine being a septuagenarian and having a baby! Mine! Not my long lost cousin's. Not my great-grand daughter's......NO.....MINE! My kid. My responsibility. A child I will have to teach about things I have long since forgotten. And help with things I can't bend down to do.

And I know that some people are in really good shape at 70. And that is Wonderful. Miraculous! Stupendous! But, at that age I think I will be thinking when am I going to sleep?!?! I'm old, I need naps!

Little babies need naps too, but then they grow up a little and become toddlers. Which is when they run their buts off, and they scream at the top of their lungs, (probably not such a bad thing for a 70 year old parent, hearing loss does usually come with age) And, toddlers hit.... HARD sometimes! And Kick, too! And old bones are brittle bones, you know!

Anyway, I just found it VERY amusing that two couples in their seventies were consciously choosing to have babies, while I, in my 30's wish desperately for some hours of unconsciousness making it possible for my brain to make a decision!