A question for the boys in regards to exclusively breastfeeding:

• Do you feel that you missed out on anything because you didn't have the opportunity to feed your baby?
• Did it take you longer to feel a bond with your child?
• Do you feel you missed out?
• Were you upset with your wife/partner for choosing to exclusively breastfeed?
• If yes, why?
• Did you feel left out of the equation?
• Or was there ample opportunity to bond?
• Did you take part in other apsects such as carrying, changing, bathing, napping, walking, playing, etc, with your child?
• Did you find this time with your baby helped with your bonding experience?
• Do you feel this was enough?

Ladies: please pose these questions to your husbands and let me know what they say in the comments. Or better yet, let the boys comment directly! I think my husband is really worried he'll not bond with the little guy easily if he doesn't feed him, and just wants to talk to or hear from other men who have been there. I figured this blog was a great place to start.

Thanks in advance!

s.

25 weeks today!

He's beginning to make some breathing movements - but no air in his lungs yet. His senses are developing like mad: he will respond to touch and to light. Apparently, if I shine a light on my belly, he'll turn his head in that direction. So I guess it's not a bad thing, if he's looking in the direction of the light, instead of away from the light. Good times.

He's 1.5 lbs and is about 13.5 inches long (crown to heel). He's growing! That's why, I guess, I can feel him down by my pelvis and then in the next moment, he's up past my belly button (WHAT BELLYBUTTON?). Arms and legs moving like mad in there. He's a busy little boy, doing all that growing. The structures that form the spine start to form this week, and the blood vessels in the lungs continue to develop. His nostrils are shaping up, and may even open at the end of this week.

Time is flying. It just hit me. I've got alot to do in a very short time period. Only 15 more weeks. What's freaking me out, actually, is that every time I read something about where I'm at during this point in the pregnancy, it now says, "If your baby is delivered at this time, it would have a good chance of surviving." See? It brings up the what-ifs. What IF it decides to come this early? We're not ready! So I'm freaking out a bit. Anyhoo, Don is going to paint the nursery in November when he's taking a few weeks off. We're going to hit the States to buy the nursery furniture (depends how the dollar looks), and I've got to register for my shower - I'm simply assuming that someone is going to have one for me. I hope someone is, they're always fun... except I won't be drinking. And I don't want any of those lame-ass games. I'd just like to spend an afternoon with my best gal pals, is what it boils down to.

So, onto the mom. What's happening with me this week?

I'm getting cramps, which hasn't happened since early in my 2nd trimester. And I guess it's the ligaments that are stretching on either side of my belly as well.... when I back up my car or turn too sharply, they pull. It feels like two bungy cords in there. Or springs or something. Anyhow, I'm sure it's normal.

It's difficult to sleep through the night. I get quite conjested. I also have a hard time getting comfortable, and rolling over is a whole production on it's own. I really would like the whole bed to myself so I can be comfy, but I don't think Donald would take that very well. Although if he says one more time that the best part of my turkey soup was the bun, he can sleep at his mother's for the rest of the pregnancy.

My uterus is the size of a volleyball. That's pretty friggin' big. My yoga teacher is bringing in some pictures of where everything is inside as I can't find anything online. If you can believe that - nothing online anywhere. I just am wanting to know where everything, other organs and such, go when the uterus expands so much. Things are moved around in there and pushed up, etc, and I can't find pictures of that anywhere.

I'm heading off this week for the blood work to check for diabetes. Nothing exciting there, just updating you.

I just read that this is when some pregnant women start to pee themselves.

Maybe that's how I can get the whole bed to myself.

Later.

s.