25 WEEKS!

Your baby's the size of an eggplant!

During month six, the average fetus measures about 13.6 inches to 14.8 inches and weighs about 1.5 to 2.5 pounds.

Baby Maple is growing growing and growing! Adding more fat to that adorable little baby body! Along with taking to pressing on mommy's sciatic nerve...causing mommy to have several breakdowns, including tears. Because the pain has really been that bad. However, on the more positive note our little sapling has adorable new bedding for his crib! And I mean absolutely adorable! He has been moving around more and more, while he still has room. My favorite times of day are early mornings on my day off where I can lie in bed and just feel him move around. I talk to him, sing him songs, and read him stories. I promise to keep people updated with belly photos, because everyone who sees me seems to think my belly is quite large..."if I didn't know better, I would think there is two babies in there." "There is NO way you are making it past Christmas with that baby." I don't mind these comments so much now, especially since I am 25 weeks. The funny thing is sometimes my belly looks larger and sometimes its smaller.
I haven't been sleeping very well lately, yes even in my maternity pillow. I am driving myself, and Jonathan, absolutely crazy with the amount of pillows that it takes me to be comfortable for about 30 minutes. Then after that I have to change position and do it all over again. So I am exhausted and I get nervous to write much in the blog because I am not sure I would make much sense. Or that I may have a breakdown writing about sciatic pain or lack of sleep and cry for hours. Of course I always think that Jonathan writes these wonderful entries....so I will just let you read his!

Holy flying balloons! Boy it’s been a great couple of weeks!  Tara and I are really humming along getting ready for the birth center and the welcoming of Bambino Maple, as my cousin Keila affectionately refers to him.  Let’s talk birth and of being pregnant.  I know, I know.  God gave me boy bits so what business have I treading in these waters?  Before any of our female reader’s blazen forth my balls on a fiery spit and punish me with bees, hear me out.  Tara and I have been on this amazing journey of being pregnant and being it together!  It’s this crazy rollercoaster ride where you prepare to bring a life into this world.  I think it’s easy for people to underestimate themselves and the strength that they have with their partner.

Somewhere along the way, our society seems to have forgotten how strong our women truly are.  This post is dedicated to my amazing Tara and all the inner strength and grace that she (and you) embodies. This post is dedicated to pregnancy for what it is - The process of preparing your body and spirit for birthing a child.  Before you fall into a trance listening to somebody talk about how birth is a painful and dreadful experience, tell yourself – it’s your birth and we may not know how it will go, but we can be as prepared as possible to help it as much as we naturally can.  Two things before we go further:  1.) I am never going to have to push a watermelon out of a vagina.  In fact, I’m dreading the day all this crappy tap water makes me pee kidney stones.  2.) Before you think I just took a big dump on modern medicine and all the options and advancements that technology has afforded us…re-read what I said.  What I’m saying is that if you’ve spent nine months working with your partner then no matter how you give birth you will have a happy and healthy baby that is rooted in a strong emotional connection between the parents.  Ladies and Gentleman – here it is: Being prepared physically simply isn’t going to cut it and neither will listening to everybody else without doing your own research.  I don’t give a flip if it is advice from a know-it-all Mom, a Doctor, a Noob Med Student, some Hippie Baby Catcher or the good Lord Himself (although I’d expect He’d have some excellent points).  Don’t give your pregnancy and your birth to someone else just because you’re too lazy to be conscious of what is going on.  It hasn’t changed much in the last 10,000 years.

This is THE chance of a lifetime for you and your partner to re-wire things that you know need change.  And to do so for good!  What if someone told you that the emotional anxieties and insecurities a woman brings into the birthing room are at the root of her complications during birth?  Does it seem so farfetched?  Our emotions are potent cocktails of hormones and chemical reactions and they occur at immeasurable speed and with an infinite amount of data.  What if you could be working on these so that when it was time for her to give birth, there was nothing holding her back?  Not money or In-laws or work or bad-friendships or home life or anything.  There was no stress on her because for nine months you have been planning and talking and communicating through the big issues that everybody has to deal with.  What if you stopped and addressed each and every potential cause for a complication?  What if you spent nine months learning what it means dive into the depths of loving and forgiving unconditionally?  I have realized this.  I have realized that Tara will be at her strongest and her most vulnerable when she is giving birth.  Anything I haven’t addressed during the pregnancy and before she goes into birth, will be present with us and will either work for or against our baby’s entry into this world.  The hell if I’m going to wait until that baby boy has done popped out of her to start all this!  It’s a LOT of work and sometimes feels like someone took a needle and sucked out fluid from my spine.  The more “troublesome” parts of life are always so.  Our baby is amazing.  He is already forming impressions of the world based on how my lovely bride feels and reacts to its surroundings.  He can now see and hear and so much more everything she is going though.  This post is dedicated to my amazing, loving, intelligent and supremely beautiful wife.  She has taught me so much about unconditional love and what it means to have a family.  I am ready to be a Dad and see her as the Mother of my son.  To all of you who read this: know how much we love you and that we just can’t wait for our baby boy to meet you.  You are our community, our friends and our family and with each of you in his life, Declan Christopher Maple will be raised in a world of wonder, joy and unconditional love.