Is Gwyneth Paltrow expecting again? Well, the rumor mill would have us think so. For a while now, speculation has been building that the Oscar-winner is either with child or planning to be that way a third time.
Now, it seems more likely than ever that the star, who is married to and has two children with Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, is carrying a third proverbial bun in the oven. She was recently spotted with what is being called a fuller, more curvy figure. Now, that could mean she ate a sandwich or something--we all know how the media likes to jump all over any woman who bothers to consume anything other than iceburg lettuce.
Paltrow also recently commented to Harper's Bazaar Magazine that she is willing to go through a pregnancy a third time because the result is so amazing. She also commented that her father, the late Bruce Paltrow, regretted only having two children. Paltrow is already mom to Apple, who is four is you can believe it, and Moses, two. At least these sorts of rumors aren't as bad as the other kind that always circulate about Hollywood stars--that they're having a crisis in their marriages. You'll also recall not too long ago Paltrow commented she was interested in adopting, perhaps from Brooklyn.
Although it is a decidedly less controversial issue, many people are talking about whether or not have more than one child, especially in this terrible economy. Here in New York City, having more than one child can be such an exorbitant expense it's seen as a luxury and a status symbol to have a child at all!
For actress Kate Beckinsale, however, who is probably not so concerned about money, having more than one child is not in her interest. Kate has a nine-year-old daughter, Lily, who is so well-behaved that Kate thinks she might stop at the magic number of one.
Kate also comments that she was an only child so having only one child would suit her just fine. As an only child myself, I was always lonely and looking for someone to play with, so I made every effort to make sure my son would have a sibling. If we're all lucky, he'll have one in October. Is it better to have one or two--or eight!--children? Who can say. I think it's up to the parents and their desires. According to Kate, her little family is "a merry little bunch," so it sounds like she's found the perfect number.
I've been feeling kind of bad for my three-year-old lately. This year, my older kiddo picked up a lot of new activities, most of which toddlers are not invited to participate in. She started preschool, began a dance class, and this spring, started playing soccer. On Saturdays, my three-year-old whines, "I don't like soccer games." She's tired of being a tag-a-long.
But while I'm feeling sorry for my baby, Newsweek tells me that it's my firstborn that gets the short end of the stick. It's a commonly held tradition that firstborn kids have to "break in" their parents, and therefore have to live with stricter rules and harsher discipline than their younger siblings. Recent research backs up this folklore; older siblings are less likely to make mistakes because they are used to being held up to higher standards, while younger siblings are more likely to be risk takers.
Trying to apply these findings to the people I know, I can't really find a pattern. I know a lot of firstborns who are risk takers (and mistake-makers), and plenty of family "babies" who live comfortably inside their comfort zones. Yet, among my own children, I can see a hint of it. And looking at my parenting techniques, I just might recognize a little of this in myself.
What about you? Do you think you were treated differently by your parents because of your birth order? Do you see that in your own parenting?
My 3-month-old has started laughing, or more accurately, chortling. His version of laughing at this stage is much like I remember his brother's: a staccato "ah-heh-heh, ah-heh" sound, accompanied by a delighted grin. The thing that was cracking Dylan up a few days back was my comical choking sound as I loomed over him and he kicked his frog toes against my neck. "Aaaaauuucccch," I would say, bugging out my eyes and letting my tongue loll out of my mouth in the Universal Sign For Pretending to be Choking. "AUUCCH. You're KICKING my NECK! HELP! Someone SAVE ME from KARATE NECK-KICKING BABY!" And Dylan would bark his weird little robot chortle, practically slapping his knee with the hilarity of it all.
Since then I've caught him laughing at his brother's antics, too, although I have the feeling that is more of a joyous expression of the DEVOTION he feels towards Riley. For his part, Riley is quite tender towards his immobile younger sibling (with a few exceptions: notably, the ongoing forbidden Let's Throw Hard Plastic Balls In the Air Above the Baby! game, and what is the DEAL with those balls anyway, I keep getting rid of them and he keeps finding more, they're like Tribbles) and speaks to him in this weird ultra-high-pitched voice that makes my eardrums shiver and Dylan obviously loves.
Apparently the Duggar clan hasn't quite filled that quiver! Michelle Duggar, matriarch of the popular Discovery Channel program "The Duggars" and mother to seventeen children managed to surprise the entire lot live on the Today Show when she announced that once again she is expecting.
A year ago, Lori Coble was sitting in traffic on Interstate 5 in Southern California when a big rig rear-ended her minivan at an estimated 55-60 mph. Lori and her mother were injured, but her three children, five-year-old Kyle, four-year-old Emma, and Katie, just two years old, were killed in the horrific crash. Like the Phoenix of legend, the Coble family has risen from the ashes of tragedy to be reborn.
In an amazing coincidence, Lori Coble has just given birth to triplets, two girls and a boy. Of course, Ashley, Ellie and Jake, all born about a minute apart, are not a replacement for Kyle, Emma, and Katie, but it is interesting that the three triplets are two girls and one boy, just as the their first three children were.
"It's kind of a two-sided coin," said Chris Coble, when he found out his wife was pregnant with triplets last October. "We feel amazed that it's happening, but at the same time we're still mourning Kyle, Emma and Katie. Nothing will ever replace them. We feel joy for what's happening, but we're crying and missing the kids."
I'm sure nothing will ever replace the three children they lost a year ago, but hopefully the couple will find renewed happiness in their three new bundles of joy.
Given the fact that I am pregnant and hormonal, as well as totally in love with babies, it should come as little surprise that it gives me great pleasure to announce that someone recently gave birth to triplets--and, they are genetically identical!
I say recently, but the triplet boys were actually born December 4, 2007, putting them just over 3 months old. They were recently DNA tested when it was determined that yes, indeed, they are identical. Perhaps it is hard to tell amongst babies so small whether or not they look alike. Before I had a tot of my own I didn't give much thought to the difference in appearance of babies other than if they were wearing pink or blue. Imagine how I would feel if I had identical twins or triplets!
Well, that's just what happened to the new mommy at pyjammy.com. She is now the proud mother of three unbelievably beautiful little boys--trust me, just hop over to the blog to check out the adorable pick of them sitting in their, er, whatever those things are called that were recently recalled, now that I think about it.
Seriously, I know I am pregnant and everything, but those boys are just gorgeous. Congratulations, pyjammy mommy!
And thanks to Mike Schleifstein for the heads up! According to Mike, these triplets are a rarity indeed because the mom conceived them naturally without the help of any fertility drugs, etc. I'm not sure how rare triplets of any sort are these days, but I do recall in my middle school (and it was a relatively small school, too) there were two sets of triplets! None of them were identical, but I thought at the time that two sets of triplets was unusual (but triple the fun).
After our family celebration for Easter ends, our family of four is breaking into pairs. My husband is plotting some one-on-one time with our preschool daughter at the beach, and I'll be home with the baby. (This almost guarantees me a nap -- whee! -- although I probably just jinxed it by putting it in print.)
We tend to spend a lot of our weekend time either as a foursome or switching off parent duties so that we can take turns accomplishing tasks child-free. The end result, however, is that our kids rarely get time alone with each of us.
It's especially complicated for my husband, whose hours with the kids are limited. Claire tends to be something of a mama's girl. She's so used to having me around, that while she wants to hang out with her dad, she has trouble understanding why Gage and I wouldn't just come along too. I think some dedicated time with daddy will allow his strengths as a parent to shine. Heck, she'll probably come back liking him a whole lot better than me.
Do you make it a point to spend time alone with each of your children? How do you do it?
I worried a lot about how my toddler would adjust when we brought his baby brother home, and we've had a few ups and downs in that department. There have been some piteous cries of NO FEEDING DIWWAN WIGHT NOW and some tantrumy outbursts, but over time Riley's become pretty accepting of our new family dynamic.
Lately he's started involving Dylan in most of the weird, elaborate stories he likes to tell us about how he's gonna get in a FIRE TRUCK and drive it alllll the way to the BEACH to see the WATER and MOMMY and DADDY and DYLAN are going to come TOO. He also likes ask whether or not Dylan has a "tiny" version of whatever we're all talking about, as in "Dylan need a tiny SANDWICH, Mommy?" while I'm making Riley lunch, or "Dylan has a tiny TOOTHBRUSH?" as he's getting ready for bed.
I've seen photos of toddlers adoringly cradling their baby brothers or sisters and I've wondered whether I gave birth to a different kind of older kid -- specifically one who shows no particular interest in holding a baby, nor frankly should be trusted not to absentmindedly drop him to the floor or curiously poke him in the eyesocket -- but even though I don't have the loving family portrait to prove the existence of young brotherly affection, the other day Riley looked at Dylan, looked at me, and announced apropos of nothing, "I YIKE Dylan, Mommy!"
I've always wondered this: will I be the kind of parent who will secretly harbor a corner of my heart only for my Bean, my first born, the kid who currently rocks my world? Or will my heart grow, Grinch like, until it fully engulfs a second baby when, and if I have one?
I can't say for sure. I am so smitten with my small boy right now: with the way he says words now like "enormous" and "horrified" and "extremely," and calls me "Jackrabbit Mommy" and then giggles as if that is the funniest thing in the entire world.
And also, my parents played favorites. I was my dad's, and with this special placement came the aching consequence of sibling jealousy and a colder shoulder from my mom who tried, I suppose, to compensate for my dad's disproportionate love for me, by loving my two sisters more evidently than she did me. Or maybe this is the way loving multiple children works? Love takes on different forms, some more outward than others, yet all are equal?
I'm curious, do you, even for a fleeting moment, play favorites with your kids?
Tom and Allison Penn had tried to have children for years and finally had just one embryo implanted at their fertility clinic.
Then something strange happened: that one embryo split into twins. And then something even stranger happened, one of those embryos split again, resulting in identical triplets.
"Everything we had done was to have one baby," said new father, Tom. "Anybody who says God doesn't have a sense of humor. Everything we did was just for having one baby and now we have three."
An embryo splitting in this manner is an event so rare, an obstetrician estimated it might happen just once in 200 million births.
"This is the first one we're aware of in the literature in the country in which they only put back one embryo" and a woman gave birth to triplets, said Dr. Victor Klein, the fertility specialist who delivered the boys. "Most people put back two or three embryos and you just never know."
To tell the wee identical babies apart, their parents have put a dot of nail polish their fingernails. Logan Thomas, who weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces, has a mark on his thumb; Eli Kirkwood, 4 pounds, has polish on his forefinger, and Collin McGuire, at 4 pounds, 11 ounces, has a dot on his middle finger. Except for Logan, who may have a non-functioning kidney, all the babies are all perfectly healthy.
When we found out that our second child was going to be a girl late in our third trimester, the only person we told was our then two-year-old daughter. She was so excited to find out that she was going to have a sister, and I think that letting her in on the secret really helped her bond with the baby before she was born. In fact, the night that my water broke, I tiptoed into her room to give her a kiss and let her know that the baby was coming. I was worried she'd be sad or scared, but instead she kissed me back, then rolled over one more time to instruct me, "Mama? Just don't bring home a boy."
That anticipation and excitement lasted until about the second day we were home, then the adjustment period set in. It was hard on all of us. I was used to giving her all of my attention, she was used to getting it. It was a juggling act, making sure both of my daughters got the love and attention they deserved, and that no one felt left out. My memories of that time are a blur -- breastfeeding, diaper changes, no sleep, tantrums. But then one day, I was lying in bed with the two of them when my younger was about 4-months-old. My older daughter turned to her and started making faces and the baby just could not stop giggling. It was the first time I'd seen them interact on their own level, as sisters. I realized then we were going to be OK.
Are you expecting a baby and aren't sure how to prepare your older child? Canadian Living has some tips for parents of toddlers to teens to help your family adjust to its newest member. How did you get your kids ready for a new sibling?
To save money and energy this winter, we moved our younger daughter out of her drafty nursery into our older daughter's room. The girls were thrilled by this news, to say the least, and now they say they want to make the arrangement permanent, even when the warm weather returns. I've heard that sharing a room brings siblings closer together, and they really do seem to draw comfort from having the other there at bedtime. I have a few concerns, however.
The first is that they both take longer to fall asleep...a lot longer. This means that either they're losing out on sleep or we're pushing their bedtime back earlier. I can fudge a little with my toddler, who can catch up at naptime, but my preschooler never naps. They also both get up at the same time now, whether they're ready to or not. They don't actually get each other out of bed -- we've taught them to let the other sleep -- but it still can't be helped.
My other concern is space. It's time to move my toddler out of her toddler bed and get her the real thing, but I don't think there will be enough room in their shared bedroom. I'd love to put their beds in their respective rooms and let them share a bed on non-school nights, yet I don't want to squash any sisterly love they're developing.
So tell me, Parent Dish readers, do your kids share? Does it make them closer? How do you get around the logistics of it all?
When I began telling friends that I was pregnant with my second child, it quickly became clear to me that there were two schools of thought on parenting two.
One group cautioned that two children were so much harder than one. These parents talked about how their hands were constantly occupied with one or the other, how it was impossible to get two children to nap at the same time, and how the kids seemed always to tag team. It was a rare moment when both kids were happy. For these folks, the bottom line was this: two kids are more than twice as hard.
The other camp offered a different take. They noted that the major life shifts that happen when you go from being child-free to becoming a parent have already happened. You're used to not having a life, or at least the life you once had -- by which I mean the life that involved more adult beverages and fewer discussions of poop. You already know most of the rules, so the anxiety of caring for a child is lower. There's even a chance that the two will play nicely together, at least some of the time, at which point it could even be easier.
This may be a bit premature, given that my second child is only two months old, but right now I'd put myself squarely in the second camp. My first baby rocked my world. I went from working during the day and spending my evenings in leisure to round-the-clock care of a little person who depended on me for everything. It was maddening to find myself suddenly governed by a tiny dictator whose demands were constant and mildly irrational.
When my second child joined us at the end of December, I'd gotten over all of that. My life isn't glamorous, and I don't lament it. Some days, it's enough to keep everyone fed and dry and reasonably happy. Sure, Claire may have to wait while I nurse Gage, or Gage may cry for a minute while I help his sister get dressed, but we all manage. I never seem to get enough sleep, but that isn't really any different than the three years before. I have to juggle two kids with only two hands, but I have some practice juggling. While I have a general sense that the demands are more constant, and the breaks are less frequent, I also appreciate that the joy is greater too.
I can't quite put my finger on why it's working. There's simply this overriding sense that, in many ways, it seems like my son has always been here.
It's one thing for Hollywood writers to go on strike and mess with months' worth of television viewing. It's a whole other thing for a mother to just decide not to parent anymore and mess with her children's lives.
Melissa Dean, mother of four teenage boys, was arrested and charged with child neglect after admitting to police that she has spent the last month "on strike," refusing to care for them. Apparently, Dean wants her kids -- ages 13, 14, 16 and 17 -- to stop fighting and start cleaning. (Shocking.)
After failing to manage them herself, she claims to have sought help from police and the courts without luck. So, she gave up and began leaving the kids for hours without supervision.
To no surprise, Dean's arrest -- prompted by a phone call from the boys -- wasn't the first time authorities had visited the home.
Say it with me?: What do we want? Parenting skills! When do we want them? Now!
Apparently the Duggar clan hasn't quite filled that quiver! Michelle Duggar, matriarch of the popular Discovery Channel program "
A year ago, Lori Coble was sitting in traffic on Interstate 5 in Southern California when 
After our family celebration for Easter ends, our family of four is breaking into pairs. My husband is plotting some one-on-one time with our preschool daughter at the beach, and I'll be home with the baby. (This almost guarantees me a nap -- whee! -- although I probably just jinxed it by putting it in print.)
I worried a lot about how my toddler would adjust when we brought his baby brother home, and we've had a few ups and downs in that department. There have been some piteous cries of NO FEEDING DIWWAN WIGHT NOW and some tantrumy outbursts, but over time Riley's become pretty accepting of our new family dynamic.
I've always wondered this: will I be the kind of parent who will secretly harbor a corner of my heart only for my Bean, my first born, the kid who currently rocks my world? Or will my heart grow, Grinch like, until it fully engulfs a second baby when, and if I have one? 
Tom and Allison Penn had tried to have children for years and finally had just one embryo implanted at their fertility clinic.
When we found out that our second child was going to be a girl late in our third trimester, the only person we told was our then two-year-old daughter. She was so excited to find out that she was going to have a sister, and I think that letting her in on the secret really helped her bond with the baby before she was born. In fact, the night that my water broke, I tiptoed into her room to give her a kiss and let her know that the baby was coming. I was worried she'd be sad or scared, but instead she kissed me back, then rolled over one more time to instruct me, "Mama? Just don't bring home a boy."
To save money and energy this winter, we moved our younger daughter out of her drafty nursery into our older daughter's room. The girls were thrilled by this news, to say the least, and now they say they want to make the arrangement permanent, even when the warm weather returns. I've heard that sharing a room brings siblings closer together, and they really do seem to draw comfort from having the other there at bedtime. I have a few concerns, however.
When I began telling friends that I was pregnant with my second child, it quickly became clear to me that there were two schools of thought on parenting two. 
It's one thing for Hollywood writers to go on strike and mess with months' worth of television viewing. It's a whole other thing for a mother to just decide not to parent anymore and mess with her children's lives.
