I feel like playing along today. I’m choosing to play along because we honestly don’t have anything concrete on the conspiracy front. We only have our suspicions, because Janet Jackson is an enigma wrapped in a mystery, covered in a Rhythm Nation pantsuit. Janet Jackson announced her pregnancy – at the age of 49 – last year. Janet quietly married Wissam Al Mana in 2012, and they were reportedly trying for a baby for a while. Janet had to shut down her tour when she became pregnant. It was a big, cryptic deal. And now Janet has given birth, just as mysteriously as everything else she does.
It’s a boy! Janet Jackson and husband Wissam Al Mana welcomed their first child, a son, on Tuesday, Jan. 3, her rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.
“Janet Jackson and husband Wissam Al Mana are thrilled to welcome their new son Eissa Al Mana into the world,” a rep for the singer, 50, says in a statement. “Janet had a stress-free healthy delivery and is resting comfortably.”
Jackson married Qatari businessman Al Mana in 2012, and news of their first child’s impending arrival was reported in May. Speculation first began when the singer postponed her Unbreakable World Tour so, as she said in a video posted to Twitter in early April, she and Al Mana could focus on their family.
“We’re in the second leg of the tour, and there actually has been a sudden change,” she said in the clip. “I thought it was important that you be the first to know. My husband and I are planning our family. So I’m going to have to delay the tour.”
In October, the singer shared a baby bump photo exclusively with PEOPLE, saying, “We thank God for our blessing.”
When Janet first suggested that “planning our family” thing, many thought she was choosing specific language to indicate that she and Wissam were expecting via surrogacy. Then the photos of Janet’s bump came out, and she actually said she was pregnant. And people still didn’t believe it. I’m not even sure I believe it, even now with a statement about how Janet had a “stress-free healthy delivery.” How stress-free and healthy can it be at 50 years old?? In any case, congrats to Janet, to Wissam and to baby Eissa. Apparently, the name is pronounced Eye-See-Ah, which is not how I would have pronounced it had I not looked it up. It’s a pretty name but it does seem feminine (it’s the a-ending).
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Those Jacksons are out of this world. Congrats, Janet.
Congrats to Janet
If she carried a child at 50 wow, props. I struggled with my last at 32. If it was a surrogate and it’s important to her that people think she carried her own child let it go. Infertility is a heartbreaking struggle and I couldn’t imagine the loss I’d feel if I couldn’t physically carry my children.
Congrats, and I wish that child nothing but health and good fortune
Agreed. Even if it is a surrogacy, people need to shut up and move on. I put that alongside orientation, its none of my business until the subject tells it to me.
Soooooo much agreed
ITA 100% same as pro-choice. Nobody’s business what she choses to do with her body.
ITA.
Kitten, being pro-choice affects another body too and the another parent.
@ Chinoiserie-No it doesn’t. A clump of cells is not a “body” and the other person (how can you say “parent” if the man isn’t willing to raise the child or if the man is a rapist?) does not get final say in what a woman does with her body.
She was HUGE. It’s pretty unlikely. Even though 50? That’s real brujeria.
http://okmagazine.com/get-scoop/pregnant-janet-jackson-baby-name-brother-michael-gender/
I am 32 with my first (who is incidentally 6 weeks old) and I think I might be dying from exhaustion. You just get done with labor (which is called labor for a reason) and then you don’t even get the healing power of sleep. I wish I had Janet’s money for a night nurse but after reading about Ava Amurri, I’ll just feel thankful. Tell me it gets easier, sleep-wise, folks!
It gets easier! At 8 weeks, our baby was sleeping for 10 hours straight and at 3 mos, she changed her nocturnal ways and would sleep from 7pm to 5am usually. Just hang in there.
I have 4 and when my youngest was a few weeks old even my then 6 year old told me she was too old for this 😂.
It gets better.
The big secret to surviving is-breastfeed on demand! that’s what we were told when going on hospital course for pregnant mothers and let me tell you: the stress decreases significantly. We co-sleep and nurse on demand and in this year of parenting there were maybe 2 nights I had trouble sleeping. my little one wakes up, I turn to him, feed him and ususally I fall asleep before he’s done. we wake up happy and rested in the morning. That’s it!
(all the other stuff: changing, bathing, grocery shopping with a baby…everything becomes so much easier with just a little bit of time).
and don’t forget-we all had it rough first two months with a first one-your hormones are wild, you don’t revognize your body, you don’t know what to do with yourself….it’s all normal!
@geekychick breastfeeding is individual. It can go great for 2 kids and blow up in your face for the 3rd. Some mothers work and don’t have the luxury. Breastfeeding is great, but it’s not the end all be all and no woman should have guilt about giving a bottle.
Well mine is 5 months and still not sleeping 🙂 most babies are by now, though. I’m also BF on demand, and yes that’s a real help for me. I can just cuddle with him, offer it, and pass out. I did that with my older 2 also and now they are good sleepers, so this one will be eventually too. It’s my last one so I’m trying to enjoy it and remember that everyone grows up and this too shall pass.
I have a 3 month old and last night he slept for 8 hours. It totally gets better! We don’t bedshare, btw, he’s in a bassinet right next to the bed. Most babies hit their circadian rythym in month two. I breastfeed but my baby is pretty good about taking a bottle so since he was two weeks old I’ve been pumping before going to bed and my husband was getting up for the first feeding so I could get a chunk of sleep. How are we supposed to heal without sleep?!? Those first weeks are so hard!
It does! But when exactly varies from kid to kid. My first became an excellent sleeper right at the 3 month mark, my second not until 10 months. Still, it’s a distant memory now. Hang in there!
@Escondista…My son is 27 and still doesn’t sleep through the night!!! lol
So with you on this! I’m 33 with a 10 week old. I breast feed, and so many people talk about the benefits of “breast sleeping” but here’s where I have questions: If he wakes up to eat 2x a night, I change him into a clean diaper…how does this work with breast sleeping/co-sleeping? I’m up, he’s up to be changed….Secondly, even if he does sleep for most of the night my swollen boobs wake me up, so I’m STILL up 2x a night. Sometimes 3 if he ate not long ago, but my breasts are engorged. I need to keep my milk supply up, so unfortunately pumping is crappy reality (which takes about 30-45 minutes after pumping and clean up, and then I’m really awake…ugh!). I tried waking him to eat, but then he just fusses and pukes 🙁 I feel like sleep is just a very, very distant memory at this point and with pumping I’m not sure when I’ll ever be able to get more than 4 hours without waking due to the pain. Any moms out there have these problems??
oops somehow double posted
sunnydaze
that’s always how it seems, if they sleep through, your boobs or panic at long stretches, or husband will wake you instead. i can count on one hand the amount of 8 hour stretches I’ve had in the last 3 years, but it does get better!
i think around month 2, we quit changing our girls at night. it woke them up too much, and i realized it’s normal for babies to wear one for the night 🙂 helps you stay in the sleepy zone too. i used to keep the pump right next to the bed all set up, too. so I’d wake, pump in bed, hand the bottle to my husband for his nightstand*, and pass out.
*breastmilk is safe for 6 to 8 hours at room temp, so you don’t need to do the refrigerate and warm dance at night. that helps too!
and hang in there. every parent at one point cannot get their teen out of bed no matter what, so they do sleep eventually! lol. I’m waiting for that too….
Wiffie:
I needed to hear all this – THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
@LingLing. I think GeekyChick’s point is more about feeding on demand, rather than that you have to specifically breastfeed. It sounds like her comments are more about sleep training not being helpful than an indictment of parents who use a bottle.
And, if your able to nurse, breast is logistically easier than prepping a bottle. As a single parent, there was nobody else to get up and make the bottle for me, so nursing was way easier in our household in the middle of the night!
I’m sure, I just took a ton of flack for not breastfeeding my son. My milk just never really came in and that was my 4th child. I felt like a disgusting and horrible mother because I just couldn’t. Sometimes, especially if kids come close together it just won’t work. I just feel like it’s another one of those issues that is so painful you shouldn’t act like it’s the best option.
Thank you, Malificent. Yes, that’s exactly that.
I don’t judge on the topic of breastfeeding vs. formula, every parent knows best. I was talking about just breastfeeding bc it kinda is the norm where I live. it is very very strongly encouraged, your patronage nurse comes to your home during the first month to help you with everything you’re not sure about and to check your BF technique, and the nurses at the hospital will refuse to give your child AD unless you have a sound medical reason for it.
I personally love breastfeeding, but hey, my mom didn’t bf any of us and we’re healthy and happy.
cry it out and similar methods on the other hand? I judge the sh** out of them.
@geekychic
Meh, judge all you want! We’ve been doing light CIO since ours was about 9 weeks old and it’s been going great. I feed him till he’s sleepy but not asleep and then put him down for ten minutes. If his fussy crying ever turns hysterical, I pick him up. If he cries past ten minutes, I pick him up. Most times he fussy cries for five minutes and he’s out. His naps have improved and he’s a happier baby with regular sleep. I’ve watched so many other family members struggle with getting their babies to sleep because they hold them till asleep and then their babies don’t know how to go down on their own when they’re older. It’s so hard trying to know what is best since every baby is different but this method works for our family.
@LingLing, so sorry people are nursing fascists. Having met some of those self-entitled folks, you have my sympathy.
In the United States, breastfeeding had essentially disappeared for so many decades, that I understand why there has been a push in the last few decades to promote it again as a matter of public health. But that push shouldn’t include vilifying those who can’t, or make a personal choice not to, nurse. Breast is great, but it’s hardly the end of the world. And it’s certainly no reflection on a mother’s love or commitment to her child.
So many things make it hard. Like you, my sister’s milk just never came in after her C-section. My neighbor’s second child flat-out refused the breast, while her first child nursed like a fiend.
I started out well, but struggled to keep up milk production after I went back to work at 3 months because even a good pump isn’t the same as a baby. And I was fortunate to have a job with a flexible schedule, a clean, quiet place to pump, and very supportive management — none of which are available for many working women in the US and elsewhere. And then I had an emergency appendectomy when my son was 5 months old, and almost lost my milk even though I pumped in the hospital. I managed to get some milk back with a lot of effort (including getting up to pump in the middle of the night while my kid was sleeping to keep up my frequency — how’s that for irony….) But I had to supplement with bottle-feeding after that — and my son remained just as healthy.
My mother nursed her five kids in the 50s and 60s when it was not the norm in most of the US. (She had a “cutting edge” young doctor who promoted nursing!) But I only got nursed for 2 weeks because my mother spent the next 3 weeks in ICU on a morphine drip trying to not die of a post-partum blood clot. And I’m the healthiest of the five of us….
It is probably donor eggs. Yes, a 50 year old can easily get pregnant with donor eggs and their partner’s sperm. Haven’t you all heard those stories about grandmothers carrying their daughter’s kids for them because the daughter had some sort of a medical problem? It’s the eggs that determine fertility. Any woman with a working uterus can carry a baby at whatever age. But, of course, pregnancy is harder on the body as one ages.
I only just recently learned this about the uterus. A 60-yo could carry a baby… crazy to think! I kinda want my daughter to harvest her eggs while she’s young. Then she won’t have the pressure to have a baby and have one when she’s ready. I have so many friends that had to wait to start families for various reasons and now they are dealing with fertility issues.
My mother had me at 47, so it’s very possible. In fact, she thought she was going through menopause, then she felt me flutter.
I had my kids at 34, 39 and 41 with zero problems getting pregnant or having the babies (the last two were home waterbirths). However, I told my husband half-way through #3 that I was done. I was completely exhausted most of that pregnancy and felt my body was saying, “Okay, this is it. You’re done.”
I cannot imagine being pregnant at 50, but kuddos to her if she did. No shade. Pregnant, surrogate, whatever, it’s not my business how they expand their family. Just happy everyone is healthy and happy!
Poor ticket sales. Surrogacy. New baby. Congratulations though. It seems she very much wanted a child.
I know that was the rumor, but her ass was sold out like a mofo here in LA. She was pretty effing huge to have a surrogate.
That show looked amazing to me, from the few cell phone clips online. I like falcons, so I was predisposed to like it the second the falcons showed up on the backdrop. I expected a successful tour, from her being away so long and the scope of that show.
She cancelled the tour on April 8th, nine months before the baby arrived. That indicates to me that they *may* have been trying via IVF. Doctor told her to cancel the tour if she wanted any embryos to have a chance of implanting successfully. I’m just happy this much-wanted baby has arrived (however it did) and they all seem healthy.
I’m sure it was a very carefully monitored pregnancy. Congrats Janet.
Yeah, when you have tons of money, things get a lot easier. It’s one of the biggest indicators for long term health.
It was probably harder than if she did it 20 years ago, but she has the means so go for it. The baby will be provided for no matter what, and shes healthy.
“How stress-free and healthy can it be at 50 years old??”
You’d be surprised
I always say this when people question healthy deliveries at an older age – if you’re healthy to begin with, it is totally possible. A friend of mine had her first and only child – perfectly naturally, no IVF or anything – at 46. She walked to the hospital to deliver (faster than driving), the delivery was fine. The child is now 7 years old, as healthy as ever. Plus I know a lot of other women who have had children in their 40’s, and its fine.
So it totally can happen.
My mom had a surprise baby at 44 just as I was getting ready to go to college. She thought she was to old and ended up being like 5 and a half months pregnant sure she had cancer before she found out.
Vasectomys apparently can wane over time.
I would cry! I would love that baby, but I would cry! We have a 7 and 2 year old, and I had a dream (nightmare?) a few nights ago I was pregnant. I woke up thinking NOOOOOO! Was so happy when I realized I wasn’t pregnant! But I can also see if my kids had grown how that might be a happy surprise, and 44 really isn’t old. It isn’t like a maternal age of 65 or something.
Agreed. I had mine — also perfectly naturally, no IVF or anything – at 46 (and a half). Labor was no better or worse than what I’ve heard from women 20 years younger. The pregnancy is monitored much more closely: two in-depth evaluative sonograms, weekly ultrasounds from 34 weeks+ and an induction date scheduled at 39 weeks. But the delivery can proceed completely normally.
I’m sure Janet did go through some treatments but way before IVF my grandmother’s best friend had a surprise first baby at 50. He’s now a surgeon.
Exactly. Every person is different. Just because one woman feels tired with her last pregnancy at 30 doesn’t mean it’s lights out for all other women on earth. For every comment I read and hear about a woman who can’t get pregnant at 31, I talk to a handful of other women who had their first child in their late 30s and early 40s. I have yet to meet a woman who has had a child at 50. Sure, it’s rare, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, or that the number of women in their 40s having children won’t grow in the next decade with medical advancements and more women holding off childbirth. Like anything with life and death, genetics is a lottery. Seemingly healthy people can drop dead before the age of 40 while others can eat fried chicken every week and live to be in their 80s (yes, I’ve met an old woman who eats KFC every week and she’s healthy both in body and mind for her age). So just because it doesn’t work for YOU doesn’t meant it won’t work for someone else. Congrats, Janet.
This, my worst pregnancy was at 25, at 32 I was just tired because I had 3 little kids and an 8 month old baby.
Even in the same women every pregnancy will be different
I love hearing these stories! I’m not due to finish my degree until I’m 36, then I’ll probably want to work for at least a year before having a child. Science has been indicating some health problems/abnormalities (of the baby) previously assumed to be due to the mother’s age are more likely linked to the father’s age, so luckily my husband is young. All of these things make me feel pretty optimistic that I will be able to have my own if I want!
If you’re seriously considering it, I’d say talk to your doctor. You might want to consider egg harvesting now, even fertilization now, and freezing the embryos.
I was going to say that JJ was probably a very slow ager. For fitness, and, yes, genetic reasons, her 50 could very well be biologically much younger than another 40 year old woman.
She’s basically the opposite of that person you know who tore through their bodies when they were younger and now look like a middle aged crone. Aging is more than a number, it is a complex confluence of factors. Some of it is exercise and diet, some of it is luck of the draw.
That’s a very good point. I knew girls in high school who were pretty and then at later reunions, not so much. It’s like they peaked early. Other ones who were average in h.s. looked gorgeous later, like they really came into their own.
It is a half-half thing. So many kids in their 20s and 30s don’t realize that their middle-aged well being is determined by how they treat their bodies NOW. They brag about how they can pork out on junk without gaining weight, drink alcohol, never sleep, tan their skin to shreds, and look great. Then they wake up one morning as a 40 year old who looks 60. At some level, they aged their system 60 years within a 40 year period, and it shows. The reverse is true. That 50 year old woman who looks about a decade younger, might very well be a decade younger than most on a cellular level. She took care of herself.
There is also a poorly understood, but definitely strong genetic component. At least Janet got something nice from her asshole parents.
My mother always told me how you live your life shows up on your face. That holds true for my husband and his younger brother. My husband has led a pretty clean life (he’ll be 58 this year). Most think he looks mid 40’s. His younger brother (55) drank and partied his way through life and looks like he’s 65.
When people meet them they assume his brother is the (much) older one.
I agree 44 isn’t really old. Maria Shriver’s mother Eunice Kennedy had a baby at 44 in 1965 – her fifth child, but she was already 33 when she had the first. No IVF back then.
The 46-50 bracket is another story. On The Doctors they said after 45 chances of conceiving naturally are one in a million.
I don’t believe in reading into things. Usually it should be taken at face value. Stress-free may just mean no additional stress due to complications. I know the Jacksons are hated but not everything is a conspiracy.
The name doesn’t sound feminine to me. Lots of names in Arabic for men end with a such as Mussa (Moses) and Issa.
Happy for her <3
True. Idris Elba’s first name is actually Idrissa, I believe.
Either way, I’m very happy for her.
If I’m not mistaken, It actually means Jesus in Arabic (I’m Arab I should know, it’s just the spelling that’s throwing me off here. The standard spelling is Issa).
Happy New Year to all celebitches around the world!
Congrats Janet!!! Yayyyyyy
Halle Berry was 49 when she had her last child. I can’t recall any rumours on her using a surrogate. Why all the rumours with Janet Jackson?
Because Janet does everything secretly. Her first two marriages were hush-hush — not just the weddings, mind you, but the marriages themselves — for years. Also, many plausible rumors of a first child born during her time with El DeBarge.
Oh I didn’t know Janet was on her third marriage!! I do recall the rumours about a child she had with El Debarge
The things I learn from Celebitchy!
Yeah she was married for 8 years and no one found out until they filed for divorce.
Halle Berry was 46.
The thing that really makes me question it is that she was supposedly trying for years and undergoing fertility treatments.
Perimenopausal, 45+ women do have babies, but not with standard fertility treatments. They were perfectly fertile apart from the standard age related decline, peri-menopause kicked it into high gear for a short stint, and they get a surprise baby because they thought they were menopausal and didn’t need BC anymore.
If it doesn’t happen naturally like that and you aren’t fertile and you need fertility treatment, the odds are so stacked against you any decent doctor wouldn’t treat you. By that point it’s an ethical issue, letting people undergo uncomfortable procedures and experience awful side effects when there’s no hope is just cruel.
Perhaps she carried using a donor egg, but that’s a big risk to choose when you’re in a position to just as easily use a younger surrogate. And, truly not to be snarky, but if she actually was pregnant underneath the sacks she was wearing, she gained way over the recommended amount. It’s highly unlikely someone with a much wanted and extremely high risk pregnancy would let that happen and add gestational diabetes to the list of major issues they’re facing.
First, none of your business.
Second, my sister gained 22 pounds over her whole pregnancy and still got gestational diabetes. Weight gain doesn’t have much to do with it. I gained 60 pounds with my first and no diabetes for me.
She said she was pregnant, she has a baby, stop trying to make it something it’s not.
Women seriously can’t win in this world.
Then it’s none of your business either. Fact is Janet Jackson was papped looking pregnant shopping for clothes and gave a very coy interview to People with a photo being supplied by her. That sounds like courting publicity to me, and IF she was not carrying herself, that’s sort of deceitful, no?
+1 bluhare. Your response was way more articulate than what I could have come up with!
If every topic on CB were “none of our business” there would be no threads. We’re allowed to speculate.
The whole idea of donor eggs is insane. Why the hell would anyone do that?
It’s pronounced EE-ssa. It’s the Arabic name for Jesus. Very common in Arab World. Who knows if she did have it herself but babies are a miracle and a blessing and I hope she enjoys raising this baby (unlike a certain daughter we won’t mention :/)
wait what? She has a daughter?
I’m so confused
One of the many rumors about her running around places like LipstickAlley
That rumour is decades old. I remember it in the 80s. Supposedly her daughter was raised by her sister Rebbie. If it’s correct, daughter would be in the neighbourhood of 30yrs old.
Woman really love tearing other women down dont they? She never had another ‘daughter’ Sarah, so can the faux sympathy.
Actually, she did. When she was very young, she eloped with James Debarge. Joe Jackson pitched a fit and had the marriage annulled. However, Janet was already pregnant when Joe annulled the marriage, and she gave the baby to her sister Rebbie to raise. James Debarge has acknowledged paternity of Janet’s child. The child was a girl.
It just seems incredibly selfish to have a baby at that age. That poor child will likely be parentless long before anyone should ever have to be.
She’s 50 not 70 and her husband is 42. Where do you get the child will “likely” end up parentless soon from?
totally agree with you OriginallyBlue.
I would turn the argument around and say that it is totally selfish to have a child when you’re younger and not mature enough to handle it.
These days people live to be in their 80’s, many healthy and fully functional. The Kid will be in his 30’s by then. He’ll be fine.
Such nonsense and discrimination against older parents just makes my blood boil.
I can’t defend the original poster, but I can add something to it. I was 2 years old when I went to live with my grandparents.. They became my parents and were the only parents I ever knew. They were 60 and 63 years old at the time I went to live with them. My biological mother had left and never returned. Her family lived across the country had nothing to do with us by their choice. My father was around, but not a parent. My father was an only child.
I was an only child with no aunts, no uncles and no cousins. I had great aunts, great uncles and second cousins, but no immediate family. As a child I had a fear of what would happen to me if I lost my grandparents. I barely let them out of my sight when I was really young and would almost panic if I didn’t know where they were. It was a fear that lessened, but I was always aware of. Thankfully I had both of them into my early 20s and only became an orphan in my early 30s.
I had a great life with them and wouldn’t change anything about how I grew up. But I was always aware of my parents’ age and that fear of loosing them was constant in my childhood.
I don’t judge Janet at all and don’t think there is any issue with having a child at 50. I can only speak of my history
Apart from your points, Snazzy, it’s a lottery for everyone, regardless of age. A couple of years ago, two of my girlfriends lost their husbands in the same year. One was 42, the other 40. One left 4 young daughters and the other two young daughters. My brother died of a heart attack at age 37, leaving two young boys without their dad. Our own father died at 43, leaving behind five children. I also had female acquaintances and colleagues who died young, a couple who didn’t get the chance to have children. You’ve only to read a newspaper to see the tragedy that befalls humans of any and every age. (And yet, the filthiest mongrel bastard I know is still kicking around and living the life of Riley at age 83, but that’s another story…) None of us knows what’s around the corner.
@mm
Really? What kind of prejudice some women show…..
If I was getting pregnant now (I’m in my midforties), my husband is 31, care to elaborate how soon our child will be ‘parentless’?
My boyfriend is 30 and I just turned 38. I am still undecided as to whether I want a child but I 100% reserve the right to have one.
I really hate comments like mm’s because not all of us are lucky enough to have met the perfect person at the perfect time and have everything line up just right at *insert perfect age for procreation here*.
Also, I like seeing other women who have younger hubbies ♥
How dare you consider abandoning your great grandchildren like that you monster!
My mom had a surprise baby at 44, she has said many times how she enjoyed her more because she older, wiser and they had money and a paid off home so the stress my parents had with me and my older siblings was gone. It’s a blessing.
Children are a choice, if you want a child have one. Life is short. If you don’t want children IT IS OKAY, and don’t allow people to breed you as a waste if you don’t choose to have a baby.
Yes, of course, no one knows what the future holds, and the gendered double standard is ridiculous. Maybe I’m too sanguine about it, but I have one grandmother who lived to 101, and many other relatives lived well into their 90s. So pretty much family culture thinks of 40-something women as still young!
You can have a child at 15 and get hit by a car and die. She’s 50, not 75. The child will be more than an adult before she will die and it’s my understanding her husband is younger. You know, fathers are parents too. Plenty of men are amazing single father’s.
Way to perpetuate that women are useless after a certain age.
Exactly. The only thing certain about the future is that there is no certainty. It seems so silly to me to make/break plans for the future based on unforeseen circumstances or worst case scenarios.
Goodness that blew up in an unexpected way. I think my comment was misinterpreted as being about women in some way. It has nothing to do with that. The husband’s age was not listed, and I assumed he was the same age. If he is younger, that solves the problem! And kitten, I agree, younger boyfriends rock too 🙂
Snazzy, I completely agree, it is also selfish if too young! In general, a lot of reasons for having children are selfish (after all, the world is overpopulated and has either reached or passed its carrying capacity), this one just particularly hit home for me as someone with older parents (mid seventies to my mid twenties), dating someone who has even older parents (eighties to mid twenties). The anxiety that it can cause is quite great, my partner developed insomnia in his teens because he was certain his father was going to die. Statistically speaking, if both parents are quite old at the point of birth, that child is likely to have their parents die when they are younger than the general population – you may not like it, but it is just a fact. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen, but chances are greatly increased.
Yes, thirty is obviously technically an adult, but imagine being parentless at that age. I know I would be rather like an overwhelmed lost lamb, to be so alone so early on. I know many of my peers would feel the same way. If I’m not articulating this in the best/most sensitive way, I apologize – I have no desire to have children, so I don’t feel particularly emotionally attached to the subject.
Sorry mm…maybe I did read a bit too much into it. It’s something I’m hyper-sensitive about so I tend to get a bit carried away lol.
Anyway, thanks for expounding a bit on your original comment and I get where you’re coming from 🙂
It’s not that women are useless after a certain age – that’s total hyperbole. It’s the simple fact that taking care of aging parents is a huge task to take on. I have two grandparents with significant health problems and my husband and I have parents who are aging into the elderly stage of life. It’s been terrible for both my parents and they are in their sixties and retired with no major debts or commitments. Caring for someone who is very frail, who suffers from dementia, kidney failure, heart problems or whatever other problems afflict older adults is exhausting and emotionally trying. It does seem unfair to me to place the burden on a very young person (in this case the kid won’t even be 30 and taking care of his 80-year old mother). You bring a child into this world to give them a life of their own, not to be a nursemaid to your failing health before they’ve even made their own way in the world.
ah, ok mm! Like Kitten I’m super sensitive about this one too – so tend to fly off the handle about this subject sometimes, and I do see where you’re coming from for sure! Take care and be happy and healthy 🙂
One of my mother’s friends thought she was going through menopause when she was 49 and couldn’t understand why her menopausal friends weren’t also experiencing nausea and constant vomiting. Doctors were testing her for all sorts of things before they realized she was pregnant. She gave birth on her 50 birthday. The kid is now at Harvard. She and her husband are both still alive and both still working.
It’s less about losing parents than it is about the older parents not understanding their children. Both my parents were 40 when I was born, and they had zero understanding of my “world.” When I was a teen, they thought the music and clothes I liked were weird. And to me they were so old.
I felt the same way about my parents, who had me in their 20s.
Janet’s parents are Katherine age 86 and Joe age 88.If she only lives to be 80 her son will be 30 when she dies. Based on her lifestyle she may live to be 90. Janet’s paternal grandfather,Samuel lived to be 100.
I know people who had younger parents but due to their parent’s poor lifestyles died at early ages (in their 40’s 50’s and early 60’s). Meanwhile, my parents who had me later in life are still alive (74 and 67 and I am 35).
I’m worried about this for myself. My grandma had her last in her 40s and is alive, kicking and living on her own at 92. He’s 50s now. But my other grandma had my dad at 33/gap 37 and he was fully orphaned at 30. So I’m personally afraid because my genes are iffy. I was afraid to have kids past 30 and really worry about it even though I try my best to exercise daily:eat well. But others have exceptional or even average (better than mine) genes and wouldn’t worry like me.
Sometime in the 1980s People magazine did a big article on “Mid-Life Moms” and the famous women they made an example out of (Farrah Fawcett, Olivia Newton-John, Candice Bergen) were all still in their 30s when they had their babies.
I think this is wonderful news to start off 2017!
I also think that little Eissa will be a very beautiful baby/child…Congratulations to Janet and Wissam!!!
I agree! 2016 was dark & depressing, 2017 needs happiness and light. More babies, engagements, and marriages!
Congratulations to Janet, Wissam, and Eissa!
You two said it perfectly:) Congratulations to the family and keep it going 2017!
Agreed! Congrats, Janet and family 🙂
Congratulations! Best wishes of health and happiness to the new baby and parents!
If you don’t want to wish best wishes you all can stop at Congratulations! It’s easy to be nice! 🙂
Love Janet. I am no pregnancy conspiracy theorist and usually roll my eyes, like the Beyonce theories. But Janet didn’t look pregnant to me that last photo, just heavier and a huge tunic on. But I could be off base. Either way, I think she’s so beautiful and has a sweet soul and wish them much happiness with their precious little boy.
Janet is winning out here… she got out the muck that is her Immediate family, no one is in her business or her pockets she moved on from things like Jermaine Dupri TO A YOUNG KINDA DEFINITELY WOULD HIT IT MILLIONAIRE, none of us know her business, when you see her pop up is from some ridiculous ass Closed shopping experience I Mean… Go on Then Janet!
This. And girl that’s Billionaire with a “B”. Janet can always get it. She’s the bee’s knees.
That’s what I thought Nicole but I Didnt wanna Over Appraise him So Millionaire was a Happy medium But YES Go Janet, thin reedy voice and all You don’t even gotta speak up! You’ve whispered yourself into Sweet Success
I think he’s a billionaire. LOL
Agreed, Janet stays winning. Congrats to her and her husband!
Janet is winning, congratulations on the birth of a healthy baby!
Congratulations Janet! This is wonderful news!
I can’t say whether she actually gave birth or not, but it’s not unheard of. One of my friends got pregnant naturally at age 48 and had an easy birth. He’s her second child, with over 20 years between them.
I had my son at 39, my daughter two weeks after I turned 47. She was a happy surprise. Both my kids are happy and healthy; we are very fortunate.
Right, the so-called “menopause babies.” And with IVF, perfectly possible to have babies even into your 50s. Lots of examples, Laura Linney at 50, Geena Davis and Holly Hunter in late 40s, Elizabeth Edwards at 50 etc. And, wow, minx, that’s awesome! (note to self: check birth control).
Thank you tracking! My daughter is 17 now and has just been such a joy. She’s a high school senior, good grades, tons of friends, a sweet boyfriend, active in sports and band. Just got accepted to college. My husband and I talk about how we couldn’t imagine life without her. She was meant to be!
When I was growing up, a girl in my ballet class I asked my mom if it was the girl’s grandmother and my mom had to explain to me that no, it was her actual mother. Her mother was 55 when she had her (her siblings were in their 30’s). This was when I was about 7, so her mother was 62. Guess what? We are 35 now and her mother is still alive (her father did pass away several years ago though) . My father also knows a lady who had a “surprise” baby at 48 when she was already a grandmother and her two daughters were in their 20’s. In addition, I remember a friend in high school whose father was 70!! It isn’t totally unheard of.
Beverly D’Angelo (at 49 in 2001), Geena Davis (at 48 in 2004) and Holly Hunter (at 47 in 2006) all gave birth to TWINS.
That had to have hurt.
Bonnie Dunlap, MD
To: Janet and family
You’re well and the baby healthy are most important now and thanks to doctor for not having a stressed out and uncomfortable one
we can laugh it’s over now.
Didn’t Halle Berry conceive naturally with her second at 47? She even said she was surprised she ended up with a second kid. Janet may have had help with donor eggs or she could have conceived naturally. It is uncommon at that age but not unheard of. I don’t care either way. She is private about this kind of stuff, not mysterious. Congrats to her and her husband.
Congratulations to Janet and her husband. She has the money for the best doctors so why not? If they thought she was healthy enough to carry the pregnancy then good for her
I think it’s weird to describe ANY labour as “stress-free”. What? Both my labours went well, and I wasn’t panicked or anything, but to say “stress-free” is just slightly hyperbolic. I mean you still had to have SOME stress to push the thing out.
Happy for Janet but BIG TIME SIDE EYE that she actually carried that baby.
Same lol!
speaking of the A-ending sounding feminine, that is the reason Idris elba changed his name. He was born “Idrissa” and had problems being thought of as a woman when doing casting.
It’s pronounced eesa and it means Jesus in Arabic. Also he’s Muslim and surrogates are not permitted in Islam … qatar is pretty conservative on that front as well… so she definitely had that baby herself. It’s totally possible, my grandmother had my aunt at the age of 50 as well. The woman’s body is capable of so many incredible things !
Congrats Janet and family!
My grandmother had a surprise! baby when she was almost 50. She was perfectly healthy through it, and the baby turned out so healthy that she became a professional dancer. As the mom in Moonstruck says, it ain’t over till it’s over.
Congratulations to Janet & family! 😊 What a great way to start off 2017!
Her Grand son, her daughter gave birth to him and she is pretending its her son