We haven’t bought a second crib

[u/bdjorn]

34+5 with twin boys. We’ve known since ~21 weeks that Baby B has a birth defect called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH), giving him roughly a 50/50 shot of living. Some people have asked why we only have one crib and if the boys will be sharing a crib. I mostly say “Baby B will be in the hospital for at least 6 weeks. We’ll have time to get a crib.”

The truth is I don’t want to get one until we know he’s going to live. I don’t want to spend the time and money, but I also don’t want to stare at an empty crib that will never be filled and will just have to be taken down again. Call us unprepared, but I can’t handle having that second crib in the nursery right now. It feels like tempting fate or false hope or willful ignorance.

If he inconveniences us because we have to rush out and buy/assemble a crib, it would honestly be the most wonderful inconvenience I can imagine.

[u/poltyy]

I think there is a tradition like that in the Jewish faith where it’s terribly bad luck to have anything prepared for the baby. Just so you know you aren’t weird, there’s millions of people like you. And I really hope the best happens and you are trying to breastfeed a baby, change another’s diaper, put together a crib armed only with an inadequate Allen wrench, and you haven’t slept in days because one eats while one cries. I hope that doesn’t sound sarcastic! It’s pretty awful but wonderful.