Pregnancy, Breastfeeding and Bread

Dispelling the myths.

Ha! Before you run away screaming at the title of my post, don't worry! I am not going to go into any gory details. I could, but you probably would stop reading right here. Besides, my grandma reads my blog. Hi, Grandma! Anywho....back to pregnancy, breastfeeding and bread. What do they have to do with each other? My sister. For my sister, and probably a lot of people, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding these three things. What does a pregnant belly feel like? How do you live for nine months with the fact that that thing has to come out eventually? Various boob-related questions which I won't get into. And of course, how do you make bread? This is really an incredibly abbreviated list. Every time we get together, which is just about all the time, the conversation always manages to turn back around to one of these subjects (not really the bread, the other two). And Rachel says, 'Well, Meg! Since you've already taken the mystery out of this, why not tell me about this' and asks me some question that you always want to know but are too afraid to ask. Let me take you back in time. Rachel had never been around a pregnant woman before I had James. Neither had I, for that matter. So it was all new. She was totally skeeved out by the pregnant belly, but got over it in a hurry. It wasn't what she thought, she said. She started to ask me questions here and there. She started to talk to my belly, and created a bond with James that is still strong today. She wasn't in the room when James was born, and so the mystery of the actual birthing process remained. So when Katie came along, we made sure Rachel was there. Now that whole process has been demystified. (I don't know if that was such a good idea...I want nieces and nephews!) Now there is really no pretense. Rach just fires away with hilarious questions that everyone wants to know. About pregnancy, birth, boobs, umbilical cords, etc. And bread. That leads me to the bread. Apparently my gourmet chef of a sister had a fear of bread-making. Who knew?! She can whip out some unpronounceable dish with fancy-schmancy ingredients but she was afraid to make bread. Not any more! That was the latest myth I was called on to dispel. Rach asked me if we could do a bread-making apprenticeship. In the last two days, we have made two big batches of cinnamon rolls and an enormous amount of Zweiback! Mmmmm! And as we were kneading away, Rachel asked a few more questions about the aforementioned subjects. After all, what would be a time together without giggling over some quirky pregnancy/birth related question?